The photo was taken in the CPR’s yard at East Coulee, Alberta in the later 1940’s and this is the machine that I was called to fire in the fall of 1942 while employed as a wiper at Alyth Locomotive Roundhouse. Floyd Yeats photo from Lance Camp’s file.

Our private car was an old thirty-six foot converted wooden boxcar. The two wide side doors had been replaced with smaller standard sized portals with doors that slid on rollers on the inside with screen doors that slid open or closed on the outside. There were three small windows, also with screens, on each side of this car and also a small narrow door at each end over the drawbars. The car’s interior was divided into three rooms. The larger centre section contained a water barrel beside a sink and stove which was to be used for both cooking our food and heating the car in cooler weather. On the opposite wall there was a table and two chairs beside the other entry door. The one end room was for sleeping and it was equipped with shelves for our stuff above each of the two single cots. There were also hooks in one end wall for hanging up our clothing. At the other end of the car was a larger room that held a coalbunker plus tools and supplies of oil and grease and spare cables and other necessary stuff for the Ditcher plus a small desk for the ditcher operator. There were no electric lights or cooling fans or any of that modern stuff inside our private car. Instead it was equipped with coal oil lamps placed in brackets at various locations on the walls in each of the three rooms and that was it. Such was our home away from home. I guessed that the biffie was out in the bush or some such handy place.

About this time the locomotive for our work train arrived and coupled on to the head end, so while we were waiting for the yard crew to tie the caboose to the other end and the car men to make the required brake test, Dave suggested that we walk forward to the Ditcher and he would show me around it and also describe, in more detail, what my duties would consist of. Both the water tank and coalbunker were nearly full and he described how we would replenish these supplies of fuel and water from the locomotive. This was all very interesting and about this time Dave said that it was time to bank the fire and add more water to the boiler then get back to our home-away from home before the train got under way. He said that it was dangerous to ride in the cab of the Ditcher for more then a short distance.

I had made a few trips, on my days off, as a student fireman on the Laggan Subdivision so the territory wasn’t completely strange to me as our Work Train proceeded westward past Calgary’s passenger station and crossed over to the single track main line at Sunalta at mileage one point four. The train stopped at mile 12, between the sidings of Keith and Bearspaw, and Dave and I proceeded up to the “Ditcher” and got to work getting it ready for the days work. The chains that kept it from moving along the flat car were removed and the side panels of the cab were all opened so that we could both see out and also to keep the insides of the machine cool. There were no glass windows and only canvas awnings to protect us from the sun or rain. The Roadmaster who was in charge of the whole operation then told the entire crew including the Conductor and two Trainmen as to what we would be doing that day. The machine that Dave and I were on was spotted beside the part of the hillside that had slid down toward to main track and then I found out why it was called a Ditcher.

Dave started his steam engine and lifted the boom then ran this small steam shovel along the flat car and swung the whole thing around sideways, lowered the bucket and proceeded to dig out the ditch that ran along the track. The spoil from that ditch was lifted up and over to be dropped into one of the air operated dump cars (the end of one appears in the photo) behind the Ditcher. Now I got busy shovelling small amounts of coal into the firebox to keep the fire hot and adding water to the boiler with the small injector located to one side and above the firebox door.

It was rather rough back in my corner of the Ditcher’s cab as the machine tended to bounce up and down while digging and would swung violently sideways as it was brought around to dump the spoil in the air-dump car. There was a heavy removable bar across my doorway that I could lean on and it kept me from falling out. As the trackside ditch was neatly cleared out, a whistle signal was given by the ditcher operator to the locomotive engineer to move the whole train forward or back about fifty feet to the next location to be excavated as directed by the Roadmaster. The small, shrill whistle located above the ditcher’s boiler was used for this purpose. When the first dump car was full our excavating machine was run to the other end of its flat car and turned around then the other dump car was filled one scoop full at a time.

