ROSALIND, Alta. — Learning to be a railway conductor was too good an opportunity for golf course operator Justin Harty to turn down.
Harty was part of a group of 11 central Alberta residents who took a two week training program in Forestburg, Alta., recently to learn how to become conductors on the Battle River Railway that runs through their communities.
“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. Unless you work full time for CN or CP, you’d never have the opportunity,” said Harty, who lives in Bawlf, Alta.
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Since acquiring its own locomotive from Canadian National Railway in December 2010, the Battle River Railway has relied mostly on volunteer conductors and engineers to drop off and pick up grain cars on the 56-kilometre line between Alliance, Alta. and Camrose.
With volunteers wanting to take winter holidays or just have a few weeks off, railway officials put out the word they were looking for people interested in becoming conductors and possibly engineers.
“It was more of a community thing of neighbours helping neighbours,” said Harty.
“These guys just took over a small railway and the more help the better.”
He said he has gained new respect for railway conductors since taking the course.
It’s a similar story for Nathan Lunty of Forestburg, who also took the course.
“It was just something to do. The train is just something else to do in a small town,” said Lunty, who works as an emergency medical technician.
“I always thought it would be fun to play with trains.”
Lunty said Forestburg is special. It’s one of the few small towns left on the Prairies with a wooden elevator owned by a local family and a railway line owned by local farmers and residents.
“I think this is good for rural living.”
Matt Enright, a farmer and grains manager with Battle River Railway, said the lure of the trains was an enticement for many of the local residents who took the course.
The train usually operates with a two-person crew of conductor and an engineer.
The conductor is in charge of the train, its load and the paperwork. The conductor tells the engineer where and when to stop. The conductor also uncouples the cars and controls the switches on the lines.
Since buying the engine more than a year ago, the railway has relied on a skeleton staff to pick up and drop off grain cars.
“There was an obvious need for more people,” said Enright.
The railway put out the word that it was looking for people interested in becoming conductors and possibly engineers.
While older farmers have volunteered their time as conductors, new, younger conductors are looking at this as another part-time job.
The grain trains have run fairly regularly this winter. A train dropped off cars March 7 and picked them up the following day. It was the railway’s 10th grain train of the year.
The railway has hauled 500 grain cars this crop year and hopes to haul 800 cars by the end of the year.
