A Tale of Fire in the Smokebox

Tales From The Grizzly

A Tale of Fire in the Smokebox – September 1945

Phineas Farthing and Fernie Raker were just polishing off their hearty breakfasts in the YMCA cafeteria when Rupert Abergaster came rushing in to ask them to finish up quickly and head over to the Geiranger yard office, where an unscheduled assignment awaited them.

It was the day before Labour Day, a beautiful fall day, Tuesday, 12 September 1945. Phineas and Fernie had been expecting to enjoy part of the day relaxing after breakfast, before they were called to assist an eastbound freight up Trencrom Hill, to Nigel on the Continental Divide and down to Rocky Mountain House (Rocky). Phineas and Fernie had assisted a westbound freight over from Rocky the day before, leaving their assigned engine, No. 3950, a Grizzly Northern 2-8-0 “Consolidation” in the capable hands of hostler Horace Palfreyman for servicing overnight. Phineas and Fernie were based in Rocky and usually handled “pusher” assignments between Rocky and Geiranger. Pusher locomotives helped main “road” locomotives move heavy trains in climbing and descending steep grades, and despite their nickname could be located at the front, in the middle, or at the end of a train.)

At the yard office, to their surprise, Rufous Malarkey Malspike, the Division Superintendent  awaited their arrival. Daryl Drizzle the on-duty dispatcher was nowhere to be seen (he had rushed off home, having been told that his wife Desdemona was about to give birth to their first child). Most unexpectedly Rufous Malspike was in a genial and upbeat mood, perhaps anticipating his well earned and delayed retirement in October, given the end of the war in Asia and the easing of intensive efforts after six years of world conflict. “Boys, I’ve an easy assignment for you”, Malspike told them, “5706 (a 2-10-0 “Russian Decapod”) has been sitting dead at Clinemore, with a cracked air compressor casting and a seized feedwater pump. A team is up there working on it, using a compressor and parts scavenged from 5700 in the Rocky scrap yard. I want you boys to deadhead up to Clinemore and take 5706 down to Rocky, running light, since it’s in rough shape and needs a major rebuild. We can’t let it sit there any longer, the war with Japan is over, but traffic is still heavy and we’ve lost or worn out a hell of a lot of equipment.”

Malarkey’s statement was certainly true. The exhausting six-year- long war effort had taken a tremendous toll on the railway’s equipment, as well as on the men and women who had kept the railway running, what with limited materials and spare parts availability and inadequate maintenance. Moreover two other “Russians” had been destroyed in a landslide last month. The two engines, double heading a west bound freight down Trencrom Hill had been struck by a massive rock slide as they passed along the north side of Mount MacDonald. The engines and much of the train had been swept down the hill and into the Running Bear river. Sadly both engine crews had been killed. The accident had highlighted the need to renew and rebuild not only motive power and rolling stock but also  the railway’s manpower resources.

Gathering up their clothing and other gear from the YMCA bunkhouse and grabbing fried egg and bacon sandwiches, slices of blueberry pie and apples in the cafeteria, Phineas and Fernie caught a ride up to Clinemore in the van (caboose) of the last eastbound freight of the day. Clinemore, Alberta (mileboard 110.2), is a small town at the headwaters of the North Saskatchewan river, tucked under the gaze of the Three Nuns range to the south and Mount Randall to the southwest, just 15 miles east of Nigel and the Continental Divide. The town’s main feature, apart from limited maintenance facilities, is a coal mine owned by Brunel Coal Mines. In the early days of less powerful engines Clinemore had been a busy pusher station; now the only engine based there was a small 0-6-0 switcher that serviced the mine site.  No. 5706 was found steaming on the ready track beside the empty six stall roundhouse, wisps of steam leaking copiously from many spots.

