FORT FRANCES — Rainy River has been a railway town ever since the railway bridge was built in 1901.
The installation of a 10-stall roundhouse and a train station near the bridge put the town of Rainy River on the map as the CN town it remains today.
The Rainy River Record 100th anniversary accounts for the earliest buildings being present on Fourth St. by 1902 when the roundhouse was completed.
Rainy River has been home to railway employees and their families for more than a century.
It’s coffee time at the Quality Bakery on 4th St. and the retired CN employees are coming in one by one for their morning brew and some toast.
Some have been meeting up for coffee every day except Sunday, for more than a decade.
“We worked out of Fort Frances, and we went either to Winnipeg or to Thunder Bay,” said Darryl Dyck, retired conductor. “It’s nice to travel, and when you’re going to Thunder Bay, just the scenery and everything else, right?”
Dyck worked for CN between 1972 and 2009 and has been going to coffee with the morning crew ever since he retired.
He said he now works as a tow truck driver to earn an income in addition to his pension.
“I took the engineer’s course, but I didn’t accept it, “said Dyck. “I had a bit of an attitude in those days.”
Most of the guys did not have an education relevant to driving or conducting trains when they were hired by CN. They moved up in the ranks from brakeman to engineer as they got promoted through their years of service. Most of the guys agreed that money was the best part of their jobs.
“When you weren’t prepared to work, it was hard to stay awake,” said Peter Michniewich, a retired engineer.”
Eugene Heyens started working for CN in 1977, the same year as Michniewich. Both worked as engineers for over 35 years before retiring
“I was really young, I only had a couple years,” said Michniewich.
"I got to meet the president of the railway, his name was Hanson. . . We dropped him off and he went fishing,”
Michniewich explained that when the weather gets cold, the air brakes develop a lot of leaks, and the trains stop moving.
He said that CN would reduce the size of the train to reduce the number of leaks and have enough to proceed.
Scott Olson, retired engineer, explained how someone like him would come up in the ranks of the railway by working in each position on the trains for a few years before being promoted to the next post.
“For a year or two years, you work as a brakeman,” said Olson.
“Then you become a conductor. And then a couple years after that, they send you to training (to be an engineer).”
Heyens said the guys talk about fishing, hunting and snowmobiling. “Any topic really, but mostly fishing.”
After coffee, Heyens likes to work on small engines, lawnmowers, and power saws, while Michniewich likes to go fishing every day. Olson does other jobs like mow grass for the township of the Lake of the Woods and he works for the funeral home.
Fort Frances Times / Local Journalism Initiative
