On the unspeakable subjects:
I had spent the better part of a summer filling in for a regular trainman at
an 'outpost' terminal an hour and a half from my home terminal of Toronto. I
won't get any more specific than that, in order to preserve some anonimity.
It was the first time meeting the conductor of our train, a man that many
have commented, to be very smart as well as congenial and a conductor on
which many spare engineers, operators and trainmen could depend for guidance
in their job. As I began my first tour of duty on his train, he asked me to
write my name in the train register. I began to spell it to him, thinking
that was the question he needed answered, but he quickly interupted me, and
holding out the pen, repeated his request that I write it down in the
register and I did.
From then on, only he, would enter my name in the register.
For most of the next month I accompanied him into the station at an away
from home terminal and sometimes noticed that he would pay particular
attention watching the operator copy orders and clearances the same way he
observed me writing my name.
At our home terminal, he would pick up our orders from the window, and with
just a glance, know what was on for the day and the plans would flow out to
us.
I thought about some of the quips and mannerisms long after I had been
displaced by the regular trainman, and I have since suspected that he did not
know the alphabet but that he had some ingenious system of reading train
orders that I have no concept of.
I relate this to you all because of a recent uncertainty of what does and
what does not pertain to railroading on the Canadian Pacific Railway, and
language.
Once,when I hopped aboard 929's consist, destination Obico, train orders
had been left behind from Montreal, en francez. After perusing them for
awhile, I thought about the responsibility of getting every word and its
meaning just right or you can have a disaster on your hands. It would take
alot more patience, and time than I have, with my limited education of the
French language.
Today, I copy authorizations and clearances with Rail Traffic Controllers
who were not only thrown into a new job to learn, but to do it (for some) in
a language that is not even their first language. Laurels for these Brothers'
patience, perserverence, and with the excellence that is absolutely required.
And Laurels to that conductor that I once knew to be one of the best, without
being able to read a single word!
As always, I ramble
Paul Bellis
