Railroaders' Nostalgia > Trains and "pets..."

I read the thread about "SP Martha" the cat on 1/23 with considerable interest, and it reminded me of a couple of experiences from my railroad days I thought some of you might enjoy... The first dates back to the October of 1979 and relates to Amtrak's late, lamented North Coast Hiawatha domeliner that linked Chicago with Seattle (no Portland sections in those days) via the former Northern Pacific across southern Montana. I did not witness this in person, but actually saw it on the NBC Evening News while I was working in southern California. 

Evidently, this dog started showing up at the Livingston, MT station and came to learn the days when the tri-weekly passenger train would pass through. As time went on the dog would only show-up on the days when the NCH would come through, and in both directions yet! The dining car crews on the train began seeing the dog when they passed through town and started preparing a "snack" for the dog which they would give him during the train's servicing stop there. The point was made in this news clip that the dog seemed to know which days the train would be there. When the Hiawatha was discontinued during the Carter administration's gutting of several of Amtrak's long distance route (none of which have been restored to date) in October of 1979, a local Burlington Northern employee adopted the dog and took him home.

Keeping this story in mind, let's sweep ahead to the summer of 1986, and I am on a vacation trip aboard VIA Rail's original (on the Canadian Pacific) Canadian. We were eastbound a couple of hours out of Vancouver, BC and heading into the Fraser River Canyon when the VIA on-board supervisor (they had them in those days...) came looking for me. I was enjoying the view upstairs in the scenic dome observation car Banff Park on the rear of our 17 car streamliner (with only one ex-CN blue car, all the rest were ex-CP...) powered by an A-B-B set of F-units. After welcoming me aboard VIA as a visiting railroad official we talked for awhile about both passenger railroads. Just before he left he told me that when we got to the stop at North Bend, BC that I should look out a left (canyon side) dutch door close to and in the direction of the dining car and I would see something "interesting." So an hour or so later, as I made my way forward to have dinner at dusk I stopped at the vestibule just behind the diner. Sure enough, up ahead there were about a half dozen very LARGE dogs standing by the dining car pantry door. One of the dogs was on his hind legs with his paws up at the bottom of the door. What were they there for you may ask??? Well, in 1986 VIA served a wonderful, fresh-cooked BONE-IN Prime Rib (with typical Canadian-style horseradish hot enough to start a UP Gas Turbine!), and what did they do with the left-over bones? Well, now you know why the dogs in North Bend were so big... The VIA supervisor told me that the local dogs met the train every evening to get those meaty bones, since the eastbound schedule had the Canadian passing through there right in the middle of dinner service. VIA had great food in those days, and those dogs had good taste...

I would never have believed either story if I hadn't seen one on the TV and the other in person! As a side note, while having dinner along the Thompson River further east in the long twilight of a Canadian summer evening, I just happened to glace out the window and saw a westbound CN freight across the river. The power for that freight was an all-too-common SD40, but it was leading two rebuilt CN F-7A units. That was the last time I ever saw an F-unit in regular freight service on any class one railroad in North America... A memorable trip indeed, my first in Canada, which included a cab-ride in an FP-7 compliments of CP Rail and VIA from Banff to Field over Kicking Horse Pass and through the Spiral Tunnels.

I hope this was of interest to those who read this column, and if anyone has more information, either about the "Depot dogs in North Bend, BC" or the dog in Livingston in 1979, I would love to learn more about either. Also, the animal/pet stories dealing with railroads are great and I would love to hear more...

A special thanks to all of you on this part of TO sharing your experiences railroading...

Best wishes,

ShastaDaylight

Then of course there was the infamous "Shep" in Fort Benton, Montana on the Great Northern, a real tear jerker immortalized with a memorial statue.

http://www.fortbenton.com/shep.html

I remember reading the article about the dog on the North Coast Hiawatha back when I lived in that neck of the woods in 1979, when the NCH was discontinued.  Only I thought it was Bozeman, not Livingston, but since you are probably about the same age as I am, you know how memory gets...

Back in the 50's the DL&W Phoebe Snow in Owego, NY had followers.

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This is kind of a time-honored tradition that used to be seen many times throughout America, I'm sure.

That diner and those lightweight cars were near brand-new as of the date on that newspaper.

In the late 70's when Burlington Northern still furnished train crews for Amtrak, I occasionally would catch the NCH off the Livingston extra board as Brakeman or Conductor. 
Indeed there was a beagle I think that would meet the train at Bozeman (25 miles West of Livingston).  As you said the dog knew which side of the depot the diner would be on, and was rewarded with a treat from the diner crew.​  When BN put a curve speed restriction on the Amtrak SDP40's, the train was always late, but the dog seemed never to miss it's treat.

Tim L

Thanks ShastaDaylight for starting all these interesting stories. We had our yard cat in San Diego.

Larry