The Nest

 

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The Boundless: Author With Train

Credit: Ian Crysler

I'd written a book about a train and I wanted a picture of myself with one. Fortunately for me, photographer extraordinaire Ian Crysler was perfect for the job.

(Ian himself, I've learned, has a fascinating history with trains -- and a much more exciting one than me! When he was a foolish youth, he and his friend would hop westbound trains and ride through the Rockies, gazing at the stars.)

On a chilly November morning we went down to the Toronto Roundhouse and looked longingly at the fenced off caboose and locomotive until the kindly staff of the Toronto Railway Museum took pity on us and said we were welcome to take photos of whatever we wanted. (Thank you, Bob Dickson, for your generosity!)

We started with the beatiful red caboose...

Credit: Ian Crysler

And then moved on to the locomotive....

 

Credit: Ian Crysler

 

To get an interesting shot of me inside the caboose cupola he decided he needed to climb on top of the locomotive. There he goes in his green jacket...

I was kind of worried because it was wet and icy and the ladder rungs were slippery, and he had all his camera equipment....

 

 

He made it up just fine. Because that's what a kickass professional photographer does.

And he ended up getting  some pretty cool shots...

Credit: Ian Crysler

Credit: Ian Crysler

Ian Crysler Photography

The Boundless: The Caboose

Of all the spaces aboard a train, the caboose is one of my favourite. It's not as luxurious as first class, exciting as a saloon, or thrilling as the locomotive, but it has the cozy charm of a self-contained little world.

Traditionally the caboose is occupied by the guard and a brakeman, who spend the entire journey there. They are responsible for braking the train when needed, and for ensuring the train's safety as it enters and leaves a station. There is a special cupola at the rear of the caboose which gives the guard an elevated view across the top of the train, and the surrounding area.

The guard and brakeman have bunks, a stove and kitchen, a bathroom, a little office, and lots of windows.








One of my favourite scenes in The Boundless takes place in the caboose. At a station stop, Will almost misses the train and has to run to catch the caboose. The guard, a man nicknamed Sticks because he has a wooden leg, takes him in and sets him by the stove to warm up, and gives him a meal (a delicious stew). He gives Will a bed to spend the night, until the next station stop, when he can travel back to the passenger cars.

In Wind in the Willows there's a wonderful scene in which Rat and Mole get lost at night in the Wild Woods. It's deep winter, and they're cold and anxious -- and then they find the buried door to Badger's house. The kindly Badger admits them into his warm and cozy house. In the book there was a wonderful illustration that I loved to look at.



I think that scene inspired my caboose scene in The Boundless.

Aboard The Boundless: Zirkus Dante

Behind the miles of its freight and boxcars, The Boundless pulls eighty cars belonging to the world famous Zirkus Dante. One of the first circuses to take to the rails, it has eclipsed PT Barnum as the greatest show on earth.

The ringmaster is Mr. Dorian, a Metis with a vague past, who oversees an unrivalled collection of performers, acrobats, wonders (he abhors the word "freaks"), automatons, and wildlife. He is always on the lookout for new talent and marvels to add to his circus.

He is particularly interested in acquiring a certain painting reputed to have miraculous attributes.

He may or may not have caught and trained a sasquatch.

Among his star talent are the Zhang brothers, conjoined twins who are expert stilt walkers.

Mr Beaupre, the tallest man in the world.

In the Zirkus Dante's collection of oddities is the Feejee Mermaid, the only known skeleton of a real mermaid.

The Zirkus has many acrobats, but the Miraculous Maren is the best. An expert wire walker, she is also an accomplished escape artist.

She is a very useful friend to have.

Aboard The Boundless: The Funeral Car

It was Van Horne's dying wish that his body be carried within a special funeral car attached to The Boundless.

 

Crossing and re-crossing the continent on the rails he helped lay.

 

Forever.

The funeral carriage is impregnable, welded together from plates of battleship steel, no windows, no doors. Inside is a mausoleum which contains the sarcophagus of Cornelius Van Horne -- and, rumour has it, other things of great value. When at rest in a station, a guard stands watch over the car. To make it even more inviolable, the exterior is electrified with a high voltage current. Anyone touching it would be electrocuted.

 

There is a key that turns the electricity on or off, and only the guard has one...

 

And one other person aboard The Boundless....

 

Aboard the Boundless: Cornelius Van Horne

The General Manager of the CPR, Cornelius Van Horne’s job was to make sure the railway got built, pushing it west to meet up with the tracks being built into the mountains from Vancouver.

 

Van Horne's energy and drive were legendary. He joined survey teams and hefted a sixty pound pack  through the wilds of the Rockies. No detail of the railway was too small for him to overlook. He had many and varied interests and hobbies, a restlessly curious mind; he slept very little.

 

Alas, he did not live to see his masterpiece, The Boundless, leave the station on its maiden voyage across the continent.

 

He died just months earlier.

But he's still on the train...

Aboard The Boundless: Owney, the Mail Dog

Owney used to be the mascot for the United States Railway Mail Service. He travelled aboard the  mail cars, through 48 states --

Before joining The Boundless.

While many view him simply as an adorable mascot, others know that Owney has an uncanny for sorting and bagging mail.

And there is a great deal of mail aboard The Boundless, being sorted day and night by a small army of postal workers. Even as the train is in motion, new bags are being picked up and dropped off at various posts.

Owney doesn't really play a big part in The Boundless. He's just cute.