When both cars were full of material, nearly fifty tons each, the train moved to where the muck was dumped on the opposite side of the track where the bank needed to be built up and widened, then the compressed air powered Jordan Spreader, with it’s side wing extended, was used to push the dumped material over the edge and level it clear of the track. The locomotive supplied the compressed air that powered the spreader and this was piped to the spreader's reservoirs through the train signal line that was coupled between the locomotive and the spreader. While this was being done I had a chance to build up the boiler steam and get ready for the next bit of steam shovel digging.

Our work train didn’t have this part of the Laggan Subdivision all to ourselves because there were several other trains coming from both directions which we had to clear. When one would show up from the west we would run back to the 88 car siding at Keith or move westward several miles to the next siding at Bearspaw if a train approached our working point from the east. Then we had time to replenish the coal and water supplies in the Ditcher from the work train’s locomotive tender and have our lunch or just a coffee break.

When the ditch at this location was neatly cleaned out and the material dumped over the bank and spread clear of the track the work train moved approximately five miles westward to start cleaning the ditch along the bank between the sidings of Bearspaw and Glenbow located about eighteen miles west of Calgary. When this part was finished it was time to quit for the day and return with the work train to our terminal at Alyth. The fire was dumped and the Ditcher chained down while waiting in Bearspaw siding for a westbound freight. Then we could make the sixteen-mile eastward run to our terminal at Alyth.

I was informed that I would be called again the next morning to again fire the Ditcher, but the Crew Clerk at the roundhouse wasn’t told of this so I slept in until about seven o-clock. The work train took off on time without it’s Ditcher Fireman and it was suggested that I could catch a ride to the working point on the locomotive of passenger train No.3, with Engineer Otto Flegal and his Fireman.

With the lunch my mother had packed for me the night before, under my arm, I hurried down to Alyth roundhouse to catch my ride on that big shiny Selkirk engine that would soon be heading up to Calgary’s station then coupled on to the head end of that fast passenger train which was scheduled to leave for Vancouver at eight thirty. I would have liked to have ridden all the way to Field on that large 5900 that day, but we overtook the Ditcher’s work train in the siding at Bearspaw just as they were getting ready to move westward to the other side of Glenbow to begin doing more ditching work between there and Cochrane. One of the track crewmen had been doing my job of firing the boiler until I arrived. Dave Mills and the rest of the crew sure gave me a bad time for sleeping in the morning on my second day on the job but by catching that ride out on No. 3 the day’s work was not missed.

That second day was Saturday and was spent between meeting freight and passenger trains, coming from both directions, working at cleaning the slide material from the ditches westward to about mileage thirty just west of Mitford siding. At that point I found out what was referred to as “casting over”. That term meant that when material was dug out from one side of the track it was not dropped into an air-dump car but that the bucket was swung right over to the opposite side of the track and the material dumped over the narrow bank where some of it slid down as far as the Bow River below.

I also found out just what that funny looking potato masher sort of thing was for that was attached to the end of the boom and extended down into the bucket when the bucket was raised all the way up. The clay bank above the main line at this working point was very wet and gooey on account of there being springs weeping water higher up the slope. Therefore the muck being excavated was sticky and wet and had a tendency to cling to the insides of the bucket and wouldn’t drop out when the hatch was opened. When this happened Dave would lower the main boom almost horizontal then raise the bucket up as far as possible so that the potato masher thing could push the sticky clay out. Another thing that I also learned was that it was very difficult to maintain the steam pressure at the required 180 pounds per square inch, with such poor a grade of coal, while the steam shovel engines were being worked so steady, so every few minutes Dave had to stop shovelling and give me a chance to raise the steam pressure and the boiler water level. We called this playing “Catch up”.

