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32 - DECKS AWASH bent, you could remove it, heat it in the firebox, and bend it back into shape." According to Gordon Hannon, the introduction of the 1000 Class engines was a big improvement. The steam was superheated, producing more even pressure, and the firebox was lined with brick to retain heat, making it easier to hold a constant temperature. "The best thing about 'em," he maintains, "was they burned only half as much coal as the older engines. With a 1000 Class engine we could run from Bishop's Falls to Corner Brook (138 miles) on three tons of coal. Before retiring in 1967, Gordon had worked 50 years on the railway's Western Division. The longest trip he ever made was as a fireman for engineer Frank Foley in 1973, on engine 110. It took them six weeks to get from Port aux Basques to Corner Brook. "We had been hauling ice from Dennis Pond to Port aux Basques when we got called to take a car of coal out to the rotary plow, so fine, we took the coal to her, but a storm came up on our way back to Port aux Basques. We never made it back to Port aux Basques and had to stay on a siding at Cape Ray. After five or six hours we got a call to go out to the roiary plow again. She was at St. Fintan's, but we couldn't get that far. We were struck three miles out of South Branch, and then we ran low on coal. The sectionmen were out in the woods cutting One 01 the 1000 Class engines that so imprO'led the working conditions lor trainmen on the Newfoundland Railway. (Photo in possession 01 L. Gordon Hannon). wood for us to burn, but it took a long time to get through. To get some grub we would have to leave the locomotive and walk three miles to the community. At least a steam engine had the option of burning wood. A diesel-electric stuck in the snow without fuel oil would be in far worse trouble. "Oh, I much preferred the old steam engines," concurs Gordon, speaking low as not to disturb his wife Josephine who is wat· ching "the story" on TV. "There was more life to them. A diesel is just like driving a car. Spend eight hours driving a modern engine and you are ready to drop, but you can go for 16 hours on a steam locomotive because you are kept more alert and better exercised. Diesels are more convenient because you don't have to stop for water, and they can haul more weight than the old steam engines, but the diesels require more repairs and Victims ofthe key and the hatchet "Look, it's plain and simple, I don't give a hoot what anybody says," says agentoperator Jim Snow, as he waits for his four o'clock shift to start at the Corner Brook office. "There's no future for a young man on this railway. "I've be"en with the railway four years and in that time I've been shuffled around to 17 stations!" adds Jim, a native of Lewisporte. Snow is a new breed of railway worker, young, educated, but disillusioned like many of the. agent·operators with TerraTransport in the province. "We've got problems all right," says Jim, "a lot of men are going to be out of jobs and the union is just accepting the fact that the jobs will be going. Veteran operator Leo Connolly enters the office and explains the problem. "A while ago, CN announced· that effective March 31, 1981, all they don't work so well in winter. If some water gets on the brushes it can easily cause ground relation which cuts off your power." Gordon's father, Peter, was General Roadmaster for the Western Division, and Gordon's seven brothers all worked for the railway, but the family tradition seems to be dying, at least in Newfoundland. "We used to have real good management on this railway, and everyone knew each other," Gordon recalls. "We used to be asked for our opinion about various things in the company, but today it's all done from Moncton. The engineer is only a dog these days." Although Gordon Hannon may not be too pleased about some of the changes that have taken place with the railway, he is more than happy to share his memories and display his album of old photos. 1'1 the operators in Newfoundland would be taken out of the railway stations. I think they were going to do away with 21 jobs, but I think 15 operators had to go afterwards instead. They left the agents in the stations," adds Connolly, "but since they are going to close all 35 stations anyway, that will take care of them." The agent-operator problem is compounded by recent changes in the representation for the 120
agent-operators who became members of Radio Canada Traffic Controllers in April 1981. Formerly represented by the Newfoundland Brotherhood of Railway and Airline Clerks (BRAC), they had their own internal body - Division 135. In the ongoing negotiations the agents and operators to be displaced by the CN decision were able to take advantage of the special agreement negotiated between union and management in February 1981. BRAC general chairman, Mike Walsh, explains the agreement which basically provides for retraining, reassignment, wage compensation and/or retirement for employees whose jobs are declared redundant or abolished because of technological change. "The telegraphers are a dying breed," explains Walsh, "no one operates a telegraph key anymore; it's a thing of the past and they are going with it. This is not only in Newfoundland, it's right across the system." In addition to this consideration, TerraTransport at 8t. John's indicated that the positions affected were also judged redundant because telephone and computers have replaced the agent's role in sending messages and controlling freight inventory at local stations. In addition, customers no longer need to pick up their freight from the agent at the rail station, and with the implementation of containerization, the station's role itself will become largely obsolete. Unlike computers and mechanical modules, the human element in this advancing technology drama cannot be adapted and so must become reoriented or retired by Terra Transport. Mike Walsh is not totally unoptimistic about the position the agent-operators find themselves in. "In any agreement, you'll never get it all," says Walsh, "but I'm satisfied that we have a very good job security agreement. The way it works is "There is no future tor a young man on the railway," says a dlsgrunUed JIm Snow." that if I can't keep my particular job within CN, and if I have sufficient service, they'll retrain me for another job within eN, after I exercise my seniority rights to displace other employees with less service, "When the operators and agents were still with us, their jobs became redundant in March, and I believe most were taken care of by the special agreement," explains Walsh. But, both Connolly and Snow feel the issue is Dot only a question of negotiations and technological change. "I've been with the railway 35 years," says Connolly, "and I guess there are only about 15 ahead of me with more years, so it won't really affect me unless they take the tracks up. Basically, as an agent-operator, I started training in Morse code which took three to six months to learn," he says, adding that the present two-and-three-way radio system takes less than a DECKS AWASH·33 week to master. As an agent I worked at Howley for a number of years. "About 15 years ago 1 sold the most CN tickets in Canada for the least amount of cost revenue to CN. That was about 80 tickets a train at 80e a ticket to Corner Brook." Connolly readjusts a stack of paperwork at his desk and continues, "When the highway was built to Howley it went from about 400 people four times a month on the train, to nobody at all. We never sold a single ticket after that." The loss of the passenger service was really when the downgrading of the railway started." "And don't forget the tractor-, trailers," says Jim Snow who is now totally caught up in the argument. "There is little or no incentive to carry freight by train these days," be adds. "and if we can't sell the freight service, customers will move to tractor-trailers." Both men feel that the diminished demand for the raHway as a freight conveyance is the result of not only the rising rates but also the deteriorating service the line offers. "The service could pay if they put freight in theft-proof con· tainers, ran fast, and put on extra cars to handle wood, etc" when necessary," adds Leo. "Rail containers should be given preference over trucks in the province too," maintains Leo, "and all trailers should have to pay a road fee. After all, they gas up in Nova Scotia and don't stop until they return. In any event, both men are unsure about what should be done about the specific situation they face as a union group. "[ don't see that either the union or the special alreement will be any good to us," says Jim. "Face it," says Leo, "with all the changes and the lack of business the railway doesn't have the freight to handle to pay the men. Ten years ago they shouldn't have hired anybody else in these positions and they wouldn't have had as much of a problem with us as they do now." "
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