The Roxboro Bullet

Pictures courtesy of Raymond Farand

From 1988 until 1991 I did a stint at CN Headquarters in Montreal.  Shortly after moving there, I purchased a townhouse in Pierrefonds, not far from the A-Ma-Baie train stop on the Deux-Montanges commuter rail line.  To all of us Anglo's who worked at CN Headquarters, the train was commonly known as the "Roxboro Bullet".  The commuter rail line ran from Deux-Montanges into Montreal through the old Canadian Northern Mt. Royal tunnel and was still using the original electric locomotives and coaches that had inaugurated the service back in 1918.  It was reliable and handy , but far from modern or fancy.

My wife and I can tell many stories from our two and a half years of commuting on the "Bullet".  With no air conditioning, it was hot on the train in the summertime, and at the end of the day commuters would be in various states of consciousness.  Many would be slumped over in the cramped old seats, ties loosened, mouths open, sweating, many snoring.  I remember talking to one passenger who told me that he had been riding the train almost every day of his life, through day care, elementary school, high school, university, and now during his working life. He explained that he couldn't remember a single change through all of those years and he calculated that he had spent well over one year of his lifetime riding on that train.  Another day, I distinctly recall taking my seat on the train in Central Station.  The bench seats at each end of the coaches had quickly filled up and there was one small space left between two people on the bench across from my wife and I, perhaps 10 inches wide.  A lady then boarded the train with a derriere that was considerably larger than the gap and eyed up her opportunity to take a seat.  I'll never forget the incredulous look on everyone's faces as that lady shoe-horned herself into that gap.  I guess when you want to sit, you want to sit!!  But our most memorable moment came one cold morning standing on the platform at A-Ma-Baie.  It was a typical Montreal winter day, not unlike any other, until "low and behold" the train came around the curve pulling a string ex VIA daynighter cars.  The change in equipment had been totally unannounced and unexpected, and for the commuters who had been riding the "cattle cars" for years, you would think they were staring at a mirage.  Once on board, it was like kids in a candy shop.  Settling in to those 35 year old daynighter seats was like winning a lottery when you hadn't even bought a ticket.  It made for a very pleasant ride into Montreal

that day and in the days and months to follow.  Through the entire two and a half years of riding the Bullet, we had the same conductor.  To this day, I can still hear him calling, "A-Ma-Baie Suivant"!