Crawford, Bill | the-last-whistle

Bill Crawford:

Bill Crawford's nick name and I do not know where it came from, " Bal-lakie Bill". Dad started to work for Hillcrest on July 26, 1926 at Old Hillcrest. He was 19 years old. His first job was spark watching which meant walking up the tracks or down the tracks after the log train had gone by. He learned how to fire/make steam for the various donkeys and loading pots. He learned to run a Duplex Loader (steam). This was the double tong machines for loading rail cars. He explained it to me as one engine ran forward and the other engine ran backwards. One day Lem Traer came to him in the landing and told him to ride the train down to the mill and watch everything the fireman did because when the fireman got to camp he was fired.

Dad said he tried his best. He said when they left camp on the way back to the woods it was hard to see for the black smoke and who knows what it did to the laundry hanging on the various clothes lines in camp. He did say by the time they hit Chemainus River bridge he had it figured out. He worked on the trains for a number of years. I can remember him filling in for Gus Bergman when he was away in the late 50's and early sixty's. I remember about the last time he fired the 10 spot for Harry Wright they plowed about eight feet of snow off the track between Honeymoon Bay and Mesachie. I remember him saying to my mom over the breakfast table, I hope there is ten feet of snow as I can make the steam she needs. This was about 1966. When train logging came to a close about 1948 he went running logging donkey.

He told me stories of running a Cold Decker in the 19 creek valley. This was very steep ground. I remember him mentioning the days when the Gas Fakes came in just prior to Diesel Power and at the end of steam. He got the job of running the Rig up Goat in the early 1950's. This was a mobile machine used to raise the Wooden Spar Trees. George Smart was the high rigger then, then Little Joe Bowman and finally the best one, no offence George, Mel Baker. With the invention of the steel spars dad went to run the log dump machine. This he did until he left Hillcrest June 30, 1968. He did not want to dump the last load because he was on the train when the first loads were dumped in the lake around 1942-1943. There were five children in the Crawford family. Margaret Jean, Jim, Marilyn, Dave and Bobby. We moved from Duncan to Mesachie Lake in September 1951, Labour Day weekend. Jim worked in the woods and the mill, Dave worked in the mill and Bobby worked in the mill and the woods. Bill was a member of the Volunteer Fire Department. Jean belonged to the Women's Club.

Cheers, Bob Crawford

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BOB CRAWFORD

Bob worked in the Hillcrest woods for many years as a faller