FORTY-FOUR YEARS AGO, in August of 1979, I made a trip up to British Columbia and Alberta to chase and photograph trains. I was joined by my good friend Ron Davis, a Canadian who grew up in southern California but made frequent visits to Canada. Ron managed to befriend a Mr. W. S. Paffard, who happened to be the Assistant Superintendent in Revelstoke for the Canadian Pacific Railway, which, at the time, wanted to be known simply as "CP Rail". Mr. Paffard was gracious enough to type up some letters of introduction for Ron and me (I still have mine packed away in a storage box somewhere) and these magical pieces of paper, when presented to train and engine crews, allowed us to have cab or caboose rides basically anywhere in the territory he governed. We "exercised the option" for either cab or caboose rides on "The Canadian" from Field to Lake Louise, a local that served the Ossoyoos Subdivision from Penticton to Okanagan Falls (now abandoned); a local freight that served the Princeton Subdivision from Spences Bridge to Penticton (now abandoned) with the business car "Van Horne" attached to the rear; and a smattering of general merchandise and coal trains from Golden to North Bend.

I wasn't able to stay in the area as long as Ron and, when it was time for me to return to the U.S., I rode this westbound CPR coal train on August 08 from Revelstoke to Kamloops, where, the following day, I caught a 737 of the now-fallen-flag Pacific Western Airlines to Vancouver, connecting to a couple of 727'S of the now-fallen-flag Western Airlines to get me back to Las Vegas, NV, which is where I was living at the time.

The photo shows the train in the siding at Clanwilliam where we were waiting for an opposing train. I believe the orange highway bridge in the distance has since been replaced by a newer, wider one. The paint scheme on the front of unit 5857 reflects the newer, simplified version that did not have as many diagonal stripes as the lead unit 5807. The class lights above the number boards are now something you don't see on present-day units.

1979 was a different era, where a non-railroader such as myself (I was working for the now-fallen-flag Trans World Airlines at the time) could ride in the cab or caboose of a freight train without government regulatory and national security agencies and corporate legal departments totally freaking out over the prospect.