I just learned that an old friend of 42 years, Harry A. Wright, has passed away. Harry was a Canadian and spent nearly his entire life on Vancouver Island. Born in late 1942, Harry later went to work for Hillcrest Lbr., just like his father George. But Harry also had a fascination for Hillcrest's geared steam locomotives, so it followed that he ended up at age 17 firing for George Grant on Climax 10. When I met Harry in 1967, he was engineer and smaller Climax 9 had been retired. He & I hit it off right away...he had many fine qualities and was easy to like. I used to ride the engine with him while taking leave when I was in the USAF. Hillcrest owner Peter Stone was really tolerant of visitors and being on the engine all day was no problem. Harry used to delight in opening the cylinder cocks when he spotted the tie gang working ahead and watching them all dive into the brush as we went by. There were never any hard feelings. He was well schooled on many subjects and really knew steam and machinery. In the last few years, Hillcrest was only running on Tuesdays and Fridays, the other days he worked on the engine or in the mill, so he knew her well.
I had come up to the Island one Friday and was invited to ride that day. We had already made two roundtrips between the mill @ Mesachie Lake and the E&N intercahnge @ Lake Cowichan. It was payday and we were going to the pub after we tied up. Well, just after passing the One Mile Crossing, Harry stops the Climax out in the woods where we were well out of sight of the highway. The rear footboard was sitting right out over a small creek, so the 4 of us sat on the footboard and looked at the trout while they took turns telling logging stories. After about 40 minutes, Harry decided that we'd "intercoursed the canine" enough and we headed for the mill.
Peter Stone came running out of the office and started to give Harry a bad time for being so late, but he placated Peter by telling him that he had to get under the engine to loosen brake shoes. Turns out, we weren't done for the day yet. We had to run up to Honeymoon Bay and get two loads there and take them to town. It was a wild ride in a really rough engine, but we did make it to the pub before closing.
Harry introduced me to Bob Swanson and Spike Carson as well as other rails and loggers. Last time that we got together was about 3 years ago @ Mineral, WA when we both were guest engineers on the 10 while she steamed for a Winter Photo event. A few years ago, he passed on to me a wonderful collection of logging slides taken by a gent named Jim Brooks, saying that I'd probably enjoy them more than he. This was pretty indicative of just how thoughtful he was.
I am sorry that he's gone now, he was a fine friend.