"Car 54 where are you"

When I went down to Bathurst St. in 1954 there were old shantys spread around the Yard with crank phones so you could keep in touch with the office and the various shantys. The Yardmen would phone the Yardmaster at the North Side shanty or the GYM, General Yardmaster in the Yard Office, and Carmen in the Car Dept. shanty.

Someone got it in their head to build a Tower from which most of the working engines in the North Side could be viewed by the Yardmaster, who would be in the tower , however, logically this was made more difficult after the sun went down.

This was provided for though, by putting a yellow light on top of the Yard Engine, which would in theory, make the engine visible at night, to the Yardmaster, and this worked if the crew wanted it to work, which most of the time they did, but on occasion, depending who the Yardmaster was they could make it difficult for him.

There was such a Yardmaster at Bathurst St by the name of Ken T. who seemed to make it his life's work to be a pain in the ass.

Along with the tower went a speaker system, where speakers were planted alo0ng the leads which made it possible for the train crews to get in touch with the Yardmaster wherever in the Yard they were, but they worked in reverse as well, because they were loud speakers, and I mean loud because they had to be heard over the noise of the engine beside it.

One night Ken T. wanted to get ahold of the North Side engine being drummed by Ken M. one of the foremen who didn't like Ken T. to much, and because Ken M. knew his way around the job and the routine by heart, he really didn't need the Yardmaster to tell him what to do, he just went and did it, but so he wouldn't be bothered, placed a bucket over the light on the engine so it couldn't be seen.

At some point Ken T. wanted to get ahold of Ken M. but couldn't see his engine and started to panic wondering what the hell happened to the engine and crew, and started to call on various speakers to no avail, and then got frustrated and opened all the speakers,up and down the lead in the Yard up and started to scream at the top of his lungs for Ken M., North Side Yown Engine where are you, screeming and screeming North Side Yowd Engine where are you, forgetting that along Front St., there were many private homes where people were trying to sleep, bearing in mind it was 3:00 A.M,. or 0300 hrs in railway parlance.

Ken T must have annoyed some people because it wasn't to long before Metro's finest were at the office wondering what the hell was going on, and trying to get Ken T. toned down somewhat, thinking maybe the Yardmaster had gone crazy and perhaps straight jackets were required.

Someone rushed to Ken M. and told him what was going on, so he just took the bucket off the light, and played dumb, which probably worked, but it was a while before someone else did that again, and I think after he got shit from the Police Dept Ken T. would whisper his instructions.

Ken M was a great practical joker and he must have many stories, I know I was told a few, and can only hope I remember them over the winter.

An interesting aside was that up in those houses on Front St. lived the great song writer Murray Mclauglin, who wrote " The Farmers Song" which was very popular, and I heard him being interviewed one day, when he said the song he also wrote "That Dammed Train" was written as a result of the noise coming from the Bathurst St. Yard.

Allan Miloff