Canadian Railroads > A smile and a wave

There are two things that stood out to me as I scanned this slide of BCR caboose 1868 at what I believe to be Glen Fraser, BC 5-29-82. I simply wrote "north of Lillooet" on the slide mount. 1) How clean this caboose is. My guess it had recently been shopped and repainted. 2) But more important is the smile and wave from the crewman up in the cupola. BCR crews were really that friendly. With no more cabooses and locomotive tinted windows almost always closed that interaction seems to have been lost in today's railroading. Sometimes it's only that "toot-toot" from the engineer as the head end passes that brings that interaction back to life.

Brian Ambrose
Renton, WA

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Great photo.

The iconic caboose, the cheery crew and the tremendous scenery were definite hallmarks of that great regional operation.

t4p.

thanks Brian....at the ripe old age of 78 I still get a bit of a rush track side at ORHC while brush cutting or litter/security patrol when I get a toot and a wave from a passing UP or Amtrak...my take is that most crews are still friendly to us fans........and yes, some need to slide their windows open to wave.   Arlen

what a great image.  you captured a friendly crew member in what was once a great job in railroading............

66

Definitely a recent repaint.  That style COTS panel (four panel layout) was only used during parts of 1981-82. 

Looks like Taffy Duffen before he went to passenger service.

Most everyone up there was very friendly. I even ran into Trainmaster Kelly Roland spying on train crews once and
he was friendly too!

Great place, Great scenery, and Great People!

Regards, Jim Evans
 

Crisp shot, and I really like the rounded corners of the cupola.
Fred