The Blogging from A to Z Challenge is to post everyday (except Sunday) in the month of April 2020 starting with the letter A and going all the way to Z. My theme is...
Ancestor Occupations
YARDMASTER
John Thomson Tait was my paternal great grandfather, born 1863 in Liverpool and lived in Bath, Lancashire.
When he immigrated from England to Montreal in 1865 he started working as a porter, then a foreman for Canadian Pacific Railway.
Canada Car Co opened a railcar manufacturing plant in 1905 along the Lachine Canal in Turcot (St.Henri) Quebec, then a village within the city of Montreal, beside the Grand Trunk Railway Turcot Yard. John started working there as a Yardman, then quickly became Yardmaster.
BAnQ, Fire Plans of Montreal
Yardmaster is a railway term for a supervisor. He does the work, and also checks on and supervises the work of the yardmen.
John Tait was in charge of the making of cars for passenger trains for the Grand Trunk Railway, though Canada Car also made freight cars and streetcars. At this time the cars were made of wood.
Wooden first class Grand Trunk Railway passenger car c.1907
Their customers included the Grand Trunk Railway, Canadian Northern Railway and Montreal Street Railway. In 1909 Canada Car merged with two other companies and became Canadian Car and Foundry. Soon after they made steel cars. They were the largest car builders in Canada.
On the 1911 census John stated that he earned $960 a year and had a life insurance policy of $2000 for which he paid $24.
In 1925 at the age of 62 John semi-retired and worked as a store clerk for General Electric. John Tait died in 1931 at the age of 67.