In those days, typically the train crew cooked and slept in their assigned caboose, and there would be a small bunkhouse for the engine crew.
The stopover locations would have commercial facilities including at least some sort of general store, a beer parlour with rooms on the second floor and a gas station. The main street included a restaurant serving "Chinese and Western cuisine". Shaunavon was a fairly major railway point and is still a decent sized town with full facilities
Manyberries still had some commercial activity last time I was there, although the railway east of Foremost had been long abandoned. East of Manyberries towards Saskatchewan there is barely a trace of the villages that used to exist.
Wow, what an experience. There was actually a hotel and restaurant at all these places? What was the track speed overall?
Mark Meyer
i really enjoyed the Forty Mile article. In 1967, the CPR gave me a Centennial gift: ride yard jobs and wayfreights from Revelstoke to Port Arthur for a cost study. We would hit a division point for a week at a time and cover all jobs. I rode with the crew from Lethbridge to Shaunavon, a 5-day job that tied up at Manyberres, Val Marie, Notokue and Sahunavon before a straight-shot return to Lethbridge on Friday. We ran as an extra each day, but the work was based on the old mixed-train timetables. "From Abbey to Zorra via Bagdad" is a good reference.
The Conductor, Johnny Walker, told me stories of his time in a Canadian Railway Operating Battalion during WWII.
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