The engine crew found Basil Palfreyman tending 5706 - Basil, Horace Palfreyman’s father, was the senior hostler at Geiranger. Basil had come  up  on Sunday to light 5706’s fire, once the Clinemore mechanics had replaced the air compressor and fixed the feedwater pump.  Basil told Phineas and Fernie not to push 5706 too hard even though they would be running light, as the engine was well past the need for a major tear down and rebuild, also there had been no maintenance recently – all too evident when looking at the dilapidated engine - built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1916. Basil had already coupled 5706 to a van crewed by Charlie Washhouse (conductor) and Woody McMurdoo (brakeman), who were standing nearby. Charlie and Woody were based in Rocky like Phineas and Fernie. Their little train was identified as Extra 5706 East.

There was not much for the engine crew to do before climbing up into the cab, other than to coordinate their time pieces with Charlie and Woody and to go over train orders with them. Shortly after 1:00 PM Charlie gave a highball sign from the van’s rear steps, Phineas opened the throttle, adjusted the regulator and they began to roll eastward. Heeding Basil’s warning, Phineas was careful to limit the speed to 25 mph once they were under way. Fernie carefully tended his fire, shoveling in a few scoops of coal from time to time and kept a close watch on the boiler water level. Fernie observed that the coal was brownish and soft, rather like his Brown Goose plug chewing tobacco. He speculated that the coal had probably come from the notorious Dunhill coal mine on Vancouver Island, via Kamloops, where 5706 had been based during the war years. Unfortunately good quality bituminous coal from the mines at Brunel and Clinemore had become scarce as the war progressed, due to the shortage of skilled miners. They passed Ibsen, seven miles east of Clinemore and all was well.  From Ibsen (mileboard 93.1), all the way to Rocky, the grade presented an easy downhill run, allowing Phineas to maintain 25 mph, with 5706 frequently drifting on the steeper downgrades.

They passed through Rampart (mileboard 85.5), and began to swing along the south shore of the North Saskatchewan River. A thin plume of white steam and smoke pushed up from the smokestack, the gentle rapid chuffing sounds from the stack and the cylinders were music to the ears of the engine crew. Fernie brewed up a pot of coffee on a shelf attached to the boiler backhead; they enjoyed their coffee and sandwiches and daydreamed of getting home in time to enjoy tomorrow’s Labour Day evening celebrations in Rocky – the first such celebrations since before the war. The cab was a comfortable temperature, the engine was moving along nicely, although the gentle chuffing was accompanied by much rattling and creaking throughout and loud clanking from the driving rods. The sun beamed down from an eye-blinding clear blue sky, the turbulent North Saskatchewan sparkled, its waters were a grey glacial till colour rather than blue, the aspen trees on the hillsides glowed a bright light yellow, in contrast with evergreens higher up. Several herds of elk were seen in clearings near the rail line. Phineas spotted a black bear sitting on his haunches in the middle of wild blackberry patch, getting his fill of the sweet late season berries. It was a perfect day. As Malarkey had said, it was an easy assignment.

As they ran through the village of Shakespeare (mileboard 66.5) Fernie was occupied in shoveling coal into the firebox (accompanied occasionally by a spent wad of chewing tobacco) checking the boiler water level and adjusting the feed water pump flow. Suddenly he noticed a sharp reduction in the firebox draft, accompanied by a distinct change in the exhaust sound - more of a muffled woof than a crisp chuff. Fernie looked  forward – he was startled to see a mixture of intense black smoke, flames and burning embers blasting out of the tall smokestack and high into the air. This definitely was not as it should be. He shouted across to Phineas, who had been half-dreaming in his seat, his left hand still on the throttle lever and the right on the regulator handle, his thoughts on his soldier son’s impending return from the war in Europe. Phineas, startled. stuck his head out his side window to look and then released a stream of profanities. “Blower dammit, and sand!” he shouted. Fernie leapt to  open up the smoke box blower air flow to maximum and shoveled several large scoops of sand into the firebox. At the same time Phineas opened up the throttle briefly to further increase the draft through the smoke box and out the stack, although there was a risk of sucking up the top of Fernie’s carefully laid bed of coals and blasting it through the  boiler tubes into the smoke box, adding to the unwanted fire already there.  From his limited experience with smoke box fires Phineas expected that their actions would quickly suffocate the fire and clear out the burning embers. But that was not the case this time – the smokestack continued to spew the awful mixture of smoke, flames and embers. This indicated a stubborn accumulation of burning material in the smoke box, a mixture of soot, unburned coal and molten clinker, produced by a combination of rotten coal, lack of maintenance and poor operating  conditions. Fernie hastily shut off the smoke box blower since it was only fanning the fire.

