A chilly wind blew in mid December, 1964. Temperatures in Vancouver plunged from a balmy, bright afternoon to a driving wind and temperatures dropping well below freezing. The afternoon shift in the Diesel Shop soon realized the implications, their moderately prepared vehicles in the parking area were hardly ready for the unusual and rapidly plunging temperatures. The fast exodus, including the shift foreman, saw us all lined up at the Terminal Avenue and Main Street Esso station having anti-freeze checked and topped up. All would be well-------or was it?
Returning to the Shop we continued our duties of locomotive trip inspections and “Milers”. Around 5 o’clock the Hostler arrived to take the power to the Coach Yard. Today’s power was an FP9A and two F9B’s. Of course the trailing B unit was not running because the service track and exhaust system were built for two units only. The practice was to shutdown the unit not under the exhaust hood to prevent a build up of fumes in the Shop. Now that chilly wind
that blows was not only a threat to our cars but the B unit steam generators and steam lines were now frozen up. Not to be resolved quickly, all sources of heat and open flame were pressed into action by all the shop forces, even fusees were used. Imagine if you can the anxious moments as finally the lines were thawed and the steam generators flared to life. Now more than an hour and a half late at the Coach Yard, the three units trundled off to the wye for a reverse move to the waiting Super Continental.
Now, that chilly wind that blows waits for no man, not even the Shop Foreman who forgot to advise of the delay at the Diesel Shop. The Coach Yard crew had dutifully disconnected the yard steam lines on schedule, expecting the Steam Generators on the head end to take over. Soon every coach trainline steam connector was frozen solid. The power coupled to the train and again every source of heat, open flame and fusees were pressed into service to thaw the lines. I don’t remember train time that night but departure was certainly several hours late and probably not all that warm. A chilly wind that blows---
Sometimes something reminds us of a past events, to-day. March 8,2002 it is "a chilly wind that blows" as we experience unseasonably cold days, and the story from 1964 comes forward to be told!
