Fifty years of anything is definitely a rarity let alone 50 years of service or work in one field yet for New Hazelton resident Winston Leary, it’s been 50 great years of a job he loves and he isn’t ready to hang up the axe anytime soon.
A few months ago , on April 24, Leary celebrated five decades of working for CN as a track maintenance worker. Some high ranking officials came up to congratulate the dedicated worker, take him out for dinner and present him with a nice SLR camera and lens. While this is a rare occasion for any field of work, it is the first time in Canada anyone who does this line of work has crossed the 50 year threshold and is still going strong. But for Leary, it’s been a pleasure and is still a job he enjoys to this day.
Now working as a foreman on the track in New Hazelton and responsible for the entire line from Smithers to Kitwanga, he said he has seen a lot of changes over the years but one thing that hasn’t changed is his love for his job.
“I wasn’t in school that long and back then education wasn’t a really important thing and there wasn’t much to do,” he said. “So it was the railroad or logging and I ended up working for CN. When I started there used to be sections every 10 15 miles and there were two or three of us in charge of it.”
Years ago, there were also hundreds of little stations and there were ones in Bulkley Canyon, South Hazelton, New Hazelton, Skeena Crossing, Seaton, Moricetown, Evelyn and Smithers but due to cutbacks and changes in the way that CN works most of those old stations are no longer in use or even standing. However, for Leary, they were his stepping stones.
“I started in the Bulkley Canyon section and then I bid for a permanent position and ended up in Switftwater for a few months and then to Alpeiror for a few months before I bid back and got South Hazelton which used to be a big station there,” he said. “They used to have three guys in each place but now it’s down to three of us this year to cover 73 miles.”
The increase in track sections for the workers is feasible Leary said, because of the advances in technology and equipment.
“Things are better now as the rail beds are a lot better and you don’t ride on a motor car anymore,” he explained. “We have nice vehicles now which is a big help because in the motor cars all you had was a window in front and it was belt driven which means it became very cool in the winter.”
In fact Leary gave his old motor car, also known as a Speeder, to the District of New Hazelton which is now on display in Allen park.
“They were looking for a caboose but I told them all I had was a motor car that I was going to fix up and use it once in awhile,” he said. “So they bought that instead.”
As for the job of a track worker itself, that too has changed quite a bit but although it is still a very physical job, it’s one of the things he loves.
“Back then when we changed ties and they say you should be able to change 10 ties a day per man,” he said. “That was done with a pick and shovel and you had to pull the spikes out, lift the track, pull up the plates and dig it out and back then it was gravel where now we have crushed rock which is easier to work with. It was a lot of physical work and I didn’t mind it, I enjoyed it. There was a lot of variety too which really appealed to me because back then if you had to work in a milll you had to pile wood all day and I got to fix fences, change ties, shovel snow, (done lots of that), clean switches, we even had to deal with wildlife. If a train hit a moose we would go and put it down and take it off the track. Sometimes back then we had to fix fences for the farmers to keep cows out but now CN supplies the farmers and they have to do it.”
Things were way different in how we used to work to. We used to use a pick and hammer for changing ties but now we have big gangs that come in and change up to 5,000 ties a day. I have actually never seen them work and it’s a lot of machinery. They have all the machines on the flat cars and then they all go out on the trains with over a 100 men. There is a rail gang in Moricetown which does the rails and it’s a smaller crew than the tie changing gang. They also use CWL track now (Continuos Welded Rail) and it comes in 1/4 mile sections and then welders come in and weld it all in place.
The biggest thing is track time and now a day as there is a lot more trains running. Sometimes they will shut it down for a whole day and they take priority and then there is times when you just can’t get on the track.”
“It’s lot better now,” he said. “Back then if you had a broken rail and got a call in the middle of the night you got on the speeder, loaded up a rail on the push cart and you would take it down the rail. But now we have fancy trucks that can do it so if its cold you can get warm which just wasn’t an option back then.
While seasons were always a factor in the job, for Leary one particular season was worse than others.
“Spring time is a bad time of year,” he said. “If you get a lot of rain you can get flooding and washouts and mudslides. Sometimes mud can stop a train other times they made it through. Now trains are a mile or two long but back then they only had around 40 cars.”
Yet despite the weather and hard work over the years, when it comes to his career with CN, there isn’t anything he would change.
“I did so many different things and I enjoyed it all,” he said with enthusiasm. “If I had to do it all over again I would do a few things different but I wouldn’t change my career. I still enjoy working and don’t mind getting up in the morning and I still don’t mind the physical work. I know some of my friends used to work around here for CN but it wasn’t enough money for them and they left. But if you work all the time at least you get a pay check every two weeks and I like the outdoor stuff and you could even bid on different places and go all over the world to work.”
In fact, Leary said he would highly recommend a career with CN and he knows they are always looking for new recruits.
“I know they are looking for people and maintenance people like myself and even conductors,” he said. “I think CN is a great career to get in to and there are so many great futures in it and it’s a big company and the benefits are great. If a guy doesn’t mind work it’s a great job and the train crews make really good money now a days but they do work weird hours, or you could be an engineer, a signal operator, machine operator and more. There is a lot of variety really.”
As for what the future holds for Leary, well mandatory retirement was bumped from 65 to 71 and he has no urge to hang up his hard hat yet.
“They say it’s 50 years and they’re still counting,” he said. “But I still enjoy my job and will keep going as long as I can.”