More serious measures needed to be taken quickly, before serious damage or an explosion occurred. There was risk of burning through the smoke box dust screens, or worse of burning through the exposed superheater coil elbows that protruded into the smoke box from the boiler flues. Phineas closed the throttle, moved the regulator in reverse and applied the engine and train brakes.. Number 5706 and the van behind came to a grinding screeching halt, so quickly that Charlie and Woody back in the van were jolted and tossed out of their seats.  They jumped down and ran forward, joining Phineas and Fernie for a quick discussion as to what to do. It was now 3:00 pm and the sun was beginning to touch the top of the mountains to the west. Their train was three miles east of Shakespeare and 10 miles west of the hamlet of Cervantes (mileboard 53.2), not that either place had any useful equipment, other than that there were telegraph facilities to communicate with Rocky, 64 miles to the east.

They were sitting on the mainline, with the nearest passing siding at Cervantes, however no further trains were scheduled in either direction that afternoon so other trains were not a concern, although additional help might have been useful. Ugly smoke and glowing embers continued to erupt from the smoke stack.  There was no habitation in sight, the only building to be seen was an old tool storage shack that had been used during the railway construction.

The crew decided that Woody would hike back to Shakespeare and send a telegraph to Rocky advising of their predicament, while the other three worked on trying to bring the smoke box fire under control. Woody set off down the tracks on his three mile hike. Phineas decided that their best bet was to try to open the smoke box door and try quench the fire with sand. This would not be an easy task. The hinged smoke box door was locked in place by 14 latches, each of which had to be released by a hammer blow. Also the large headlight on its bracket in the centre of the door limited easy access to the latches. Not only would it be difficult to reach the latches without the usual ladders and scaffolding used in an engine  workshop, the smoke box and the door were extremely hot, and the smoke stack exhaust noxious.

The first step needed was to blow down the boiler, sharply dropping steam pressure and reducing the risk of a steam explosion should a super heater coil or boiler flue seal burn through, then to quench the fire in the fire box, cutting the draught through the flues to  the smoke box. While Phineas and Fernie were occupied with this, Charlie, exploring the old tool shack found several ladders, a plank and a 20 foot length of heavy rope that were to prove very useful. The three men managed to rig up a scaffolding of sorts under the nose of the smoke box, with a ladder placed on each side of the head light. Each on a ladder and armed with a sledge hammer, Phineas and Fernie whacked away at the 14 latches securing the smoke box door, taking short breaks due to the intense heat. Charlie acted as water boy, sloshing buckets of cool water from a nearby stream at them as they worked .

At last all latches were opened, but how to swing the smoke box door open without being injured or worse killed, given the raging inferno inside and their precarious position on the jury-rigged platform?  Charlie threw up the rope to them, Phineas looped one end of it around the left side grab rail stanchion on the door, threw the other end down to Charlie and climbed down, followed by Fernie. Together and standing well back and in front of the engine the three men hauled on the rope. Despite their best efforts the door wouldn’t budge on its hinges the first time around. They repositioned themselves on a diagonal to the right of the engine on and tried again. This time the door began to open, slowly at first, then with a sudden bang it slammed open, revealing the interior of the smoke box.

