Train time at Pukatawagan is a big deal. More than 100 people are there to greet the train, pick up loved ones, and collect provisions from the baggage car. A four-wheeled quad emerges from the extra boxcar, along with vehicle parts, food coolers, and lumber. The engine crew switches out the TOFC car carrying lumber and home building materials for pickup tomorrow on an adjacent ramp track. The Northern Store has employees working to empty its dedicated boxcar into waiting pickups and vans. With only a small airstrip and winter ice road, Pukatawagan’s most reliable lifeline
to the outside world is this train. By 9:45, all is quiet and the station area is deserted.
Tuesday, October 7, dawns cold and clear in Pukatawagan, with Train 290 scheduled to depart at 10:00 a.m. Today’s passenger load is light and senior engineer Ernie Foster, a 40-year veteran of both CN and HBR, gets underway “on the advertised.” At Pawistik (milepost 94), we stop at the fish house siding to pick up the fish car set out from last night. Pawistik translates as “rapids” or “current” in Cree, the indigenous language of the First Nation people.
The Fish Car
Northern Manitoba is blessed with abundant natural resources that provide sustenance for the indigenous peoples of this remote region. The fish house siding at Pawistik is serviced on every trip during the spring and fall fishing seasons. A standard KCR boxcar loaded with tubs of ice is set out on the northbound trip. Overnight, Cree fishermen fill the car with freshly caught walleye, pickerel, and trout to be forwarded south the next day. Upon arrival at The Pas, the fish car is switched out to the Freshwater Fish
RIGHT: The “Fish Car” boxcar is added to the southbound consist at Pawistik. Ahead of the fish car are two ballast cars that were emptied on the previous day’s northbound trip. BELOW: The fish car is clearly marked by a sign on the door. BOTTOM: Northbound Train 291 stops short of the Cranberry Portage station to pick up two ballast hoppers. Later today, the train crew will spread that rock north of Sherridon at milepost 43.
50 JANUARY 2017 •
RAILFAN.COM
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