Railroaders' Nostalgia > Long service pass, final trip

By the time I started with the CPR in the 1970's, "Long Service Passes" were discontinued for employees hired on after the 1960's, and even for those with passes, their use was more and more restricted in regards to reservations and accommodation upgrades. Even before Via took over passenger services in Canada, long service passes were eliminated for all employees and pensioners.

A curious feature of the pass on CP was it allowed deceased pass holders to be transported for free in the baggage car, and this happened quite often in the mid-1970's.

One of the operating employee jobs on CP was "train baggageman", and frequently this position was filled by an employee that had a permanent disability.

Even those duties were becoming difficult for one TBM in the territory I worked, and he would fairly consistently "book sick" mid-journey at the point where his job could be filled by a trainman. I had made it known that I didn't mind working the job that others would avoid, and so as a very junior trainman, I frequently worked as train baggageman.

Give the regular baggageman his due, he did take the time to teach me his duties before he hobbled off home (he was the survivor of a serious leg injury, logging truck accident I think)

It was not unusual to see a coffin in the baggage car. "Human Remains" were shipped in a "rough box", a large shipping crate which contained a coffin. I think these were supplied by the undertakers, and were used many times to ship coffins and their contents around Canada. So it was that they had many stickers and labels from past journeys.

They always had a manila envelope secured to the top of the box, unsealed, which contained shipping documents. It was one of the duties of the baggageman to check these documents against a manifest of contents in the baggage car.

One of the attached documents for deceased employees would be the "long service pass" which would be included in the packet and I was required to register the name and pass number to ensure the deceased person was entitled to travel on said pass.

I marveled at the age and job titles some of these passengers had attained.

Only once was I involved with an unloading at a mid point of the run. A hearse and a large group of people hired by the undertaker to carry the coffin from the baggage car would be waiting at the station. A message had been sent to the crew of the passenger train that a body was to be unloaded at that location.

Thanks for sharing. Just another one of the little tidbits that made railroading so interesting in the past.

You story reminded me of one that an old head I worked with told me. He was working a eastbound U.P. passenger train, from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and they were ascending Cima Hill when the baggage car developed a hot journal and they had to set it out. This baggage car, as in your story, contained an occupied casket. For reasons I don't recall, the brakeman, instead of tying the car down, as he should have, merely propped a tie against the low end of the car, lodging the other end in the ground but, when they cut away, the tie fell out of place and off the car went. The hot journal, eventually, ignited, on the runaway car, and it burned to the ground, before reaching Kelso, thus cremating it's sole occupant!

This may be relevant. Or not.

E.O.

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hogheaded Wrote:
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> This may be relevant. Or not.
>
> E.O.


E.O., do you have any info in what year this article was published?

KskidinTx Wrote:
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> hogheaded Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > This may be relevant. Or not.
> >
> > E.O.
>
>
> E.O., do you have any info in what year this
> article was published?

The article was published by the San Francisco Chronicle on June 1, 1909.

-Ed