" Car Checker "

I Started on the CNR Sept. 15, 1953, as a Call Boy, and was 15 years old, it wasn't long before I was 16 though.

I was Call Boy for a couple months, and then I got a Car Checker job which was better, because it was higher pay, and you began to learn something of the way the railway functioned.

The Car Checker had to label trains, and check trains on a form that was provided, essentially a list of the cars on the train, with blank fields indicating the required information, and on rainy days we would lightly coat the first sheet with kerosene, which would leave the carbon copies at least OK.

You would check the initial of the Railway Co ie. ATSF, PRR, RDG, CNR, etc., there were a great many different railway companies, you would then fill in the car number, how the car was labeled, if there was a home route label, and finally the tare weight, in tons, but seeing the weight was always in pounds you had to convert to tons, and this was easy, for example if the car weight showed as 46000 lbs, you converted it to tons by halving the first two numbers, hence 46000 lbs., becomes 23 tons, and if the car was empty you showed that to.

The Bill and Train Clerks would have bills for each load in the office with the weights of the contents, and after making up the train, would total the weights of the rail car contents, then the tare weights that was on the train list, to get the total weight of the train, which would have to coincide with the capability of the engine provided.

When I first got the checking job I was on round trips as most were, that is to say that we would label down a train and likely check back one, or if they were backed up on inbound trains, label down one and label another back.

Some of the Yardmasters and brakemen and Yard Foremen in the Speedway were very good, and could switch a train before it was labeled, using the switch list.

I was given three long trains to label one day, about 80 or 90 cars each, one train on the third track, which ran along the main line, so you had to be extremely careful, and watch out for Passenger Trains, and duck in between cars, if one came along, and seeing the track had a slight curve you had to listen as well.

I labeled the third track and one of the other trains, and when I came to the track with the third train to label, it wasn't there, so I figured it had been switched using the switch list, and so I threw the labels away and went back to the office.

The next afternoon at work I happened to be standing around, when I see the afternoon Chief Clerk Harold F. answer the phone, and can hear someone yelling over the phone, and even though I can't hear what is being said, I can tell Harold is getting shit, Harold every now and then interjects, with, he is a good lad Walter, he is a good checker Walter, he does what he is told Walter, and finally hangs up the phone.

Harold comes over to me and asks me what I did with the labels for the train the day before, and I told him it wasn't on the track, so I assumed it had been switched using the switch list, and threw them away, at which time he kinds of lets out a little groan.

Harold then tells me I have to report to Walter S. in a couple days to explain, in an investigation what happened to the labels, that throwing the labels away wasn't so bad, under the circumstances, except Walter S. was standing at the Speedway when the train was being switched, and noticed there were no labels on it.

I reported to Walter S's. office at the determined time for the investigation, Walter was Asst. Superintendent based at Mimico, and it became evident to me quite fast, that Walter was 3 sheets to the wind.

I was very experienced with drunks, as my step father was one, and before coming to Toronto I had worked in the Walper Hotel in Kitchener for a year shining shoes, so I got used to and knew drunks.

In the office with Walter and I, was a steno, by the name of Eddie M. ,who seemed like a meek and mild sort of guy, who was there to record the investigation.

Walter began shouting and cursing and ever now and then I would say yes Mr. S. yes, yes Mr. S. and he would shout some more, he was quite loud and I noticed the Eddie the steno was visible shaking.

Walter finally ends by saying, you might as well go downtown and quit right now, because if you are still around on Monday, I will fire you.

Well I didn't as you can see, and was around for 40 more years.

This wasn't my last Walter S. experience and my next would be in retrospect, a little funnier.

I liked the job at Mimico, but I didn't seem to fit in well, for a variety of reasons, my personality, their personality, or more likely a combination of both.

A checking job come up about a year later, on afternoons at Bathurst St., and I seemed to fit in right away, and in fact became to love that place, I was only there for about a year and a half when I got the Chief Clerk Job, I guess I was about 18 years old, and at Bathurst St. I was provided with a whole new set of characters.

Bathurst St. was much smaller than Mimico so everyone was much closer, everyone knew everyone else, we knew all the Brakemen, Carmen, Yardmasters, everyone, and their families.

Bathurst St. was much busy er for it's size than any other Yard, as far as I was concerned with the Main Line out of Union Station running through the middle of it, so you had to have your eyes and ears opened all the time, or as was said "stay on the ball" or " have an eye".

Most of the east bound lifts, north bound lifts, and trains for the Stratford Sub, were handled out of Bathurst St.

Bathurst St. was fed by yard engines out of Hanlans Point, Jefferson Ave Dist,. West Toronto, Downsview, Parkdale, Simcoe St. Sheds, the trailer ramp, the Rip Track, and a variety of inbound trains 458, 416, and the, Way Freights out of Georgetown and Rexdale, and Allandale.

It could be, and generally was very busy, with the out bound trains, first and second bullets, which went to Montreal 453 which went to North Bay, 407 which went to Capreal and Northern Ontario, 409 whose final destination was Vancouver, and a variety of transfers that took west and southbound cars to Mimico for trains out of there, not to mention the Interchange, cars coming from and going to the CPR at Parkdale.

When everything was going good at Bathurst St it was like watching a great show, and I enjoyed it, and did the job quite well.

The Bill and Train Clerks typed journals on the teletype machines, after lining up the bills, and finding bills for those loads that didn't have one, making labels for inbound trains, arranging for attention by the Car Dept of refrigerator cars that had charcoal heaters in the winter, and arrange for ice, for end bunker refrigerators in the summer, determined whether inbound livestock needed feeding, water, and rest, and a wide variety of jobs to numerous to mention at this time.

Bob W. told Les B. to go to the North Side and label down a train on track 7 and check back track 9, and Les said he would rather check down track 9 and label back track seven, and Bob says no, label down track 7 and check back track 9, the main reason being that they hadn't finished working on the train, on track 9 yet, but without telling Les that, because Bob thought, rightfully so, that it would be to complicated for Les to comprehend.

Telling and getting Les to understand, and do two jobs properly was a formidable task, anyway after telling Les about four times like a kindergarten teacher would tell a pupil, Bob being totally exasperated by this time reaches up and grabs Les around the throat, rams him down on the long Bill Clerk's desk, and proceeds to choke and scream at Les, Walter S. remember Walter S. from my set to with him at Mimico, was visiting Danny M. GYM in the next office, comes running out of Danny's office, and while I was pulling Bob off Les, Walter asks me what the hell is he doing? and I said it, should be painfully obvious, he's choking him, at that I got Bob off Les and Les went and did what he was told.

Walter I think forgot about me, five minutes after I left his office in Mimico that day, but he seemed to like putting on a show, he was a bad actor, but did impress a few people.

After coming down to Bathurst St I met Allan H, the day Call Boy, who was really a glorified messenger at Bathurst St., because there were no crews to call, and got talking to him, and he told me that he was in the outer office the day I was getting shit from Walter, and that ever since that time if he saw Walter he would disappear and stay as far away from Walter as possible.

Anyway I finally get Bob to release Les because as I explained to him, we have a railroad to run .

This was not my last exasperating experience with Les B.

Allan