Wally Michasiw started working for the railway in 1952. Through his long career he worked on freight trains and passenger trains, but according to an interview in the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix in 1988, he liked the passenger work better. He was working as a baggage man then, shortly before his retirement in 1990.
Wally’s son Brian contacted me, looking for a home for some of his father’s paperwork and other railway mementos. Among the items were two Canadian National Railways envelopes, with “Copy Mail Report Train No 31 + 32” written on the outside.
Inside each envelope was a time report sheet, and several pages of form CNR-1990, “MAIL TRIP REPORT”. The instructions say to “MAKE IN TRIPLICATE” so presumably this was one of the three copies – perhaps one of the copies, made using carbon paper.
Here’s page 1 (of 4) recording the mail dropped from train 32 on the way from Saskatoon, SK to Hudson Bay, SK.
Unfortunately there is no date on the mail trip reports – what the heck, CNR? – but from the time report sheets I can guess these are from the mid to late 1950s.
In this particular report, the batch of mail that started on the train in Saskatoon was dropped off at a few locations along the way. Mail to Ridgedale, for example, was dropped at Melfort and presumably trucked from there by a friendly Royal Mail Canada person (It wasn’t called Canada Post until 1981).
It must have been quite busy, handling these mail bags on the train… and tiring, as Wally worked almost 11 hours on this run.
The Route
Off to the timetables!
In April 1956, CN trains 31 and 32 ran three times per week between Saskatoon and Hudson Bay. The train is shown in the timetable in two different places, and it’s confusing because on the table above, train 31 reads from top to bottom, but on table 175 below, train 31 reads up.
Anyway, train 32 was scheduled to leave Saskatoon at 08:35 on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It passed through Melfort to Reserve, SK. There was a wye here and the train turned northeast to Hudson Bay.
I’ve studied the public timetable until my eyes crossed and I just can’t figure out when it was supposed to arrive in Hudson Bay. So… off to the September 26, 1954 CNR employee timetable #50 for Saskatchewan, and #51 for Manitoba.
Following train 32, here are the scheduled times in the employee timetable:
- Saskatoon 08:50 to Loop Jct. 08:57 (Sasktoon terminal)
- Loop Jct. 08:57 to Warman 09:15 (Duck Lake subdivision)
- Warman 09:15 to Lannaw 09:37 (Aberdeen subdivision)
- Lannaw 09:37 to Melfort 12:45 (Meskanaw subdivision, abandoned)
- Melfort 13:15 to Crooked River 14:45 (Tisdale subdivision)
- Crooked River 15:05 to Reserve 17:10* (Chelan subdivision, abandoned)
- Reserve 18:15* to Canora 20:20 (Assiniboine subdivision)
Even in the employee timetable, trains 31 and 32 don’t go to Hudson Bay. So how did Mr. Michasiw end his trip in Hudson Bay? I haven’t figured that one out.
Getting Paid
People need to get paid. On November 5, 1958, Wally was in Regina and filed this “TIME RETURN OF TRAINMEN” form #CNR-8520-TP to collect pay for taking a pair of Railliners (D452 and D103) from Regina to North Regina – 50 minutes (and 17 seconds?).
Both of these Railliners had bad luck. RDC-4 D452 was only a year and a half old at that time, according to the CNRHA web site, but was involved in a wreck at The Pas, MB in October 1969.
It was “predeceased” by RDC-1 D103, which was wrecked in Mirror, AB in August 1969 (CNRHA).
I couldn’t find a photo of D103, but here’s a photo of sister D105 in Truro, NS in July 1961, by Harold Jenkins courtesy of the Middleton Railway Museum.
Saskatchewan and Time Zones
One thing to note in the times above is that the train appears to have sat in Reserve, SK for an hour and five minutes. I don’t think it did. I think there was a time change.
You see, back in 1912 Saskatchewan passed a law calling for the use of standard time.. but left the choice of time zone up to the municipalities. This meant there was a mosaic of times in Saskatchewan – some on Mountain time, some on Central, some following Daylight Saving Time and some not.
This is why there are “M.T.” and “C.T.” notations in the table above, showing time changes.
Fortunately, in 1966 the Saskatchewan government passed “The Time Act” which set most of Saskatchewan onto Central Standard Time (no Daylight Saving Time). Only the area around Lloyminster and Swift Current follow Alberta’s time.
This is such fascinating stuff. It’s amazing how it blossomed from the gift of paperwork and I sure enjoyed your analysis notes. Thank you.
Interesting to see the forms to get paid. I think of train numbers on today’s railroad. I tend to associate them to dedicated services (for example: 511 moves gypsum during the day and 513 moves gypsum at night.) but I’m learning that those numbers are really more like shifts (for example: 513 has been used as a crew to move light engines from one side of Halifax harbour to the other and nothing more.) So, it is fascinating to see these numbers extrapolated onto larger forms that include adjacent data and tell a more complete story of how to work on the railway for a day.
I love this stuff!
Glad you liked it, Chris! My understanding of train numbers is a bit fuzzy but in today’s Precision Scheduled Railroad I feel like they are more like a time slot on the railway conveyor belt, a space in the flow that can be occupied by a train, or not. I could be way off.
The name Canada Post was actually adopted in 1971 replacing the name Canada Post Office which had been around since 1949. Prior to that it was called Royal Mail Canada. Officially it was know as the Post Office Department and was ran as a government department untill 1981 when Canada Post became a crown corporation. Canada Post had been just a branding prior to 1981. The term Royal Mail Canada was still used to refer to the post office department but hadn’t been really used on branding since the late 40s early 50s. I have seen a few pics of Canada Post vehicles in the 70s in the red and white with blue stripes livery with Canada Post on the sides but had Royal Mail Canada in smaller letters on the door but not all vehicles got that.
Hi Michael, so Canada Post was a brand from 1971 to 1981, and Royal Mail Canada was a brand before 1949, with Canada Post Office used in between? Interesting!