travelled over 38,000 miles to and from his work during the time he was employed by the railroad. Mr. MacKay was hired in 1909, worked two years as an extra hand and in the spring of 1911, he was selected as a regular man.

While he was employed in railroad work, he missed very few days due to sickness. Each morning, he drove to Bloomfield Station, a distance of three miles, and in the evening, when his work was finished, one of his family would drive to Bloomfield Station to meet him.

In the winter, no matter how bad the roads were or how disagreeable a storm was, James MacKay was always on the job. Some of the terrible storms of the past were so severe that it was impossible for a horse and sleigh to travel through the huge drifts. On such days, Mr. MacKay would walk to work and then home again.

One of the most thrilling experiences that he ever had was in the summer of 1923 when the standardization of the Western Branch was taking place. On this par- ticular Sunday, Mr. MacKay had charge of an Extra Gang to replace a wooden bridge by installing a forty-five foot steel span at Trout Brook, a mile east of Bloom- field Station and two miles from Duvar.

The freight train on the evening before, set the flat cars with the steel span on them, off at the Duvar Flag Station. From Duvar to a double curve was a straight piece of track with a slight descent, about a thousand feet from the bridge. Then there was a double curve with quite a steep descent to the bridge at Trout Brook. The bridge was situated in the center of a curve and the commencement of an up grade to Bloomfield Station.

It was decided by James MacKay and the Bridge and Building Foreman, W.H. Townsend, to take out the old bridge first, which had been constructed of wood and stones. Everything then would be in readiness for the lowering of the new steel span in place of the old bridge.

It was then planned to go to Duvar by Section Motor Car to pinch bar the flat cars loaded with the steel span and crane, out of the siding on to the main tracks and let them coast down to Trout Brook.

Everything proceeded smoothly until they were half way down, and the cars

began to pick up momentum. By the time that they came to the first curve, they were travelling at a dangerous speed.

The car on which Mr. MacKay was riding had a poorly working brake chain which snapped while being tightened to brake the car. “Fortunately, the hand brake on the other car must have been working,” James MacKay remarked. “I do not know what ever stopped the cars, for we had only one good brake that you could rely upon, and when the cars stopped, the trucks of the first car were less than a foot from the edge of Trout Brook.” “If we had gone into the brook,” he added, “some of us would have been killed.”

James R. MacKay was superannuated on December 31, 1931. He had travelled over 83,000 miles working for the Post Office and the railroad, but he was often heard to say, “I miss my railroad work.”

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