Volume 13 Number 6 April 27, 1983

The railway plans to spend $51 million on building and reconstruction projects in Ontario this year.

Included in the program are the laying of 70 miles (113.5 kilometres) of rail, rebuilding of 18 bridges, purchase of new maintenance equipment, construction of two new rail sidings, erecting new buildings in Toronto, McKerrow, Chapleau, and Ripple and the installation of 18 new hot box detectors.

"Over the last seven years, CP Rail has spent almost $300 million streamlining, upgrading, and maintaining its track facilities in Ontario," said D'Alton Coleman, vice-president of the Eastern Region. "These expenditures illustrate our commitment to continue to operate a safe and efficient railway."

The 18 hot box detectors will bring to 67 the number of early warning devices in service on the railway in Ontario.

Two 90 man railway steel crews have been installing new Continuous Welded Rail (CWR) on about 21 miles (34 kilometres) of trackbed between Ashcroft and Agassiz in British Columbia. The work is expected to be completed early next month.

The railway also plans to spend $25.5 million this year on various capital works programs on the Atlantic Region.

Work projects planned include laying 16 miles (25.7 kilometres) of CWR, reballasting 57 miles (92 kilometres) of roadbed, replacing 199,000 ties, repairing bridges and bridge decks, installing 11 hot box detectors, improving the railway's radio communications network, and investing in new yard and repair facilities.

At Angus Shops, for example, the locomotive repair shop will receive $425,000 worth of upgrading and about $1 million will be spent to build a waste treatment plant to process industrial waste. Another $5 million will be spent over the next three years for a new paint shop.

By LOUISE SASSEVILLE

Ken D. Mosher, a supervisor at the Systems Operations Centre in Windsor Station, has a hobby which opens many doors to him. But not any old doors. Since last fall, Mr. Mosher has been collecting switch keys. The keys are used to open the locks put on track switches so that they can be operated only by authorized personnel.

Mr. Mosher has had a CP Rail switch key ever since 3 Dec 1957, the day he became a telegrapher trainee at Eastray Station, near Eastman, in the Eastern Townships. Later he occupied various positions, as telegrapher, traffic dispatcher, and supervisor, both in Canada and the United States, before being appointed to his current position in 1980.

How does one go about collecting switch keys? In the case of Mr. Mosher, one could speak of a "change of track".

Up to last fall, he collected railway timetables. "However, I bought myself a mobile home and no longer had any place to keep them", he says, "so I decided to collect keys. They're small and can be hung on the wall."

By now Mr. Mosher has some 25 copper keys, which he obtained from various Canadian railways. "Many sent them to me free, such as Devco, B.C. Rail, and Norfolk & Western," adds Mr. Mosher.

Moreover, there are collectors' associations, such as "Key, Locks, and Lantern", a club Mr. Mosher belongs to. Trading between collectors is another way of obtaining the desired specimens.

Mr. Mosher hopes to increase his collection and appeals to the goodwill of anyone who would like to part with their railway keys. When he has enough of them, he plans to make a big map of Canada to which he will attach the keys according to their place of origin.