Page 1 - Working on the S&L; Railroad Part One

ISSUE : Issue 28

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1981/6/1

Working on the S & L Railroad PartOtA- Introduction Dan F. MacKinnon, Sydney: I'll tell you something happened in Boston. The S & L was a separate company. One time, they'd give you a pass over the old ICR, we used to call it, the CNR and the CPR, they al? ways gave us a pass. Well, I went away, went to Boston this trip, and I applied for passes. I got a pass for the CNR and the CPR and the Maine-Central--and no pass for the Boston-and-Maine, that's between Maine and Boston. So anyway, I paid my fare there--It was only a slight fare, 2 dollars and something; between the two of us, 4-something. So I said to myself, I'm going to find out why we don't get a pass on the Boston-and-Maine. So I went down to the railroad station in Boston. Are you ac? quainted in Boston? You know where the North Station is--that's where the office was at that time. I went there and I asked about the pass. And the S & L is only a small railroad--but it's a standard gauge all right, 4 feet 8% inches. And there was a girl in the office there and she was.,, well, she was nice, but she was kind of up? pity, you know. She was in what they call the Pass Bureau. And the man that was in charge was down in Maine fishing and the superintendent of the Boston-and-Maine was down fishing with him--and I had all the other passes, you know. And why couldn't I get a pass on the Boston-and-Maine? She said, what did you expect that for? I showed her, I showed her the Maine-Central pass--why wouldn't the Boston-and-Maine give me the pass? Well, like I say, she was kind of uppity. First of all, she told me about this S & L anyhow--she got a great big book. It was a timetable for all the railroads in America. And there was the S & L in the middle of it. Happened that this was 1937. So she opened to the S- & L. "Aw, small little thing there. Aw," she said to me, "that S & L, it's only a small little railroad." "Yes, it is, that's right," I said, "but it's just as wide as the Boston-and-Maine." S & L CONTINUED ON THE NEXT PAGE CAPE BRETON'S MAGAZINE, NUMBER TWENTY-EIGHT WRECK COVE, CAPE BRETON, NOVA SCOTIA SECOND CLASS MAIL -- REGISTRATION NUMBER 3014 (1)

Cape Breton's Magazine