Public Relations and
Advertising Department
Windsor Station Montreal Que. H3C
3E4
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Volume 11
Number 14
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Oct. 28,
1981
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Railway Runs in
Family
By Vida Wellwood
The Inspector:
Three-year-old Carl Wellwood, reflecting the tradition of his railway
family, seems satisfied with the work being done in the Kamloops Yard. Carl decided
to make his inspection tour while waiting for his grandfather, locomotive engineer
Ernie Hubbard.
Three-year-old Carl Wellwood, the
son of George and Peggy Wellwood of Vernon, B.C., comes from a long line of CP Rail
forbears on both sides of the house.
On active duty, Carl's maternal grandfather, locomotive engineer Ernie Hubbard of
Kamloops, works the Kamloops-North Bend run. He joined CP Rail
4 Jul 1941, shop and wiping, Beavermouth to Field. After serving
overseas in the army, he returned to the railway in 1946, and was promoted to
locomotive engineer in 1949. He worked out of Revelstoke until 1956. "From then
on, it's been Kamloops all the way", he said.
Ernie and Margaret Hubbard's son, Rod, (Carl's uncle) began with CP Rail on
11 Apr 1972, on the Thompson-Cascade Division. Rod was a
trainman out of Kamloops for six years and for the past three years has worked out
of Vancouver.
Going further back, both Carl's maternal great-grandfathers were CP
Rail men. Ernie's father, Leonard J. Hubbard of dover, England, had booked passage
on the fateful April, 1912, voyage of the Titanic, but due to illness had to cancel,
arriving in Canada on a later ship in August. He began his career with CP Rail that
fall, working as a section foreman until his retirement in 1950. Ernie's wife,
Margaret, is the daughter of Carl Frederickson who began as a wiper at Beavermouth
in the Revelstoke area in 1911. He was promoted to locomotive engineer in 1925,
working the Notch Hill pusher and passenger trains until his retirement in 1956.
SAW HISTORY
Carl's paternal great-grandfather, former locomotive engineer George A.
Wellwood, saw a lot of Canadian Pacific and British Columbia history in the making.
In 1879 when George was born, his father Robert Goodson Wellwood, was the second
lighthouse keeper at Point Atkinson. When George was nine months old the family
went to the Naas River to manage a fish cannery and he was the only white baby in
that part of the north.
George began his career with CP Rail in 1899 starting as an engine wiper out of
Kamloops. There was a mining boom in the Kootenays at the turn of the century and he
was promoted to locomotive engineer in 1905, running from Nelson to Rossland and
Trail carrying ore. He always contended that he pushed the toes out of his shoes
holding back on the Rossland hill.
In 1908 he moved to Grand Forks where he operated a smelter switch engine. The
family lived in Eholt in 1909 while George ran shays on the Phoenix Hill and hauled
ore to Greenwood and Grand Forks. A move to Nelson came in 1911 and he worked the
Lardeau subdivision. Then came Kamloops in 1915 for two years. George took the last
working trains out of Rogers Pass and assisted the first train through the Connaught
tunnel when it opened.
He was locomotive engineer on the head-end of one of the royal trains
in 1939 when king George VI and Queen Elizabeth came through Kamloops. George
Wellwood retired in 1944, living an active life until his death shortly after his
90th birthday.
With all this railroading blood in his veins it's easy to understand why young Carl
finds engines so fascinating.
This CP Rail News article is copyright 1981 by
Canadian Pacific Railway and is reprinted here with their permission. All
photographs, logos, and trademarks are the property of the Canadian
Pacific Railway Company.
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