SOUNDS ACROSS THE WATER

The arteries of the nation are pumping hour upon hour, day after day, week in, week out. By that I mean the Canadian Pacific Railway trains are moving through Salmon Arm continuously. There are several dozen each day - some going east with Made in China goods and some going west with raw materials, e.g. potash.

This morning I was intrigued to see this train stationary at the level crossing in town. While I watched, thinking the driver was waiting for an eastward-bound train, he appeared from the coffee shop and, like K.C. Jones in the song, he "mounted to the cabin" and slowly headed off pulling the 90 or so cars behind.

This picture about says it all. COSCO - China Ocean Shipping(Group) Company, an ocean carrier headquartered in Beijing - ships goods in these double size containers which are stacked one on top of the other on flatcars. This load is heading east to the Rockies and beyond with the usual plastic ducks, cosmetics, vacuum cleaners, etc.

The sound of the CPR train approaching from 'way around the lake and the sound of it receding are such a Shusway Lake thing.

Sitting out on the deck at the cabin on the other side of the lake last weekend I told the story of how I thought I was hallucinating when we crossed the North Sea in Seol-na-Mara in 1990. Having left Stavanger heading for Lerwick I was in the cockpit on a lovely starry night when I distinctly heard the CPR train! It was that same Shuswap Lake sound .... buh-baa, buh-baa, buh baa.....of the diesel engine approaching/receding.

Eventually, all was revealed: the port light of a tanker appeared on the far horizon - en route from, say, Newcastle to Rotterdam - and then disappeared for good.