Praise for Robert Hunt
Corner Boys
“Corner Boys is humorous and enjoyable. It evokes, not just the historic past of a part of a city and an era, but the emotional and psychological past of childhood and adolescence.” — The Newfoundland Quarterly
“This remembrance concerning growing up and ‘knocking around’ with friends around the area of Casey Street/McKay Street/Brazil Street actually compares favourably with Mordecai Richler’s The Street and Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes.”
The Western Star
“This is one of the best books about growing up—and being a kid—that I have ever read. It moved me even more profoundly than This Boy’s Life by Tobias Wolfe.”
The Western Star
Townies
“I found this book a most enjoyable read and very insightful. As I would be referred to in this book as a ‘bayman’ not to be trusted, this book gave me great insight into the lives of townies. At the end of the book I realized that perhaps townies and baymen are more alike than not. I would highly recommend this book—it’s a great read.” — Edwards Book Club
“[Robert Hunt’s] writing is a combination of grittiness and tenderness that rings as true as your friendly neighbour who shovels out your driveway after a snowfall and looks a little embarrassed when you thank him.” — The Northeast Avalon Times
By Robert Hunt
The Bullet
The True Meaning of Christmas
Brazil Street
Townies
Corner Boys
Christmas Treasures
(with Lisa Ivany)
At Heart
(with Lisa Ivany)
Christmas Memories
(with Lisa Ivany)
Flanker Press Limited
St. John’s
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Title: The Bullet : stories from the Newfoundland Railway / Robert Hunt ; with a foreword by Wayne Greenland.
Other titles: Stories from the Newfoundland Railway
Names: Hunt, Robert J., 1949- author. | Greenland, Wayne, writer of foreword.
Description: Includes index.
Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20200227319 | Canadiana (ebook) 20200227718 | ISBN 9781771178099
(softcover) | ISBN 9781771178105 (EPUB) | ISBN 9781771178112 (Kindle) | ISBN 9781771178129 (PDF)
Subjects: LCSH: Newfoundland Railway—History—20th century. | LCSH: Railroads—Newfoundland and Labrador—History—20th century.
Classification: LCC HE2809.N4 H86 2020 | DDC 385.06/5718—dc23
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© 2020 by Robert Hunt
all rights reserved. No part of the work covered by the copyright hereon may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means—graphic, electronic or mechanical—without the written permission of the publisher. Any request for photocopying, recording, taping, or information storage and retrieval systems of any part of this book shall be directed to Access Copyright, The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency, 1 Yonge Street, Suite 800, Toronto, ON M5E 1E5. This applies to classroom use as well.
Printed in Canada
Cover Design by Graham Blair
Flanker Press Ltd.
PO Box 2522, Station C
St. John’s, NL
Canada
Telephone: (709) 739-4477 Fax: (709) 739-4420 Toll-free: 1-866-739-4420
www.flankerpress.com
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We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CBF) and the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, Department of Tourism, Culture, Industry and Innovation for our publishing activities. We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $157 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country. Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien. L’an dernier, le Conseil a investi 157 millions de dollars pour mettre de l’art dans la vie des Canadiennes et des Canadiens de tout le pays.
Dedication
To my father, Edward Hunt, Sr., who worked with the CN coastal boats for many years and then spent several more decades with CN Railway. For forty-four years and a bit more, he worked hard demonstrating dignity and class, leaving his mark in both services during his seventy-eight years on this earth. His service with CN Railway was a wonderful example of his dedication to the railway people in Newfoundland and Labrador and to the company he represented. Every day, he did his job to the best of his ability, loving every minute of it, and he never complained. Never. He was devoted to his work and those with whom he worked.
To my older brother, Edward Hunt, Jr., who also worked with CN for the better part of three summers and on his holidays from school from 1964 to 66. Little did he and I know, when we were young kids, that both of us would one day become a part of history by working on the “Bullet” as she travelled with numerous stops in between from St. John’s to Port aux Basques.