It was like looking into the gate to hell – intense dark red and bright orange flames and black smoke clouds swirling around and around, then up the smoke stack and now roaring out the open front of the smokebox. The entire inner wall of the smoke box was coated with a red hot burning layer of clinker and soot, the dust screen was  a crumbling glowing mess of clinker and melting metal; the front end of the boiler was coated with clinker and soot, although not as much as elsewhere, the superheater coil elbows miraculously were intact and only lightly coated. The influx of fresh air as the door opened resulted in a explosive but temporary increase in the volume of  smoke and flames. Standing in awe, looking at this spectacle, the crew realized that there was little they could do more, other than allow the fire to burn itself out, now that no more fuel was being supplied and the draft had been stopped. In any case it was likely that a supply of sand, if it had been available, and if it could have been shoveled in and about quickly by the three tired men, would probably not have made much of a difference.

Exhausted the three men walked back to the van. Inside Fernie fired up the little kerosene stove and put on the kettle. Soon they were able enjoy a well earned mug of tea and to gulp down what remained of their lunches. It was by this time approaching 6:00 pm and dusk was approaching. Not much they could do but wait for assistance to arrive. Checking on the smokebox condition showed that the fire had extinguished itself, with only a dull red glow and a bit of smoke to be seen here and there.

Just then a honking horn was heard from near the old construction shack. It was Woody, together with two others, in a battered 1930 Ford Model A pickup truck belonging to Bolingbroke’s garage in Shakespeare. They had come via an old railway construction road. Woody advised that the Rocky office had ordered the dispatch of a relief train with work crew, but this wouldn’t arrive until the morning. Wearily they all piled into the truck and headed to Shakespeare for the night. There they were welcomed at the Falstaff Hotel ( “Rooms available - no reservations required - Canadian and Chinese food”), knocked back a few pints of Cougar Strong Ale in the Henry IV beer parlour and then tucked into plates of Alberta roast beef, roasted potatoes and Yorkshire pudding, before turning in.

Just after 10:00 the next morning, as Phineas and the other crew members arrived back from Shakespeare in Bolingbroke’s truck; the relief train, Extra 10 West, arrived from Rocky – a 2-8-0 Consolidation, Number 3950, trailing a maintenance boxcar plus a old passenger car, occupied by a four man work crew. It had reversed direction on a wye at Cervantes and run in reverse the 10 miles to where 5706 was standing. The relief work crew quickly sized up the locomotive’s condition and readied the dilapidated looking engine for a creeping tow to the siding at Cervantes. It would be parked there for several days, until decisions were made on moving it further. It was likely that the driver running gear would have to be partially disconnected to allow faster speed and avoid damage on the 53 mile run to Rocky.

The move to Cervantes was completed by mid afternoon. The van was uncoupled from 5706 and  coupled to the end of the relief train, leaving 5706 standing alone on the siding. Phineas and Fernie joined Charlie and Woody in the van. The relief train, now Extra 3950 East, rolled on to Rocky Mountain House.

Extra 3950 East arrived in the Rocky train yard at dusk, just before 8:00 pm, allowing the two crews to park the train for the night, book off at the yard office and head over to nearby Municipal Park to join the windup of Labour Day celebrations.  A small crowd was gathered around a  giant bonfire. Phineas found his wife Penelope (Penny) in the crowd and they walked home together. There was a telegram tucked into the mail slot of their front door. Their son Penryn had arrived in Halifax on board a troopship and would be home on the train next week! It was a good ending to the day, and some compensation for  that “easy assignment” that Rufous Malarkey  had given to Phineas and crew yesterday.

  

THE END

Cast of Characters:

Phineas Shoreditch Farthing – Engineer, Rocky Mountain House

Penelope Farthing – Phineas’s wife

Penryn Farthing – Phineas’s son

Fernie Cole Raker – Fireman, Rocky Mountain House

Rufous Malarky Malspike – District Superintendent, Geiranger

Rupert Abergaster - Crew Call-boy, Geiranger

Daryl Drizzle – Dispatcher, Geiranger

Desdemona Drizzle – Daryl’s wife

Basil Palfreyman – Senior Hostler, Geiranger

Horace Palfreyman – Engine Hostler, Geiranger

Charlie Washhouse – Conductor, Rocky Mountain House

Woody McMurdoo – Brakeman, Rocky Mountain House