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The Last Trip of Frenchy's Wife

RAILWAY TALES
including ROCK GANG GLOSSARY

A collection of stories about working on BC RAIL Rock Gangs
plus
A glossary of rock gang terms, tools, phrases, and slang

ISBN 978-0-9732542-5-9
( to be issued 2010 )

INTRODUCTION

RAILWAY TALES is an old project that I started in 1995. It is now nearing completion after extensive additions and revisions. It is a series of short stories written about the nine years that I worked on the B.C. Rail Rock Gangs. The stories are accompanied by many photographs that I took at the time, as well as numerous pen & ink drawings done to illustrate the stories.

I wrote the first story in 1995. Patrolling the Budd was written to be read an open microphone event. I realized that I was using a lot of jargon in the text, so I started adding the words that others might find unusual to a list of words that I wanted to define. That list became the ROCK GANG GLOSSARY, a compendium of 650 words, definitions, and slang terms for everything to do with working on the B.C. Rail Rock Gangs. It includes all the terms for the railway, drilling and blasting materials and equipment, tools, heavy equipment, vehicles, and climbing gear, that are mentioned in the short stories.

The chapters of the book include:

     INTRODUCTION
         An explanation of how it all happened.

     A TYPICAL DAY ON THE ROCK GANG
         A general description of what the Rock Gangs would do on a typical work day.

     CHEAKAMUS SALVAGE (Mile 63)
         We did the rock work and rigging to salvage three derailed locomotives near Whistler.

        
         Lifting 705 at Mile 63

     SETON SALVAGE
         We installed cliff face anchor bolts to pull a derailed locomotive out of Seton Lake.

        
         Lifting 808

     SLIDE MILE 140.3
         A story about working on a huge rock slide, that eventually forced the railway to tunnel.

        
         Slide Mile 140.3

     GREEN RIVER
         After 1,800 feet of track washed out we altered the rock shoreline of Green River.

        
         Blast, Green River

     TUMBLER RIDGE
         Stories and photographs of three summers working at Tumbler Ridge (Electrified Territory).

        
         Grizzly bear, Tumbler Ridge

     MILE 130
         The Rock Gang was called in to remove a huge rock off the cliff along Anderson Lake.

        
         Blast Mile 130, Anderson Lake

     PATROLLING THE BUDD
         A story about working train patrol during Christmas break at a time of heavy rains and slides.

     STOPS ALONG THE WAY
         A collection of tales and photographs about various rock gang projects.

        
         Waneesh

     CAST OF CHARACTERS
         Biographical sketches and job descriptions of people mentioned in RAILWAY TALES.

     ROCK GANG GLOSSARY
         One hundred pages of reference information about everything the Rock Gangs did.

        
         Bowline on a bight



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