Canadian Railroads > Questions about CP's former helper station at Rogers, BC

Was this considered a desirable job for crews?  If not, how was the misery shared among the crews?  Were they required to stay a specific number of days before being relieved?  Was Revelstoke the crew base for the Rogers helper station?  

It was a highly desirable job. It was part of the work out of Revelstoke. The "pushers" were based at a variety of locations over the years, Rogers Pass on the original route, then Glacier on the Connaught tunnel route. In steam days, they ran east to Beavermounth and west to Albert Canyon.  At some point, through arbitration, conductor pilots were eliminated on runs of 40 miles or less. When the Mica Dam was constructed on the Columbia River in the late 1960's, the pusher crews relocated to Beavermouth to a large construction camp. Later, when a new grade was built above the reservoir behind the dam, the pusher crews relocated to Rogers.

The crew on the Rogers pushers consisted of two engineers, who changed off between runs being the ground man or the man at the controls (because the job was eliminated in 1988 ,I don't think a woman ever worked the pushers).

A "Basic Day" (100 miles) consisted of two pushes up to Stoney Creek, plus "initial terminal time", the time on duty waiting for the first "push" to show up. Usually, there was enough traffic to earn two or sometimes three basic days in a 24 hour period.  In Canada, the maximum milage an operating employee in freight service on slow track was 3800 miles per month. The pusher engineers would make this in two weeks. While the incumbent was off for miles, other engineers could "work the vacancy" if it was over ten days. Shorter vacancies were worked off the engineers spare board. Over the years, there were always parts of the engineers seniority district where the traffic was in decline. Because the Rogers pushers included a bunkhouse and a cookhouse with a cook, engineers from distant terminals could work there without having to buy a house in Revelstoke.

In steam days, there were many pusher districts, and a series of work rules and arbitraries remained in the collective agreements of the UTU and BLE to pay the crews on the freight and passenger trains a supplement for being involved in pusher operations.  Also, these rules included "doubling' (breaking the train into smaller portions so they could climb designated "hills") .

The freight crews would received a 22 mile supplement for being pushed up Rogers "Hill" , or 15 for being pulled up the hill.

Thank you for the prompt and thorough reply.  Having spent many yeaars in US railroad labor (labour north of the border) relations, I am familiar with the terms you use.  The term "pusher" service is used on some railroads in the US, mainly eastern.  In my world it was "helper" service, but when I refer to the Rogers operation I will use "pusher".

I think Trains magazine had an article on the pusher station in 2008 or so, maybe December?
The engineers were all old guys and I think at least one had his wife with him in the bunkhouse.

I think all of the "regulars" on the Rogers have passed on. Many were Kettle Valley Division engineers who had seen their work vanish over the years. Penticton, their home terminal was a desirable place to live, and having those pusher jobs at Rogers allowed them to stay in their homes.

I occasionally worked it as a spare board engineer. When the freight traffic was busy, the pusher assignments were busy. During those times, it was eat,sleep and work. We were well fed on that job.

There were some minor challenges living there. In those days before cell phones, phoning home involved paying CP long distance charges for the single phone on the property. There was no TV reception and intermittent AM radio reception.

When there was a major hockey or football game happening, great lengths were made to get some radio reception. Usually, this involved driving out of the valley by truck, but when the access road was closed, in a scene reminiscent of a "Mr Bean" episode, lengths of copper wire were attached to a portable radio,

Each bedroom was attached to a dispatchers phone, which still used the old "selector" system. Every time the RTC (dispatcher) dialed up a station, the selector would sound in the bedrooms. 

The Rogers camp also served as a maintenance of way camp.

This was CP's last regularly assigned pusher district, however, two BC Rail pushers jobs survived later, Pemberton and Tumbler Ridge. The BCR was Provincially regulated, so arbitrators decisions on CP and CN did not apply. I mention this because I think the crew on the BCR pushers was an engineer and a conductor-pilot. After 1974, the method of pay on BC Rail was very different from the CP and CN which had similar working agreements to US railroads. BC Rail was a pay by the hour system, with overtime after 8 hours. The BCR pushers were similarly high in seniority to the CP ones.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/25/20 14:51 by eminence_grise.