Within walking distance west of the Connaught Tunnel ventilation building
CP Rail Train Number 2 rests in the siding at Glacier - 1972 Phil Mason.

3 September 2011

Glacier British Columbia - This image shows CP 2 East in the siding at Glacier, British Columbia, in the summer of 1972. It is significant because of the FPA-2 trailing in the consist, possibly a once only event. Yes, it did lead Number 1 a couple of days earlier, but I didn't get a picture. The FPA-2's were common on 11-12. I'm thinking they were caught short at Sudbury for a leader for Number 1. I'm surprised Calgary didn't change the power consist. The GP9 was probably a Calgary addition on Number 1. The boxcar ahead of the baggage car was a fixture on trains 1 and 2 west of Calgary for many years.
 
The main Calgary Post Office, just west of the Palliser Hotel in Calgary, had a rail spur. Bagged mail for intermediate points between Calgary and Vancouver was loaded into this boxcar. At Revelstoke and Kamloops (and perhaps Salmon Arm), Post Office employees unloaded the bagged mail onto their baggage carts (the reason for the CAP's, woe betide any CP employee who used a red painted Royal Mail baggage cart).
 
The roadmaster (probably Sam Caetano) has put his motorcar on the main to follow Number 2 through the tunnel. Glacier was one of the locations where the "Jap Gangs" worked for the section. The late Tosh Fujiwara worked all the way up to Roadmaster before he retired. There is a scene in the NFB documentary, "Railroaders", which shows the Jap Gang digging out a switch at Glacier. The late Louis Rota donated some ancient time books from the Revelstoke Division to the Revelstoke Railway Museum. Among other things, it showed a different pay scale for Japanese. Initially, the Jap Gangs were separate, as in some cases the foreman was the only one who spoke English.
 
Glacier had no road access until the Trans-Canada Highway was completed in 1961. It was a self contained little railway town, with permanent residents including the section gangs, the fan house operators, and the telegraph operators at the station. Many of these people had families with them. In steam days, the Rogers Pass pusher crews and engines were also based there.
 
My picture shows some of the CPR dwellings across from the station. The station itself had accommodation for the operators and the pusher crews, and for many years had a cook. Although there was no postal service, there were letter boxes at the station (East and West).
 
The CBC did a documentary titled "No Other Highway" just before the opening of the Trans-Canada Highway which documented life along the railway between Glacier and Revelstoke. There was no school at Glacier, but several children lived there. They went to primary school at Albert Canyon, another isolated railway and logging community about 30 miles west of Glacier. The children would board with Albert Canyon families during the week. The documentary shows classes taking place in the community hall at Albert Canyon, and then a community social and dance being held. I know there were many Finnish people who worked for the railway or were loggers, and community halls were, and are, a feature of Scandinavian settlements. The high school students went to Revelstoke.
 
Railway families had "market passes" which provided free transportation to family members of railway employees to go shopping, attend school, or visit doctor's clinics in Revelstoke. Unlike other employee passes, they had numbered punch holes around the side. During the school year, unlimited trips could be made, over the summer they were limited to the number of punch holes. What trains did they ride? For the five or six years during the construction of the Trans-Canada Highway there was a dedicated mixed train which carried Highway builders on a scheduled basis. There was a mail train west of Calgary which lasted to the mid-fifties as a remnant of the old "Imperial Limited" schedule. The "Dominion" ran in several sections in steam days with mostly head end cars and a rider coach section of the train seems to have run most of the year.
 
In the Revelstoke graveyard, there is a poignant tombstone. The Anglican minister from Revelstoke would visit the isolated railway communities east of town by riding trains. He was familiar with the train crews and rode the caboose on freight trains. He had learned how to get on and off a moving train. Sadly, he slipped and was killed at Albert Canyon de-training from a caboose.
 
By 1972 Glacier had electricity. That tall black shed between the legs of the wye contained a generator. Glacier had both a turntable and a wye (but not at the same time). The wye included a snowshed (and possibly a short tunnel) over the tail. Although I have not seen photographic evidence of it at Glacier, it is believed that the turntable was covered like the one at Donald, BC. The Donald cover was very tall and had sloping sides with a tall conical roof. (I've only seen one poor image of it).
 
The children of Glacier and Albert Canyon and like places are now in their late 60's or 70's. There are lifelong friendships which arose out the experience of "boarding out" at Albert Canyon and Revelstoke. They all speak very fondly of their days commuting on the railway.
 
The dwellings behind the Connaught Tunnel fan house were rather grand, they may have been supervisors houses built by the construction company. They had a street behind them with a raised sidewalk and steps down to the fan house below. Those who lived their never recalled the smoke blowing their way. They rather liked the whoosh the fans made when working.
 
Glacier still has a population. There is a maintenance-of-way bunkhouse where the houses are in my picture. There is a shed containing a "snow fighter" (ballast regulator), where the generator shack used to stand. Hydro electricity came to Glacier when the power line for the MacDonald tunnel was built.
 
Glacier station is still there, to eventually be moved by Parks Canada for display.

Phil Mason.