Remembrance Day train heads to Ottawa
Last Updated: Wednesday, November 9, 2005 | 3:56 PM AT
CBC News
Brass bands, choirs and well-wishers sent off hundreds of veterans on their Remembrance Day train trip to Ottawa Wednesday.
"I figure it's a chance of a lifetime, and I don't know how many years I got left, you see," said Wally Jones.
Jones, a Regina native who now lives in Dartmouth, served in the army and the Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War.
Well-wishers say farewell to the veterans.
Like many soldiers, Jones crossed the country by rail.
"If you're gonna sleep at night, you just hear clickety, clickety, click of the rails," he said.
Harold Henshaw, of Canning, also remembers the train ride east during war time.
"We stopped off in northern Ontario and everyone got out to swim. Then we hit Riviere-de-loup and we got out there and everyone hit the tavern and liquor store. Then we got to Truro and ladies gave us all an orange," he said.
When the troops got to Halifax, they boarded a ship. Henshaw looked back at the city.
"I said, 'I'll never see you again.' But here I am," he said.
Henshaw hopes to meet up with old friends as the train winds its way west through Nova Scotia and on to Ottawa for Remembrance Day ceremonies on Friday.
- INDEPTH: Remembrance Day
A barbershop quartet will provide on board entertainment, and menus will have a vintage look.
Ron Jackson and several other VIA Rail employees in the Maritimes organized the train trip.
"[The soldiers] came to Halifax on the train from Ontario and out west, went to war, came back, went home on the train. And I think it's just the romance of the rails," Jackson said.
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Three veterans on the train reminisce. |
He encourages people to come out to wave to the veterans as the train passes by Wednesday and Thursday.
The veterans can expect a warm greeting in the tiny northern New Brunswick community of Tide Head, near Campbellton.
"We have the volunteer fire brigade from Tide Head that will be out with their trucks, flashing their lights and we hope to make some acknowledgement of the train as it goes by," said former mayor Alan Dickson.
Dickson asked organizers to slow the train down as it passes through the village as a special tribute to a family that contributed more to the Second World War than any other in Canada.
All seven sons in the Thompson family were in the Canadian forces at the same time.
Seven men from Tide Head were killed during the war, including Dickson's father and two of the seven Thompson brothers.
