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Part 2: Dilemmas of a
Fireman
By Bill Henderson - CP Pensioner
Locomotive engineer and conductor compare train orders before
departure - 1924 Canadian Pacific Archives.
We rejoin Bill as the engineer calls for more steam, westbound from Ruby Creek, B.C.
The fireman knew he was losing ground.
He knew he had a clinker in the fire box and it was getting bigger.
A clinker is when the ashes stick together and form a large dead layer on the bottom of the firebox.
Air cannot get through to make the coal burn hot.
It was time to take on water, shake the fire, and get rid of the clinker.
The brakeman took on water, the engineer oiled the engine, and I tore the fire apart to get the clinker out, and lost ninety percent
of the fire.
The conductor got new train orders from the dispatcher.
He also got hell for not making up lost time.
The conductor delivered the train orders to the engineer.
"We're late, get going," he said.
I was frantically trying to repair the fire and get some steam back in the boiler.
It looked like we'd be another half hour.
Sometimes dispatchers just had to wait for the fireman to get the fire going and steam up.
I was disrupting the whole railroad that day.
Sometimes when the hogger called for more steam, I'd get the blower going to make more draft to get my fire hot.
The blower blows the fine coal and hot ashes through the firebox and out the stack.
This could come down like rain on the conductor on the ground, and he'd tell me in no uncertain terms to shut that damned blower off.
When the steam engines were changed over to oil burners, the fireman's job changed from one of continuous turmoil to one of the best
jobs on the crew, now all we had to do was turn a few valves and make sure we had enough water in the boiler.
There were a few engines that blew up for lack of water, some took the crew with them.
There are pictures of mishaps, but I'm happy to say I never saw an explosion up close.
* Bill worked many jobs during the steam era, including some early stints as a coal shoveler. His adventures are continued from last
issue.
Once a staple of the Canadian railway landscape, linking towns and cities from
coast-to-coast, the Budd Rail Diesel Car has all but vanished from the landscape. Those that remain in service in Ontario and BC have
undergone numerous modifications in order to meet the intercity travel needs of Canadians today. However, Canada's last surviving,
largely "stock" RDC-1, former CPR 9069, is slowly coming back to life at Exporail, the Canadian Railway Musuem in St. Constant,
Quebec. |
