------CN Mechanises

FTLComm - Tisdale - January 25, 2000

In the days before labour was a dirty word Canada's rail lines had a maintenance crew stationed ever seven miles on ever line they operated. Using hand tools and a motor car (Jigger, speeder) to get to the work the four man crew, in summer, or two man crew in winter looked after the track. Kept it free of weeds, fixed the fences, made the crossing smooth and serviced the switches. Those days are ancient history as mobile crews using on and off track units like this one can get a worker or a crew of workers out to the line and instead of using people to do the work they company relies upon machines. Winter is difficult for running a railroad but some things just won't work unless they are looked after and switches fall into that category. Snow fills up the parts of the switch and only a small amount can render one out of service. The way it used to be done was the section crew would take shovels and brooms and clean the switch every time it snowed. It was a lot of work but that was the work that needed to be done, just like filling the lanterns that burned atop every switch showing train crews where the switches were located. Those switch lights were long ago removed but the cleaning still has to take place. CN's solution to switch cleaning is interesting. For some years the mobile crew would arrive ahead of a train and using back pack leave blowers to puff the snow from the switches. Though this with some shovelling worked it still required a crew of two or more. Now this truck is the solution. A single operator drives this great truck to the switch starts up the huge air compressor in the back and blasts with a constant ninety pounds of pressure anything that might obstruct the operation of the switch.

Editor's note: Though spelling errors occur in Ensign from time to time it is important to note that in all cases Canadian spelling is used so that words like "mechanism" are written without a "z" just as "honour" gets a "u" and "programme" gets two "m"s.