To the hard-working men and women of those rails who gave their love, sweat, and sometimes their lives to CN, serving it well for many years. This book is written for all of them so that they will never be forgotten. I have not met nor worked with a finer, nicer group of people any time, anywhere in my life.
To Mr. Thomas Ricketts, one of Newfoundland’s greatest First World War combat heroes and the youngest recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth Forces. After the war, Mr. Ricketts studied pharmacy and opened a business, Ricketts Drugs, on Water Street across the road from the railroad station in St. John’s. He was one of the most sincere, genuine people you would ever want to meet. His wonderful kindness and soft voice will always be remembered by the railway workers, by my family, and especially by me. He was a true gentleman and a person any young man or women would want to take on as their role model.
To John Croak, who was born in Little Bay, Newfoundland. His family moved to New Aberdeen, Nova Scotia, now called Glace Bay, when he was two years old. John was the first Victoria Cross recipient from Newfoundland, but unfortunately he did not return from the Great War. He gave the supreme sacrifice of his life. On August 8, 1918, in the Battle of Amiens in France, he was shot by machine gun fire after bravely rushing, twice, into enemy positions to help his comrades who were pinned down by enemy fire. Yours and Mr. Ricketts’s heroism will not soon be forgotten.
So many good people! So many good men and women! This book is written for each and every one of you.
Contents
Foreword by Wayne Greenland
Preface
A Day to Remember
The Reid Railway in Newfoundland
My Childhood Dream Becomes a Reality
My First Trip and Meeting Mr. Tommy Ricketts
Up and At ’Em
Two Different Stories of War
Here We Go Again
But You Know There is Always a Bully
To Run a Train Requires Men, Women, and Equipment
The Telegraph, Telephone, and the Railway
CN Men: A Close-Knit Group
Stories of Kindness
Life In and Outside CN
Train Tragedies in Newfoundland
Love and Caring: A CN Trademark
Transporting a Prisoner
The Passing of Tommy Ricketts and My Mother
The End of the Railway in Newfoundland
The Trouters’ Special
The CN Railway Pensioners Association
Acknowledgements
Index
Foreword
by Wayne Greenland, President
CN Pensioners Association of Newfoundland and Labrador
It is with great pleasure that I agreed to write the foreword to Robert Hunt’s new book, The Bullet. Over the past year or so, Robert has met regularly with CN pensioners at our club rooms on Blackler Avenue in St. John’s to collect the personal stories and photos contained of members who worked in widely varied occupations during their railroad careers. Robert made house calls when necessary to include the recollections of those members unable to come to him, leaving no stone unturned in his efforts to include the memories and true feelings of all the workers who wished to have their stories told. To ensure that this book was accurate, Robert came and spoke about his writing progress at our monthly meetings and dropped by to see us at our weekly get-togethers at Mundy Pond Park.
By accurately narrating their stories and memories, Robert has successfully captured and shared with his readers the deep sense of pride that the railway workers had in their work with passengers who rode the “Bullet.” This book offers its readers a previously unrecorded glimpse of the railroaders’ work on the old Newfoundland Railway, and later Canadian National Railway, through the eyes of the employees. Robert is uniquely qualified to write this story. He, his father, and his brother all worked on the trains. Robert knows first-hand what it was like to be called a “railroader.”
A great deal of research was done by the author to demonstrate that men and women equally shared in the work and the history of the Newfoundland Railway. The book has certainly rekindled interest in and shed light on the working day of average men and women in Newfoundland and Labrador of the era.
With this book, Robert has shown to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador the pride, dedication, and determination of railway people. It is an unforgettable book to all of us who worked and rode the rails. I thoroughly enjoyed what he has written in these pages. I would like to thank the author for taking the time to show kindness to us, the people who gave our lives to the Newfoundland railways, by faithfully putting down on paper the memories and feelings of all railway workers.
