I've come to know Harry Klassen over the past year or two. It was one discussion some time ago that Harry mentioned working during his student years for the CPR in Winnipeg. My spidey-senses were tingling! This was something I knew I had to know more about! I recently had the opportunity to ask Harry about his time with the CPR. Harry's responses to my questions are in italics and lightly-edited for style. I'd like to thank Harry for his candour and his time to willingly share his experiences which may have been old to him, but were interestingly new to me!
Harry began his time with Canadian Pacific as a news agent, working out of the
CP station at Higgins & Main in Winnipeg (top photo - Phil Mason 1970's). Selling chocolate bars and magazines - with no control over what was being sold - even dirty magazines! Riding trains between Winnipeg and Chapleau, Harry would detrain there, since it was the turn-around point for news agents, with Toronto-Chapleau being the other end of the run.
Canadian Pacific News Service matchbooks give an idea of the services provided.
I like pie!
Arriving at Chapleau, Harry was shocked. "Chapleau was the middle of nowhere! I'd never even heard of it!" (There was no highway at the time.) "Getting off the train...a drunk baggage handler meets you, takes your gear off to reload it and go back the next day, no new supplies, or maybe some. The cheese sandwiches were getting a little strange by the time I went back! I heard I'd be staying overnight at the Y, so I'd packed a bathing suit. What a joke! The baggage handler said the way to go to find the YMCA, and it was one of those places that had absolutely nothing. The bed was like this, a light hanging down on a wire with an individual light bulb. Wow, this isn't exactly what I was expecting!"
"Working back through the coach and day sleepers, the north shore of Lake Superior was great - spectacular views. At least the north shore postcards brought in some money - if you could talk someone into buying them, that is. The Canadian in May - there was no-one on the train - how could I make money selling to three dozen people??"
"But after I'd paid for my first year of university with a newspaper route I'd made money on and saved in high school, news agent was a fine job to put your way through university. I don't remember what I was paid but it was a pittance compared to what I earned later working in the linen room. I enjoyed the times riding the rails, sitting up in the dome car, above the coffee shop. That was kind of fun, watching the crazy light pointing up to the sky."
Harry occasionally worked west, from Winnipeg to Calgary.
"Calgary was the transition point for guys getting off and going to Vancouver. After awhile, I realized a news agent wasn't what I wanted to do, so I moved into the Linen Department and there were several issues there..."
"In Winnipeg, they off-loaded the linen for the dining car, the coffee car and the sleepers. We would make up the bags. Making up the bags took maybe an hour - if done very slowly! After the bags were made up, there was nothing more you could do. Nothing to do!"
Two Peter Cox photos from July 3, 1961 show two sections of the westbound Dominion, train No 7, passing through CP's Winnipeg yards. The first with a Skyline and other stainless steel cars (above) and the second with head-end traffic (below)
"As soon as they [arrived] we had these little trolleys loaded up on the back, and my goodness sometimes they were pretty heavy. They would throw [off] the dirty stuff that we'd pick up and we'd replace it with the new. Because it was heavily unionized, the Dominion and the Canadian were the two trains being operated by the CPR by the time I got there. The Dominion only ran from the end of June to Labour Day - strictly a summer train. This meant only one train we had to deal with in May to the end of June. Even if you did bags as slowly as possible, you had one-and-a-half hours' work, but were paid for eight hours. Amazingly...our boss, working with us two university students, three of us in linen handling. He wanted us to make up the bags all by ourselves. We refused! We said we'd do our part and you do your part, thank you very much!"
"He didn't like that from these uppity students - but he wasn't about to pull a fast one on us. He wanted to sleep his way through. You began to realize why passenger service was going to be scuttled, badly! These guys, they couldn't have cared less about passengers or anything. We said 'isn't your job hanging in the balance?' What was going on - that was something I could never understand."
"They needed three people because the Canadian was a long train, only stopped in Winnipeg for 20 minutes. We were stationed one at the front, middle and end of the train. The Dominion came in at 6 and the Canadian at 10 or 10:30, and our shift was 3-11. On the evening shift, the dirty linen didn't have to be separated - that was the morning shift's task. There were no trains to service, just going through the linen."
In the 1958 and 1964 CP system timetables, train No 2 arrived at 2245 and 2235 respectively, departing 2310 and 2300. The Dominion, No 8 arrived at 1835 and 1825 respectively, departing 1930 and 1920. It seems that those times were nearly cast in stone (perhaps the Tyndall limestone the station was built from!)
"Whipping tablecloths into big bins - sheets to one section, pillow cases to another, tablecloths and dish towels were also separated out. [No uniforms.]"
"Trains were pretty good - on time. If trains were late, you had to service them and got paid time-and-a-half. As university students, what did we care? No future job - no interest staying with CPR. All jobs were unionized - porters had their own union. Why would union guys want to work four hours a day - a 20 hour week? That wouldn't put food on the table!".
The firemen's strike, hearings and labour disruption in 1957-58 and the subsequent dissolution of steam firemen had implications that reached all the way to the linen room, as firemen were reassigned to other positions.
"My second year in the linen room - diesels got rid of firemen. A fireman with 20 years' experience came to work in the linen room with me - he had less seniority than me! I hated that - maybe I was making more money than he was!"
"The other thing we enjoyed, because Winnipeg was a hub, was [cars from the] Southern Pacific coming up to go to the mountains. They'd come up from Minneapolis. We'd walk through these trains and they'd have movie theatres, barer shops, hairdressing - where are we? We're in the Dark Ages in comparison! I knew a couple of big shots - D.V. Gonder CNR Prairie Region Vice-President, and John Kelso was a friend of my brother - lived in Montreal, moving there with CPR.
My thanks to Harry for so candidly sharing his memories of his early work years. It's this type of first-person history that is seldom preserved, but which we find so interesting just a few decades later!
Running extra...
Some of my fellow Kingston modellers were surprised at the rate of progress on my HO scale Hanley Spur layout.
Update video here. My response to them? Quantity, not quality! But here are a few of my tips for making a rapid transformation in modelled locale. YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary):
- Think and plan before starting*. Not too long though, to prevent 'analysis paralysis'.
- Retain current benchwork*. Let's not re-invent the wheel here.
- Think out trackplan, then sketch it*. Use computer-based tools only if necessary
- Change current trackplan to suit new industries and operations.
- Don't be afraid to modify your new trackplan on the fly*. It's difficult to translate plans to plywood. Improvise, adapt!
- Use Atlas flex-track and switches. Cut the ends, add joiners, screw down with Robertsons. I simply do not have the patience for hand-laid track or turnouts, nor intractable ballasting.
- Use existing structures*. Modify or kitbash. New-build only when absolutely necessary.
- Think creatively of using what you have, not buying what you think you need*. This applies to locomotives, rolling stock, vehicles, scenery, and details. Heck, just about everything!
- Produce more, advertise less. Be the George S. Patton of trackplan transformation! (*Above starred bullets are likely locations of paralysis analysis setting in. Be strong. Don't let it happen!)
- Be cheap. Pinch those HO scale pennies. It's fun and challenging.
- This is starting to sound like another free-standing post. Yikes!
Presland Iron and Metal (or Steel) is an example of a reworked structural flat (above). Formerly Vancouver Iron & Engineering Works on my Vancouver-based layout, this was some sort of Durango enginehouse train-show find. I opened it up and glued sides together to make a flat, inverted it to change window placement, added some scaffolding, gantry crane, transformers on poles, and other details to place the structure in the scene. Maybe I'll replace it in future. Or maybe not. It's already up and receiving metals traffic - doing its job!
