Page 2 - Remembering the "Judique Flyer"

ISSUE : Issue 19

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1978/6/1

one going to Inverness in the evening. Two freight trains • one going up I guess about 1 o'clock and the other going down 2:30 or so. And there'd be an extra be? side that, if they were shipping coal. Gussy: The mines were going. The farmers had to get their products to the market. You take now at that time at every station there'd be 10 to 12 to 15 cans of cream. That went Tuesday and Friday. Then they were shipping calves away from here. Hughie Dan: And there were oil cars on the trains, hauling in oil for the public • gasoline and all that. Gussy: Then there'd be so much pit tim? ber shipped. The pit timber was what the country fellows did. So much of the pit timber went to Sydney to the Dominion Coal Company. Some more went for the mine in Inverness. And we'd be down there in the • forties with our loads on the sleighs, waiting to see if the cars were going to come in for the lumber. And you'd be fighting for a car at the time, shipping pulp wood, shipping pit timber. Hughie Dan: Men did it all the way down the line till you got to Inverness. Well, they worked in the mines. But we all cut pit timber in the wintertime, loaded it by rail a;nd shipped it. Gussy:And then you* waited for your returns. And you went to the store and you purchased your gro? ceries on credit till the returns came for the pit timber. And very seldom you got any money for it. And then there were passangers. At that time there was no way of travelling only by buggy • so the train was an awful im? provement. Sometimes I've seen them with 5 and 6 coaches on here, when I was a kid. And them loaded. You ought to be here Christmas Eve when the fellows would come with their loads df liquor. They went to Hawksbury to get their booze for Christ? mas. Coming off and fighting and every? thing else. That wasn't so hellish long ago, I remember 1952 • I'm sure there were 60 came off the train at Judique • after being fighting up in Hastings and all a- long the run. Hughie Dan: That passenger train, she left Inverness in the morning about 7 o'clock and she went through on a timetable • and she stopped at every station and she was dead on time. There might be 5 minutes or so • same as any train today. Gussy: But at the last of it, it did take hours and hours to go from Inverness to Port Hastings, But not at first. You could set by it. We used to ship cream to the creamery at Port Hawksbury, and you had to be there at the station quarter to 8 or the train was gone, (Were there any wrecks?) Hughie Dan: There were a lot of train wrecks, but most of them not real serious, Gussy: No. She'd just go off the track. But the worst wreck that I think was here was the time that Philpott was killed. The one at Judique Harbour. There was a washout. They were coming up and he was a strange driver on the road • he wasn't used to this road • the old drivers would know where the bad'spots were. But this was after an awful storm Housekeeping Units Available Camping Supplies Gifts Groceries PIPER'S Restaurant and Trailer Court INDIAN B R O 0 K, on the Cabot Trail the college of cape breton Make your trip to Cape Breton all the more memorable with souvenir copies of two great record albums: GLEIMDALE 77 - the fabulous festival of fiddlers recorded live at Glendale. A symphony of sound as 150 fiddlers play a classic collection of Cape Breton jigs, reels, strathspeys, hornpipes, marches and clogs. BOTH ALBUMS ARE AVAILABLE AT ALL GIFT CENTRES AND MUSIC STORES THROUGHOUT CAPE BRETON Also available this summer: THE RISE & FOLLIES OF CAPE BRETON ISLAND - The hottest LP in Cape Breton's history ... an exciting, funny and warm re? cording of a very special music and comedy show ... be sure you take home your copy of "THE FOLLIES." PATTERSON'S HISTORY OF VICTORIA COUNTY - A colourful history of Victoria County written in 1885 that is a must for anyone with roots there . . . includes photographs and index of first settlers names . . . hardbound. ALBUMS AND BOOK ARE PRODUCTIONS OF THE COLLEGE OF CAPE BRETON PRESS

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