Hello from Saskatchewan.


F

Fisher

Member
Sorry guys i jumped right into the forums and didn't introduce myself. I tend to be a bit introverted at times. I am 57 years , and live in Regina Sk.i grew up in a CNR train station in Rhein Sk when i was 5 till i was 15. My Dad was the station agent there. The strain station was very basic, it had electricity, no running water or flush toilets, there was a 2 hole outhouse in the back, and a medieval metal can for a toilet upstairs that you only used in the winter time. lol I hauled drinking water every day from the hotel across the street. There were 2 oil burning stoves to get heat from, one in the living quarters, and the other in the waiting room. There were wooden grates cut in the floor, and heat rose to get heat upstairs. When it was too cold in the winter, we would go to someones house to stay warm.

We caught rain water all summer for bathing and washing clothes, and in the winter, the train would drop off large blocks of ice from a lake someplace, we would chip it off in chunk put it in tubs on the oil burning stove then in a 50 gallon drum in the waiting room. There was a telegraph key there when we first moved in, my dad tried to teach me the coding when i was little. There was a black rotary dial phone as well, lol and we would put pennies behind the fuses when they would blow if we had too. I am amazed we didn't die in a fire in that place. In 1976 or 77 the station was sold, and one of the locals bought it and took it to the lake, and turned it into a cabin, i saw it once after that and that was the last time.

The picture is from 1971, that is myself, my sister ,cousin and our family dog on the platform.
 

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Welcome aboard!
Thats a great story, takes me back to my days at the cottage by the tracks!
I believe the tracks are long gone from Rhein.
Um, you have running water in Regina now, right? (sorry, Manitoba joke, couldn’t resist,) ;)
 
Very interesting story. Living in a station as a kid would be cool and unforgettable! I liked the photo and saved it to my RR pics. I frequented a small freight station in my youth, as my Dad was good friends with the station master. I rode my mini bike there and watched them move freight and of course the trains! Ah - fond memories!
 
Thank you for the welcome, everyone. One thing for sure, growing up like i did, sure makes you humble and appreciate everything i have today that i have worked hard to achieve.
 
Living in the train station was pretty cool, the train was like 10 feet from my bedroom, i faced the tracks. After a while you never heard it, and slept right through it. I had the pleasure of hanging out with the section men, they would roll up in those little railroad speeder's, i called them jigger cars. There were a couple spurs that they would stop in front of, pull out two long poles insert them into slots along the side, then they would lift and turn the speeder and get it off the main line.

I remember once one of the men was cleaning the spark plug, and i hit the starter button. LOLOL he chased me down the tracks back to the station. They did all the grass burning etc and major maintenance on the tracks and around the train station. I used to cut the grass that was about it.We had a lot of property, an entire town block if i recall.

Living there also gave me a world of entertainment, as we had a front row to downtown. the bar was right across the street on main street. I got an education early in life. The town monument was right there as well as a large parking area, all the cool kids would park their cars there play rock music and drink beer. I would be up early every morning at 5 yrs old looking to empty bottles or loose change around the bar steps. Shit $1.00 got you a big bad of candy from the Lucky Dollar store. Back when a moe joe was 1/2 cent candy you got two for a penny.

We would get a shit ton of snow there every winter, and we would climb the grain elevator annex steps and jump off into the snow banks, we were bullet proof and nobody died. In the spring we would drag grain doors that they would use to cooper up box cars to hold grain over to the low area of town that filled up with water every year and we would go rafting. Man we would get a good belt licken for that, but what the hell it was a blast.

Was nothing to be 5-6-7 years old, grab your moms good spaghetti strainer and walk a mile down the tracks to the culverts to catch minnows and tadpoles. Man there would be hundreds of huge green frogs everywhere.

We would get all the towns kids together and play hide and seek, day or night, we would use the entire downtown, kids would be in the box cars, grain elevators etc, was a hoot the town monument was home free.

I remember dad standing out on the platform with this large bamboo hoop with the engineers orders, then the train would come by the guy had his arm out the window and would go by grab the orders off the hoop and drop off the correct amount of cars to the right elevator .

Thats all for now. Sheldon.
 
Fisher said:
Living in the train station was pretty cool, the train was like 10 feet from my bedroom, i faced the tracks. After a while you never heard it, and slept right through it. I had the pleasure of hanging out with the section men, they would roll up in those little railroad speeder's, i called them jigger cars. There were a couple spurs that they would stop in front of, pull out two long poles insert them into slots along the side, then they would lift and turn the speeder and get it off the main line.

I remember once one of the men was cleaning the spark plug, and i hit the starter button. LOLOL he chased me down the tracks back to the station. They did all the grass burning etc and major maintenance on the tracks and around the train station. I used to cut the grass that was about it.We had a lot of property, an entire town block if i recall.

Living there also gave me a world of entertainment, as we had a front row to downtown. the bar was right across the street on main street. I got an education early in life. The town monument was right there as well as a large parking area, all the cool kids would park their cars there play rock music and drink beer. I would be up early every morning at 5 yrs old looking to empty bottles or loose change around the bar steps. Shit $1.00 got you a big bad of candy from the Lucky Dollar store. Back when a moe joe was 1/2 cent candy you got two for a penny.

We would get a shit ton of snow there every winter, and we would climb the grain elevator annex steps and jump off into the snow banks, we were bullet proof and nobody died. In the spring we would drag grain doors that they would use to cooper up box cars to hold grain over to the low area of town that filled up with water every year and we would go rafting. Man we would get a good belt licken for that, but what the hell it was a blast.

Was nothing to be 5-6-7 years old, grab your moms good spaghetti strainer and walk a mile down the tracks to the culverts to catch minnows and tadpoles. Man there would be hundreds of huge green frogs everywhere.

We would get all the towns kids together and play hide and seek, day or night, we would use the entire downtown, kids would be in the box cars, grain elevators etc, was a hoot the town monument was home free.

I remember dad standing out on the platform with this large bamboo hoop with the engineers orders, then the train would come by the guy had his arm out the window and would go by grab the orders off the hoop and drop off the correct amount of cars to the right elevator .

Thats all for now. Sheldon.
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Welcome Sheldon
 
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