Virtual Railfan Tour - The Churchill, Manitoba, Line - A Postscript

 Churchill is, of course, famous for the polar bears which inhabit the place, mainly, I believe in winter. I never saw a polar bear in my travels but one of my staff did.

We were funding some track improvements to the line as part of the Prairie Branchline Rehabilitation Program. Part of this was to extend the siding at Herchmer which was mid way in a long stretch of single line. As part of this I sent one of my staff to take a look at the work. Being based in Ottawa I thought it would be a good idea for him to see the results of out work in the field.

So here is this official from Ottawa travelling to deepest, darkest, Manitoba to see the work which was taking place several miles south of Churchill in the "land of the little sticks". He arrived at the work site where a gang of men were working. There was an "Atco shack" (a type of container with living quarters) in the siding where the men were living. The shack had a flat roof.

The first thing he was told on arriving at the work site was. "If we see a polar bear, we down tools, climb up the ladder and wait for it to go away". He thought this was a joke designed to frighten a rookie civil servant.

He was watching the progress of the work when someone shouted out "Polar bear" and sure enough, in the distance a track car was approaching as fast as possible being chased by a polar bear on one side of the track and a cub on the other.

Everyone downed tools and climbed up on to the roof.  The track car arrived and the driver hurriedly climber up and joined them.  The bear, now reunited with the cub quickly lost interest and the two ambled off together. 

The moral of this true story is "Never let  a railway track or vehicle get between a polar bear and her cub!"

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