The Ditcher work train crew were not scheduled to work the next day because it was Sunday so at about five o-clock all the machinery, both the spreader and the ditcher were chain down, the air reservoirs drained and the fire dumped. Dave then handed me a wrench and I was instructed to climb up to the steam shovel’s roof and remove the top three feet of the boiler’s chimney then lay it down there and fasten it securely with haywire. When I asked why this had to be done Dave explained that by Monday morning we would be working on Field Hill and there was a tunnel in that territory that was not high enough to clear our extended smoke stack so it had to be removed now because the work train equipment was to be sent west, in the consist of a freight train, after we arrived at Alyth that evening. That is when I found out that we would be working out of Field starting on Monday.

So many years have passed since my days of firing the Ditcher that I can’t recall how Dave Mills and I got to Field by Monday morning so I must assume that we deadheaded there on a passenger train either Sunday morning or more likely on express train No. 1 which was scheduled to leave Calgary’s station at 23 o-clock Sunday night and arrive in Field at three fifty five the next morning. That would give us time to find our bunk car and to have a short sleep before starting work at seven am. We would have been able to sleep in the day coach on the passenger train while deadheading west from Calgary.

Our job that day was to work between Field and Hector which is located at the top of the original “Old Field Hill” right beside Lake Wapta. After a quick breakfast Dave and I headed for our Ditcher and, while I got the fire started in the boiler, Dave was busy filling a few grease cups and generally oiling around all the machinery in the cab of our small steam shovel. By the time the locomotive (a 5300 coal burning Mikado 2-8-2) was coupled up to our short work train the boiler steam pressure was rising quickly When the first working point was reached the ditching operation could be started, but first the extension to the smoke stack would have to be bolted in place and all the chains tying the ditcher to the flatcar would have to be unhooked and hung in place on the sides of the car.

The work train was made up differently for working on the “Big Hill” that morning. The locomotive was pointed east, but instead of it being on the head end it was coupled behind the air operated dump cars, ditcher, spreader and our bunk car plus the train crew’s caboose. That way all the cars in the train would lean against that heavy locomotive and there wouldn’t be any chance of them running away down the 2 ½ % grade of “Field Hill” if, by accident, they were to become uncoupled. The locomotive air brakes were sufficient to quite easily hold that short train on that grade.

We worked clearing rocks and dirt out of the ditch on the mountain side of the track dumping it down the slope on the opposite side of the track or into one of the air-dump cars then tipping the material out and spreading it as necessary with the air operated Jordan Spreader. When the ditching was completed from Field to the small tunnel just west of the old Monarch Mine, near the heavy slide area of Mount Stephen, the smoke stack extension had to be removed before proceeding any further east. I then had to reattach the hot heavy thing again before any more digging could start so as to prevent smoke and engine exhaust from drifting down and into our faces. (you can also see in the photo that at the top of this stove pipe there is a net thing called a spark arrester which was necessary to prevent starting forest fires). The steam engine’s exhaust was directed to a nozzle at the top of the boiler to create draft for the fire and when the engine was working hard, as when the digging became difficult, hot sparks could be blasted out of the stack. There was possibility that a forest fire could be started in beautiful Yoho National Park, and we certainly wanted no part of that.

The CPR’s Field Hill has always been a very busy piece of railroad because every eastbound freight train required two helper locomotives on the 2 ½% grade and these pushers then had to return back down the hill to Field ready to assist the next eastbound freight or passenger train. Consequently our work train spent considerable time waiting in one of the three sidings between our working points. Therefore, during an eight hour day, only about two or three hours could be spent actually working. However some of the waiting time could be used fuelling and watering the Ditcher.

Beside Cathedral siding there was what was called a back track, which was a short track beside the main siding for storing cars of track material or bad order cars etc. clear of the siding. The work train locomotive first pushed the Ditcher into this back track just barely clear of the siding and uncoupled it from the air dump car behind it. Then the rest of the train was backed up then run forward up the siding and the locomotive was spotted right beside the Ditcher. Dave then swung the steam shovel around so that my corner at the rear was nearly touching the locomotive tender. Next the rear hatches above the coal bunker were opened so that after climbing up into the tender I was able to shovel coal, from the tender, across and down into the Ditcher’s coal storage area. Not all of it went through the small opening but instead landed on the ground below. At this time a heavy hose was connected to the shovel’s tank and the other end was placed into the locomotive tender water reservoir then Dave operated a steam siphon to fill the shovel’s water tank. This usually had to be done a couple of times each day.

