Cape Breton's Magazine

got special at? tention: a speci? al man to clean her and look af? ter her in the" evening. She was kept in a stall in the CN round? house in Sydney. She was the reg? ular train from 1900 to about 1950, Sydney to Louisbourg--and that's the one the, officials of the Dominion Coal Company travelled on from Sydney to Glace Bay, and the help and the clerks.'' C"3T give it a little touch, and he'd go too much, your hands'd get jammed. (What would your hands be doing in there?) Your hands had to hold the link. You put one end of the link in and put a pin in. Then you back, the rest of the train was coming back, you had to get that link in and drop the pin. And the wintertime, you'd get the mitt caught. Jesus, you couldn't go out and hold those pins in the winter, frosty days your hands would stick to them. You've got a big mitt on--and it was clum? sy, see? I never got pinched myself. There were only a few of those cars left when I came on. They changed to the automatic coupler. (And that's why you have all your fingers.) Right. And those old link-and- pin cars, the coal cars, were 10-tons; then they built 15-ton cars--and they had automatic couplers on them. So once in a- while we'd have to handle some cars with the link-and-pin--but not too often. Fin? ally, the men got after the company. They were growling all the time, and for the compensation the company was paying--it paid them to get rid of them. The work would come in bunches. You'd work like hell for a month or so, then you'd be off for a month or so. First, I was brake- man. Brakeman rides everywhere. You get on a switching engine over the collieries-- you're out on the footboard, or in the cab. You go around the colliery to take empties up, you get in the cab. Or if you had a big train of empties going. Sometimes you couldn't see around the curves, putting 30 empty cars into the pit--you'd have 2 or 3 Lobster Kettle Wliarfsidtt R?Ktouroiil * • Steamed Clams, Boiled Lobsters. Chowder Seafood at Its Best' Hav?nsid? Road • Louisbourg. Nova Scotia * Phona 733-2877 Look for us enroute to the Lighthouse! Woolbur Tannery TANNERS - WHOLESALERS - RETAILERS Sheepskin and Deerskin Products Open 7 Days a Week BLUES MILLS on Trans-Canada Highway 105 R. R. 1, River Denys, Inverness County Cape Breton, Nova Scotia BOE 2Y0 Tel. 756-2788 KARL REICHEL, Mgr. J. A. Young & Son For all your travel needs*. American Express Travel Service We're the all-around travel*gent • with hundreds of American Express Company, subsidiary and Representative Travel Service offices to help you here and all around the world. And with an all-around package of services no one else can match: • Book plane tickets • Arrange complete vacations • Sell, cash or refund American Express? Travelers Cheques • Offer complete business travel service • Help at destination We want to be your travel agent. • Reserve hotel space • Provide rental cars and limousines • Provide American Express pay-later plans (for American Express? Cardmembers) • A unique combination of travel financial services J.A.Young&Son; r'% 181 Charlotte Street Sydney, N.S. 539-'800 Young's Travel in Woolco Woolco Department Store Sydney River 5'2-5553 ASSOO' Oon't leave home without u;