Wayne Greenland, President
CN Pensioners Association NL
Blackler Avenue, Mundy Pond Park
St. John’s, NL
Preface
From my first day putting pen to paper in 2004, I wished to write a book about my family’s exploits while working with CN Railway. However, I put my railroad book on a back burner for years while I created my memoir trilogy of Corner Boys, Townies, and Brazil Street, stories of growing up in St. John’s in the 1950s and 1960s. Now, after years of compiling notes and stories of working on the rails, I felt that this was the right time to put my CNR experiences down on paper. It is difficult to convey to you how important this book is to me. I wanted to ignite in my readers the same passion that I had deep inside me for this book, which I have held dear to my heart for so many years.
I wanted this book to tell the stories of the daily lives of many Newfoundland railroaders, not just the personal experiences of family and close friends. Putting together a book of this magnitude requires not only memorable events and stories from the author but a great deal of research from so many different sources. Because I worked on the railway with CN, I had personal knowledge from several summers of railroad work, which added much insight into my writing. I also saved photographs from the decades my father worked with the railway. But broader knowledge about the men who gave their lives to CN for those years was not yet within my grasp.
Where to start collecting information and conducting research was a mystery to me until I decided to head down to the old railway terminal on Water Street, which is now the Railway Coastal Museum. It was there at the museum, and later with the CN Pensioners Association, that I found the contacts I had been searching for to put this book together.
When I stepped out of my car and walked on the old departure ramp, I pictured times I spent there with my friend, Malcolm “Dickie” White. Recollections of the things I did while working with CN decades ago started to come back to me. I had not been at the terminal building for years, and as I stood there, memories of riding the rails with my dad came into my mind. As young boys, my older brother Edward and I worked there, and the visit further fuelled my desire to look back, search, and remember.
Upon entering the museum, I spoke to several young people working there before being introduced to Annette Hurley, Collections Manager, who assisted me in finding the information I would need. For that I will be eternally grateful to her. But I needed much more than history. I needed the voices and knowledge of the people who worked on the trains travelling from St. John’s to Port aux Basques to bring the history of the railroad full circle. Again, Annette came to my rescue. She gave me the necessary information to contact President Wayne Greenland and past president Graham Hill of the CN Railroad Pensioners Association in St. John’s. Both men were former railway employees who took time from their schedules to help me. What I learned from them and other men in the association about their days working with CN brought back old stories that I had forgotten. I felt fortunate to be able speak to men who had worked with my father and who shared stories and memories of him that I had not known before.
Wayne invited me to the official home of the railway association located on Blackler Avenue in Mundy Pond Park in St. John’s. There I met with old railroaders and association members such as Dave Boland, who worked directly with my father for years, former director Harold Piercey, Director Charlie Chaytor, another friend of my dad’s, Treasurer Steve Best, and members Gilbert Oakley, Victor Wiseman, and Reg Bowering. They gave me information no research could provide, along with pictures that I would need to complete this book. Sadly, Reg Bowering passed away before I could interview him, but his family was very generous in providing me the stories and memorabilia that they knew Reg would have been pleased to share.
I had an old picture of several men my father worked with. It was taken in one of the dining cars sometime in the 1950s or early 1960s. The photo was in my dad’s papers that he left me when he passed away on July 13, 1990. I looked at that picture and wondered many times who these men were, but the CN pensioners identified all eight of the men who were in the coach that day. That picture is featured here.
My son, Stephen, put me in touch with a young man named J. P. Coady, who had worked with him at Canadian Tire years before. A train historian and a true “railway nut,” J. P. dedicates his free time to researching the history of the Newfoundland and CN Railways. I found him to be a fascinating individual who was well-informed about the railway, its history, and of the veteran railwaymen who had worked there. J. P. is a walking encyclopedia of facts, figures, and stories about both the old and new railways. Many of the pictures in this book can be credited to his in-depth research.