On Wednesday our ditching work on Field Hill was finished but we were asked to do one more job. That was to load a small old, locomotive type, fire tube boiler that was back in the bush at the west end of Hector siding. Years before this had been used to power a small sawmill at this location (this was probably before this area became part of Yoho National Park and while nearby railroad bridges were being built.) In 1942 all scrap metal that was unclaimed was picked up and salvaged for the war effort and this piece of junk was cluttering up the park.

First the Ditcher was spotted as near as possible to the boiler then a light cable was pulled out and run through a pulley that was attached to the target. I thought that the light cable would break before that heavy steel item would move and I was right. The half- inch line was to be used to haul a much heavier cable over to the target so that it could be securely attached ready for the pull. Dave Mills told me to stand on the ground behind our machine and watch the wheels on that side of our steam shovel. If they were to start to lift off the rails I was to holler up to him to ease off on the pull, which I did very loudly. That old boiler was eventually brought over to trackside then using the shovel as a crane it was lifted up and into one of the air dump cars. That was the last job we were required to do that day before going back down the hill to Field and preparing our equipment for the trip to Calgary.

Ed. Note—when we left Bill’s story last month, he had completed his first two trips firing the CPR Ditcher unit.

The return trip to Alyth, on a freight train, was uneventful. The next day, Thursday, a work train was made up with assigned train and engine crew and a smaller “D10” locomotive plus this time a cook car, complete with a cook, was to be part of that consist. The locomotive engineer’s name was George Law and his fireman’s was Jim Scott both who lived in Calgary but the train crew were from Medicine Hat because this Langdon Subdivision was part of their territory. After the necessary brake test and with the required train orders, the train proceeded eastward over the Brooks then the Strathmore subdivisions then we turned off at Langdon and entered the territory where we were to start cleaning out any ditches that tended to be partially filled in. This was necessary to allow water to flow freely and not damage the roadbed. Just east of the small town of Carbon Alberta was where our heavy digging would start, but first we had to enter the 44 car siding there to clear the Kneehill Mixed, a westbound second-class train that made the trip into this territory once a week (as described in my past story about mixed trains). This was the only train that we would have to clear until the next Monday because all other freights were run during the night

The westbound Kneehill Mixed passed while all the crew were enjoying a hot lunch in the cook’s car, and then the heavy shovelling would begin east of Carbon. A long slide, just past the siding, had to be cleared. With no trains to meet, and being able to cast the excavated material over instead of having to load it into the air dump cars, it was steady going for “Ditcher No. 2” for the rest of that day. Dave had to slow down or stop frequently in order for me to catch up just like when casting over west of Calgary. Later that day I traded jobs with the locomotive fireman, Jim Scott, and that is when we found out that even an experienced fireman like him also had to play “catch up” at times. At seventeen o-clock all the work stopped and our train proceeded to east for nineteen miles to Nacmine where there was a Chargehand stationed that would look after the ditcher’s fire and also refuel it and fill the water tank. They would also look after the locomotive for George Law and Jim Scott. The engine crew also had a bunkhouse at that point in which they would stay in overnight.

