Virtual Railfan Tour - Thurso and Nation Valley Railway - Car 27 part 2

Several years after we had commenced work on car 27the Bytown Railway Society acquired CPR caboose 426426. Car 27 was fully operational although there was still a lot of work to be done. We then approached the railway about the idea of hooking the two cars on the back of an empty train leaving on Friday and putting them in the siding at the top of the hill at Iroquois. The train on Monday afternoon would return us to Thurso. The company readily agreed and so began a few weekend working parties in the Quebec bush at Iroquois. The above picture shows car 27 and van in the siding and the main line in front.

This was the weekend that we lettered the car,

I am relaxing while the lettering is being prepared. One of our group had acquired a railway emergency kit (hanging on the coupling) which included flags and torpedoes/detonators. On our first trip to Iroquois we protected our equipment by placing three torpedoes on the rail. The brakeman on the returning train nearly fell off the rear car with fright when he exploded the first torpedo. Turns out the TNVR never used torpedoes!

The finished lettering looked really good.

During the weekend no trains were running so we took the opportunity of testing the BRS velocipede.

Or do some sketching

For these weekends the stove in the tiny kitchen produced some excellent meals

Dinner time

he caboose provided the additional sleeping capacity

These trips provided an extraordinary opportunity to stay the weekend in the bush to do some work as well as to relax.

The view from car 27 at Iroquois.

WE even went up in the middle of winter and found the heating to be quite satisfactory. The snow shoeing was excellent.

Much of the time our return was in the dark. On one occasion the train brakes went into emergency. All we could do was to hold on tight. The train came to a quick stop and we were still on the rails. All we could do was to let the train crew do their job. It turned out that a large log had fallen off one of the cars and in doing so had broken the brake line but bounced clear of the wheels. All the plates, glasses and cutlery had fallen to the floor with the sudden stop but there was no other damage - a nasty experience.