Canadian Railroads > on this day in 2007, oversize ballast

 I had been off work for couple of weeks, bereavement & personal leave and my first trip back  February 18 (2007). During my time off, the UTU, Conductors Union went on strike,, by law I had to cross the picket line and go to work. Normally on BC Rail and with the Council of Trade Unions on BC Rail, all unions went on strike at the same time, not so since CN took over the former BCR.
   Anyhow, my regular assignment was Williams Lake to Quesnel BC, and on this day my "Conductor???" was a engineering Department supervisor from Edmonton that had taken the EHH & CN "crash course" and was quote a qualified Conductor. He was a nice enough fellow, even though we considered these temporary conductors to be scabs and they did not get any cooperation from those that had to work with them. It was a beautiful late winter / early spring afternoon for a train ride and perfect weather for loose rocks falling on the right of way. Sure enough, here was a nice nugget between the rails at mile 322.2 on the BCR Prince George sub. Despite running at a reduced speed prior to spotting this rock, then an emergency brake application, we struck this boulder, pushed it couple hundred feet breaking it into smaller chunks. Fortunately we did not derail and after some delay, my temporary Conductor was able to lever the rock over the rail and we carried on.  Doug

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That must have made a hell of a racket.

Not the boulder...the "conductor". LOL!

The rock went crunch crunch, I can't post what the temporary Conductor said.    Doug

Would think it did wonders to the ties and all that holds the rail in place.