Bright and early next morning (six o-clock) we were up and at it. First a substantial breakfast in the cook’s car then I was up on the ditcher by seven to clean and prepare the fire while Dave oiled up his machinery as the train proceeded west to where we he left off working the previous day. It was the same boring thing all that day except that the “Jordan Spreader” had to be used frequently as the trackside material piled up. That gave me a chance to again clean the boiler’s fire and cast the hot ashes over onto the bare ground where there was no chance of starting a fire. Sometimes, while at the working point, only one man was needed on the locomotive at a time so either George or Jim would wander back along the right of way, with a shotgun under his arm, looking for Pheasants to shoot. It was early fall and there were lots of game in that part of Alberta. They had supplied themselves with basic cooking equipment on their engine and were able to prepare and cook up a storm with any game they had shot. It was not in the engine crew’s contract to have meals provided but they could purchase dinners from the cook if desired. Instead they decided to have their royal feasts in the, not too deluxe, comfort of the engine’s cab. With fresh prairie game available and with vegetables bought from local farmers, they weren’t going hungry. In the late afternoon the tempting smells drifting over from that locomotive made the rest of the work train’s crew look forward to the supper hour. One morning when we arrived at a working point I climbed up on the engine to see what they were cooking for a late breakfast and saw that Jim had placed some hot coals, from the fire, on the steel deck of the tender and with a cast iron frying pan on the coals he was preparing a large mess of bacon and eggs. Tough job on those work trains!

Saturday was the end of our work train’s week, or so I thought until Dave informed me that instead of going to church the next day He and I would be busy draining and washing out the small fire tube boiler that powered our steam shovel. To do this the steam shovel was positioned beside the locomotive where there was a good supply of hot water at high pressure for this job. After everything had cooled down I was shown how to remove the boiler washout plugs and, with the necessary tools, scrape and wash out the sludge and scale that had accumulated over the past few days because the available water in that area was not the cleanest nor the best that could be used for generating steam. Grease plugs also had to be filled and some clamps tightened on parts of Dave’s machinery and then adjustments to be made to some of Dave’s controls.

By the time that all this work was finished it was nearly noon and we were both wet and grimy so I informed Dave that train and engine crews that worked out of Nacmine often went over to a wash house at the pithead of a nearby coal mine to use the showering facilities that the miners used after each shift of digging dusty coal. If those showers could get those “black daddies” clean they could certainly get both of us looking more presentable when we showed up at the cook’s car for lunch. Part of the afternoon was spent filling out our time sheets and I was required to estimate and report the amount of coal that the Ditcher had used each day for the previous week. So you can see that we really had to work seven days that week even if Sunday was only about a six-hour day.

Monday and Tuesday were much the same but on Wednesday we were scheduled to return to our terminal at Alyth roundhouse. We worked at ditching for only a short while between Nacmine and Sharples and before leaving there Dave and I chained everything down, removed the smoke stack extension for the last time, closed all the ditcher’s steam valves and pulled the fire. This train was scheduled to go to work west of Lethbridge on the Crowsnest subdivision on Monday with an engine crew and ditcher fireman from that terminal.

Shortly after leaving Sharples a funny thing happened. I was riding in the caboose cupola with the tail end crew and the train was sailing along at the top speed of fifteen miles per hour, which was the limit for that crooked stretch of the Langdon subdivision, when I saw either George Law or Jim Scott point a shotgun out of the fireman’s side of the locomotive and I them fire at a some target beside the track. The train then came to a sudden stop and one of the engine crew, either George or Jim, jumped down and ran back to pick up the Pheasant that he had shot. I suppose that it was to be cleaned and plucked away ready to be added to their stock of game they were taking home. The abrupt stop didn’t go over with the work train cook because it caused the pot of soup that had been prepared for lunch, to be spilled over onto the floor so it was to be cold sandwiches for lunch that day instead of the tasty hot soup.

There was a comfortable seat for me in the caboose cupola during the eighty mile run westward to our final destination at Alyth where we arrived before the supper hour so, after reporting in at the locomotive Foreman’s office and arranging for my next assignment, I headed for home for a bath, clean clothes, and a taste of mother’s great home cooking.

Firing that Ditcher’s boiler had been a good experience for me, a young fellow, only eighteen and just out of school. It was forty two years later that I retired from the CPR and my last steady job was that as the Locomotive Engineer on passenger trains running on the main line both east and west, out of Calgary Alberta. My last run was made July 15th 1984 on train Number 2, the eastbound Canadian, from Field B.C. to Calgary.