think that he ever fired a locomotive in the old country but instead was employed as an engine cleaner in the locomotive shed of the L.N.R.R. I don't know how many years he worked at that but I do know that he decided to come out to Canada shortly after the turn of the century in 1907. He was hired on, as a locomotive Fireman by the C.P.R. at a place called "Rat Portage" in western Ontario. It is now called Kenora. After working as a Fireman for about two years he decided to come away out west to Calgary and was again employed by the Canadian Pacific where he worked from 1907 until he reached age 65 in 1947. His last trip as a locomotive Engineer was on the westbound express train No. 1 from Medicine Hat to Calgary. His Fireman on that last run was my older brother Floyd who was holding that job as a Fireman at that time.

I guess that it was in the early 1950's when the C.P.R. got the first road diesels that were assigned to work the Laggan and Mountain Subdivisions between Calgary Alberta and Revelstoke British Columbia. These were all General Motors fifteen hundred horse power "A" and "B" units. The A's were numbered 4000's and the B's were 4400's (WCRA today has FP7A #4069 and F7B #4459). My job, as I recall, when the clean, shiny new streamlined G.M.'s arrived to work on the Laggan Subdivision was firing on the Midnight passenger trains between Calgary and Edmonton 200 miles to the north. Train 521 left for Edmonton at 23 o-clock and arrived at the northern city at 0615 if it was on time. After laying over all day and trying to get as much sleep as possible, we left for the south at 2330 on train 522 to arrive in Calgary at 0630. After a day off it was back out on 521 the next night. I recall always being tired while working that job never seeming to be able to get enough sleep in Edmonton and not wanting to waste too much time sleeping while at home in Calgary.

Finally I got a chance to hold a Firing job on the new Diesels on the line between Calgary and Field. I had studied every brochure that I could lay my hands on that would give me any information concerning these Diesels. Often, after our train was out of the yard and on the high iron and I wasn't needed in the locomotive cab, I would go back into the noisy engine rooms of our three or four units to see how the various parts like load regulators, governors, air compressors, electrical switching gear etc. operated. I often had the "S---" scared out of me if I was in the engine room when there was a flashover in the main electrical generator, with the resulting thunder and lightning with a very loud bang, This electric short was usually caused from the traction motor brushes arching across to the steel motor frame or a dirty commentator causing a short in the main generator.

When talking to my father, the retired Locomotive Engineer, I told him of my experiences on the "Diesels" and asked him if he would like to make a trip to Field with my Engineer and me. Dad declined saying that Diesels weren't really locomotives but more like large highway trucks and that he had been used to working on and around steam power for over fifty years and didn't think those new-fangled electric locos would ever do the job that steam power could. Wouldn't he be surprised if he could see the high horsepower lash-ups pulling some of the heavy tonnage freight trains of to-day. Dad did agree to make a trip with Engineer Floyd Yeats (his son, my brother) a year or two later but he only went as far as Morley, just forty miles west of Calgary There he caught a ride back to Calgary on an east bound, diesel hauled, freight train.

That was the last time Dad rode a diesel locomotive until many years later when I was holding a top priority job as a Fireman on the fast "Eskimo" and "Stampeder" passenger trains 527 and 528 between Calgary and Edmonton, a distance of 200 miles, which was covered in less then four hours each way. Our motive power consisted of two "A" units back to back and we only hauled about six light coaches. Those two units were good for ninety miles per hour and to stay on that tight time schedule they were at close to their top speed whenever track conditions allowed.

One morning my regular Engineer, a fellow by the name of Cliff Kneeshaw, booked off and my brother Floyd was called to be my Engineer for the trip up to and return from Edmonton. This was the first time that the two of us had a chance to work together and we were both looking forward to the 400 mile round trip. As I recall we took turns running the locomotive on the way up and at Edmonton's north side station a yard engine pulled the train off our two "A" units while Floyd and I changed ends then and ate our lunches while the coaches were taken across the high level bridge and turned on the wye in South Edmonton then when they were returned and spotted next to the north side station we coupled the two A's on and prepared to make the required air brake test. About this time the Conductor came up with the train orders and with him was our father (retired Engineer) 'G.W. Yeats senior?.

He had been up in the northern city visiting his sister and was on his way back to Calgary and when the Conductor told him who the engine crew was he decided to ride up on the head end with Floyd and me. Being a retired C.P.R. employee he was entitled to ride any C.P.R. passenger train, anywhere in Canada, as often as he wanted and he just happened to choose ride the train on a day when two of his sons were the Engineer and Fireman.

Soon we got the signal from the Conductor to leave and Dad was quite relaxed for the first part of our southbound run for we had sat him on the large comfortable center seat where he had a good view of track ahead. All trains were restricted to a speed of 20 m.p.h. over the high level bridge to the South Edmonton station. From there it was 30 m.p.h. across the C.N. diamond then just beyond there Floyd opened up (put them in throttle eight) those two diesels. We were traveling at about 90 when he set the brake for two 50 m.p.h. curves just past Nisku then back up to 80 when the brake had to be set again to slow the train down to just 10 m.p.h. at the Leduc station crossing. Throttle eight again until a speed of 90 was reached for the 22 miles to Wetaskiwin which was a stop for train 528.

Dad wanted to go back to ride the coaches at that point but we told him that there wasn't time cause it was already 14-33 and we were two minutes late and we had to get rolling right now. There is an average of one level road crossing for every mile of rail road on the Leduc and Red Deer subdivisions and at every one of them the bell must be rung and the whistle blown which adds to the many things the Engineer has to do. With his left hand he must blow the whistle, adjust the throttle and operate the engine brake and headlight switches then with his left hand the train (automatic) brake and turn on or off the bell ringer as well as wave to any pretty girls or little kids along side the right of way. I guess Floyd and I shouting instructions to each other back and forth across the loco cab and all the whistling, bell and engine noise as well as the racket that the air brake exhaust made was too much for dear old Dad but he stuck it out as far as the city of Red Deer where he left the train altogether and arranged to stay over with another of his sisters who lived in that city. I wonder if he didn't think that his two sons were capable of handling that high speed train safely the next hundred miles to Calgary or did he just not like diesels?.

Brother Floyd and I did make another short trip together on the McLeod Sub. when I was working as a Road Foreman and he was bringing a detoured westbound passenger train up from the south. (The main line was blocked 40 miles west of Medicine Hat). The next, and last, time that the two of us worked together on the same locomotive was when he made his last trip on the Canadian before retiring in 1979. That job called for two engineers on the head end so it was arranged for me to replace Floyd's regular second engineer for this, his last run. Floyds son Trevor ( a city of Calgary Fireman ) also made that final trip and we stopped just west of Calgary and picked up my sister in law Lorna (Floyd's wife )for the final short run into the station. I wonder if Dad had still been alive if he would have liked to have made that last trip with his two sons on the head end of the "Canadian"? I like to think that he was there with us in spirit.