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
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.
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.
I didn't even know what a yardmaster was. Interesting!
ReplyDeleteThe Multicolored Diary
I guess I should have said... a yardmaster is a railway term for a supervisor.
DeleteI have updated my post to clarify. Thank you. We rode the train quite a bit when I was young and my father was always proud that his grandfather actually made the cars we were riding in!
A fascinating family story, though I too had little idea what a “yard master” was. The name made me think of my grandfather in Poulton who was a cowman in the local Auction Mart yard - so very different!
ReplyDeleteOh, right! I think here that’s a stockyard man, or some such.
DeleteYour penultimate post - what a lot of learning you have provided.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't heard of the term either. I wonder if it is a term that originated in North America.
I hadn’t thought of the term not being used in other countries. What do you call a man who works in the rail yards?
DeleteHmmm...I had a great grandfather who was a railway worker. He is among my maternal ancestors I hope to research soon. I must investigate whether he was a yardmaster -- thanks for this prompt!
ReplyDeleteThere were so many different jobs to do with the railway... on and off the train. I hope you find some info. Many of my mid to late 1800s ancestors went to the US to work for the railways.
DeleteI’m curious what a yard man actually did in the yard...was he a shunter? My dad was a numbertaker in the shunting yards, hence my curiosity. I envy you your fire maps.
ReplyDeleteA yardman in the railway yards do that and many other jobs. The yardmaster will oversee the workers, give them schedules, check trains for needed repairs, tell conductors when to change speeds, etc.
ReplyDeleteIn my ancestors case he was yardmaster where they made the cars.
My maternal grandfather worked for the railway as steam fitter.... when they had steam engines.