27 years on the Reston-Wolse­ley Mixed Train.

Please click on this news item shown here, and it will give you a great news clip­ping from the Reston Recorder dat­ed Jan, 4, 1934, about Train Con­duc­tor Angus McDon­ald, an amaz­ing and beloved man, and some of his his­to­ry. He had 25 years ser­vice with CPR pri­or to tak­ing over the Reston-Wolse­ley mixed, for a total of 52 years service.

Souris Rail­way Muse­um attained his col­lec­tion of mem­o­ra­bil­ia from the com­mit­tee of “The Caboose” CP 437180, which they had in stor­age, and with no place to exhib­it them. We have the orig­i­nals of this mem­o­ra­bil­ia safe­ly locked in our strong box. Among these arti­facts are 26 train orders from 1891 and 1892, an engine haulage capac­i­ty book from 1926, which illus­trates all the sub-divi­sions  and sta­tions of the for­mer Souris Divi­sion, a time bill (today it is known as a sched­ule) dat­ed 1895 show­ing sched­ules from Fort William,Ontario to Don­ald, B.C. and all branch lines con­nect­ed. One train order and one page of time bill #31 are dis­played on this page. All Train orders can be seen in our library, pho­to­copied in a binder. (Click your cur­sor on each illus­tra­tion insert­ed in this arti­cle for enlarged viewing).

The next sum­mer after Angus McDon­ald retired, a pic­nic was held at what is now called Kenosee Lake in hon­our of Con­duc­tor McDon­ald and at which there were over 2,000 well-wish­ers in atten­dance. Peo­ple from all over who had trav­elled on his train in those 27 years. Anoth­er news item is dis­played here, illus­trat­ing why the crew of the “Peanut” were well liked by the trav­ellers on the Reston-Wolse­ley mixed.

An illus­tra­tion of the cov­er of a book, titled “The Peanut”, by Edi­tor Gilbert McK­ay of the Moo­somin, SK.,World-Spectator is also illus­trat­ed in this write-up. One sto­ry as to how this train became named the “Peanut” is about a set­tler stat­ing every time he heard this train’s whis­tle it remind­ed him of a peanut ven­dors whis­tle as he ped­dled his peanut machine, back home in England.

We are very thank­ful to the descen­dants of Angus McDon­ald from Reston, Man­i­to­ba for their gra­cious dona­tion of his mem­o­ra­bil­ia to the his­to­ry of Souris Rail­way Muse­um. Writ­ten by Ferg Devins.