I spent a summer in the 1970s working as the telegraph operator at the CPR station in Creston, B.C. The conductor on the wayfreight used to tell his engineman to highball it quite a distance away from the station platform. As it was a wayfreight it was just a few lightly loaded or unloaded cars, and there was a downgrade as well. This conductor was an older man, and quite overweight. The train was moving so fast by the time it passed the station that the impression when the conductor boarded was that he was standing there one moment, and disappeared the next. I kept the shovel handy… The much younger tail end brakeman wanted nothing to do with this, he walked up the track and boarded while the train was stationary. Always thought the engineman should have put an end to this behaviour
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