Two hours later Scotty and I reluctantly climbed out of that nice comfortable passenger coach and carried our bags containing lunch and overalls etc. into the Bassano station to be informed that a train crew, complete with a caboose, had arrived from Med. Hat. We were to use the 'D' 10 locomotive that had arrived earlier on the Empress mixed train (and wouldn't be needed until Monday morning) and we were to haul a drag of grain west to Alyth yard (Calgary). Now this was going to be quite a change for me because the east freight pool, that I had been working for some time, used only large stoker fired Pacific 4-6-2 and Mikado 2-8-2, locomotives. It had been some time since I had hand fired an engine and I was a little out of shape for such heavy work.

With the help of the train crew, Scotty and I switched out our west bound grain cars and coupled the Conductor's brain box (caboose) to the tail end. Before tying the engine onto the head end we spotted our 'D' 10 at the coal chute to fill that 12 ton hopper with dusty diamonds and we loaded up with 5,000 gallons of water. After a brake test and double checking our train orders the west main line switch was opened and we were on our way toward Calgary.

I knew that things were not right as we struggled up the hill out of Bassano because I had to shovel coal steadily into that 184 square foot firebox. The dusty stuff was being consumed as fast as I put it in that large rat hole. With no chance to rest between fires I knew that I would be pooped before too long and also that we would run out of coal before our destination (Alyth Yard) was reached. I got a bit of a break as the train drifted down grade through Crowfoot then it was up hill west of there through Towers and up into Cluney. Again it was steady shoveling for the next eight and a half miles to Gleichen where we stopped to open the switch to cross over from the Brooks to the Strathmore Subdivision. By this time my work had eased off to some extent because all the very poor coal that we had taken on at Bassano had been burned up and I found that I could keep that old girl's steam up with only half as much shoveling.

About five miles further west we stopped at Stobart to top up the tender with enough water to get us into town and I remember cleaning the fire and emptying the ash pans while we were at that water tank. I barely had time to catch my breath when Engineer Scotty took off toward Namaka then up the eight mile hill into Strathmore. Before we got there I was reaching away back into the tender for coal and when Scotty noticed this he asked the head end Brakeman to sit on his seat and blow the whistle for all crossings and keep a sharp look out along the track He climbed back up into the tender, with my other shovel, to knock some coal down to where I could reach it. I was into the better coal now, remember, the stuff that was in the hopper when that 'D' 10 had arrived from Empress, but when the Engineer climbed back into the cab he stated that we didn't have enough fuel to make it into our terminal. ( I could have told him that, the way I had been bailing in those dusty diamonds it was a wonder we had got this far!)

This meant that we would have to set all loads off at the next siding a few miles to the west at Cheadle. There the train was headed in and the caboose cut off ( uncoupled ) on the main line at the east switch, the box car loads of grain were pulled westward then cut off and tied down (hand brakes applied). Next we ran the locomotive out the west end then backed up to grab the brain box. When the conductor climbed up into our cab and looked into the nearly empty hopper he could hardly believe that we had burned so much coal. He promptly put up his caboose phone and called the dispatcher to tell him to keep us going right into Alyth yard with just the caboose or else he was going to have a very cold, dead old 'D' 10 marooned somewhere between Cheadle and Alyth Yard, a distance of 34 miles.

I recall that it was very light work only shoveling in just enough coal to keep the steam up as we sailed along at a good clip with only the locomotive and the 25 ton caboose. We were not held up for any eastbound trains nor was there any delay getting into the yard. Our short train wasn't blocked or delayed as we made our way westward toward the yard office, where the van was left to be put away by a yard goat. Now it was only about a half a mile to where the engine could be left on the shop track. There the Hostler would take over and after filling the tender with water and much needed coal he would dump the now nearly dead fire and put that tired old work horse into the barn ( a 36 stall roundhouse ).

As Scotty brought that 'D' 10 to a stop who should appear but the shop Foreman (no doubt sent by the Master Mechanic) and when he climbed up onto the gangway he didn't even say hello but looked into the now completely empty fuel hopper and asked me where I had put all that 12 tons of good C.P.R. coal. I just stepped on the foot pedal to open the air operated firebox door then pointed in and said; 'THE WHOLE G. D. 12 tons OF IT WENT RIGHT IN THERE! WHERE ELSE DO YOU THINK I WOULD PUT IT'' It had been a long night and I was the Fireman who had to work extra hard because of someone's mistake so I wasn't about to take any of his crap!

Engineer Watson and I were told, a few days later, that a car of poorer quality coal ( destined as stationary boiler fuel ) had been delivered to the chute at Bassano by mistake and I guess that we had got about one quarter of that carload of lignite. It wouldn't have been nearly as bad if our locomotive had been stoker fired, we would still have run out of fuel but I wouldn't have had to shovel my way back to Calgary. I had the same thing happen one other time, north of Calgary, on the Red Deer Subdivision, while firing a 4-6-0 'D' 10 for Harry (Tarzan) Strong, but that's another story for another time.