CP Rail caboose number 434019 also known as a van - Date? Photographer?

Letters to the Editor:  Sir, - I have been employed with CP Rail for over a year now. I started out in the calling bureau. I knew nothing at all about the railway or trains when I first started. I didn't know that a caboose was a "van".

When I first started out a guy had telephoned and said that he had missed his van. I asked what was wrong. Did he have a flat tire and if he did, why doesn't he get a car somewhere else for his business? He quickly told me what a van was and that train wheels didn't have flat tires.

I was embarrassed to say the least.

Whenever I had to get a hold of the hostler on midnights, I'd get on the radio and call for the "hustle" because that was what I thought they were saying. Boy was I ever embarrassed when I found out that I was saying hustler instead of hostler.

That was they way it was for me when I first started out up in the calling bureau. When I was asked what I did for a living, I'd say that I worked for CP Rail up in the calling bureau and they'd say, "Oh, you're a call girl." I'd get very red in the face. Now I say that I'm a crew clerk and it saves the embarrassment.

Some people say that we crew clerks have an easy job. Well that isn't true. Sometimes it's frustrating, especially if you're working the mainline, to try and get men to go to work.

A lot of them are picky. If they don't get a time card they'll book off on you. If it's a weekend, they book off on you. We answer a lot of calls within an eight-hour shift. Guys are always asking how many times out they are. "What's happening? When's the next time card? If it's a drag, forget it!"

They get terribly upset if the railroad is busy, and they've only been in town for one day.

If we're really slow and they have been in town for three or four days, they say things like, "Are you guys on strike?" "Did the railroad quit running?" "Is there a wreck somewhere?"

You just can't win either way.

They always phone up and say, "How many times for crew 5?" I'll say something like, "Eleven times out." It might be 19:30 in the evening, and he'll come back with a statement like, "Will I be good till midnight?" Boy, what a dummy! Sometimes I'll say, "What do you think?" or "Of course, do you think we'll run 11 trains between now and midnight?"

They usually hang up on me or start to laugh. You really have to have a lot of patience and the capacity to tolerate these guys.

The thing that really bothers me is that the crew clerks of America don't get any credit for a job well done. We do our job the best we know how. So come on guys, next time you phone up, use a little comon sense and stop asking silly questions. And be nice, we are only human and we have a job to do.

If you wish to publish this, please withhold my name and the city. I know a few other crew clerks in various cities throughout Canada and they all feel the same way I do.

Please don't get me wrong, despite all the hassles, I still love my job and plan to stay for a long, long, time.

Name Withheld

Back to the U.K. - An armoured personnel carrier is being given the once-over by Roy Ware, marketing and sales representative from Medicine Hat. One of a dozen being returned to the United Kingdom from the British Army Training Unit at Canadian Forces Base Suffield, the carrier was shipped with army tanks and other military vehicles.

This CP Rail News article is copyright 1980 by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited and is reprinted here with their permission. All photographs, logos, and trademarks are the property of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company.