Wednesday 25 July 2012

D. K. McLeod

CPR Hat Check tickets

On one trip I asked the conductor of train 201 for the hat check he had issued for my seat when lifting my ticket. Nearing the end of the ride, he handed me the hat check as a souvenir for my trip and then asked me about my grandparents whom I had been visiting for the weekend. I was surprised that he knew who I was and who my grandparents were.

A few moments later as I was about to detrain at Montreal West station, the conductor slipped all the hat check tickets he had collected into my jacket pocket. That was a small gesture that I have never forgotten. Twenty-six years later I still have that assortment of hat check tickets as a reminder from one of my last journeys on train 201 before it vanished into history.

Later I learned that the conductor was Donald K. McLeod who worked on the Farnham Division trains. He was originally from Milan, Quebec, although not related to Leslie McLeod. long time residents often referred to him as D.K. 

Years earlier, my grandmother had been the teacher in Milan’s one-room, one-class school. She once told me that D.K. had been one of her students.


The Oddblock Station Agent
written in 1995

Addendum January 2019

An unexpected find...

A few more CPR Hat Check tickets

Last October I was going through papers my mother had squirreled away and I stumbled upon one of my school projects she'd kept. 

Decades ago I'd pocketed these hat checks assigned to my seat as a young passenger on Trains 203 and 203 during the mid 1960's and then later used them in that CPR-related school paper.

Note the conductor punches on the right and left match those of the first group.




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