advertisement

---

On Oct. 15, the Canadian Railway Hall of Fame announced 2003 award winners and inductees, which include past and present rail-industry leaders, historical communities — and a singer/songwriter.

The hall bestowed its annual "Industry Achievement Award" to Serge Belzile, recently retired president and chief executive officer of Quebec Railway Corp., who transformed the short line into a major regional railway. The hall also presented its "Special Award" to Gordon Lightfoot, recognizing the singer/songwriter's ballad about building the Canadian Pacific Railway.

Entering the hall are 12 inductees, selected in four categories.
• Leaders: Ross Walker, who retired from Canadian National Railway Co. after serving 47 years, most recently as senior vice president, Western Canada; John Booth, a lumber baron who created the Canada Atlantic Railway; and Donald Smith, who in 1885 drove the ceremonial last spike creating the transcontinental CPR.
• Heroes: Harold Flemmer, who served CPR nearly 50 years, mostly in track maintenance; Fred Sloman, who taught CN workers' children from 1926 to 1965 on board a "School on Wheels" car; and Seth Partridge, a CPR engine-service employee who saved co-workers lives during a 1925 landslide.
• Communities: Revelstoke, British Columbia, the site of the last driven spike that inaugurated the transcontinental CPR; Hornepayne, Ontario, a town created because of its location on CN's mainline; and Transcona, Manitoba, home to CN's rail-car and locomotive repair shops, and a major wheel shop.
• Technology: The Ocean Limited, soon to become Canada's longest running, regularly scheduled passenger train; Quebec Railway Bridge, which includes the world's longest cantilever span; and Mount MacDonald Tunnel, which CPR built in the late 1980s to provide cost-effective service through western Canadian mountain grades.