Also, in the process of writing this book I met Ken Pieroway, author of Streetcars of St. John’s, and he was such a tremendous help to me and another wealth of information and knowledge on so many aspects of the CN Railway.
Also, in parts of the book, I reveal some of the talks that I had with Newfoundland’s greatest war hero, Mr. Tommy Ricketts. He befriended me when I was a young man before I left the terminal on Water Street to take my first trip to Port aux Basques with CN Railway, and our friendship grew over the next several years. Usually an hour or two before going on board for each trip, I would walk over to his drugstore across the street and have a chat with him. I didn’t realize the significance of who he was until some time later.
The memories I share in this book are true, at times funny, and always from the heart. The stories contained within, aside from my own, were given to me by the people who had dedicated their lives to CN Railway. I value the time I spent chatting with these wonderful men every Monday evening.
A Day to Remember
It was somewhere in the late 1950s and a hot, muggy day that was turning into late evening when I saw my dad walking up Brazil Square toward our home. My friends and I were outside playing on New Gower Street when I spotted him. At that time, we didn’t have a car. My father never learned how to drive, and we couldn’t afford a car, anyway.
There was nothing odd about him walking up the Square except that he was still in his full work “porter” uniform, minus his CN cap. By full uniform I mean he was wearing the clothes he wore at his job with Canadian National Railways. To me, this was a bit strange. When I spotted him, I knew that I had to follow him home to see what was happening.
I knew that he was not in the habit of wearing his uniform home when his shift was over at the railway on Water Street. He would change first and then come home to us dressed in his regular street clothes. I had only seen him wearing his uniform a few times, and that was when I went down to the railway to sneak into the terminal to see him doing his job as a porter.
But now, here he was, parading through St. John’s and up Brazil Square in full regalia. Undoubtedly, he must have some bad news for my mother. I hoped I was wrong, but I could sense there was something unusual brewing here.
The first thing that entered my mind was that he had lost his job at CN, and in a fit of rage he had walked away with his working clothes still on. But I reasoned that it couldn’t be that, as my father rarely got angry, and he was dedicated and loyal to any place he worked.
I caught up to him and followed at a close distance as he entered our house. Mom asked him the same question I had on my mind. Why he was at home and wearing his full uniform? Looking sad, he stared at her for a brief moment. Of course, both Mom and I were thinking the same worst-case scenarios. Then, a huge smile crossed his face as he told her that he had been given a promotion. He would be making more money each week and have more status in his job! Dad took Mom into his arms and kissed her, explaining that he was now more secure than ever in his job with CN Rail.
That extra money was surely needed. Based on the look of pride on their faces, I guessed he was promoted from junior porter to head porter. My dad, in his bright new uniform, was now among the elite of the working class at the Canadian National Railways. Dad was so happy to receive his new-found wealth that he had apparently forgotten to change out of his old uniform into the new one. What a proud day!
I thought how lucky my four brothers and I were to have a father who had a good full-time job and who could support his family. In those hard economic times, he was lucky to have any job, let alone one of prominence. Jobs in St. John’s were scarce.
My father spent more than forty years with CN, many of them on the coastal service boats, which he started in 1930, and twenty-seven or more with the railway side of the business. He met my mother while working on a coastal boat travelling up the Placentia Bay coastline. Dad worked on many of the steamers in his years there, including the Bar Haven and the Coil. My mom was from the small settlement of Port Royal, Placentia Bay.
When he was offered a transfer to CN Rail from the coastal boats, Dad moved to St. John’s to live. Not one day went by that he didn’t wear his uniform with pride. His dedication to CN was never questioned by people who worked with him. When he went to work every shift, he walked to the terminal with a bounce in his step. You could tell he loved working there. The only part of his job he didn’t enjoy was leaving my mother at home on her own with five boys. From an early age, Mom had had a bad heart, and Dad always worried about her while he was gone across the province every week.