Long Hot Days Trigger Healthy Appetites Amid scorching summer heat CPR workers including Mike Plante of Winnipeg (left) and Eric Peach, of Winnipeg Beach, Manitoba stay on track to trouble-shoot this piece of equipment near Metiskow. The unit that takes out old ties was being lifted by a small crane so that that the two men could repair it. Photo right meanwhile shows some of the over four dozen workers lining up for one of their hot daily meals. ©Provost News Photos.

Breakfast for 54 Railway Crew Begins at 2:45 a.m.
• 87,000 Ties Being Replaced
Breakfast is served every morning at 2:45 a.m. in a railway car parked at Provost for approximately 54 Canadian Pacific Railway workers as they work on a maintenance project in the area.

That means that head cook Norman Berakos of Nova Scotia is up at 1 a.m. each workday, followed by helpers an hour or so later.

There are 30 railway cars parked on a second set of tracks in town that serve as both sleeping accommodations, dining and meal preparations.

The men have been working on the CPR line starting at Hardisty—and have recently been in Amisk but are now in the Metiskow area, replacing thousands of ties as they move towards Provost and ultimately Wilkie by the end of August.

The crew has been out in the heat working 10 hour shifts, four days per week, say Mike Plante of Winnipeg and Eric Peach of Winnipeg Beach, Manitoba.

The project, when completed will see 87,000 rotted ties replaced and some of the track re-aligned so trains can move at a more consistent speed down the 135 mile stretch of steel.

The breakfast is over by 3:45 a.m. each day when two busses rumble down the road at 4 a.m. to take the workers to their sites.

Berakos along with helpers Janice Doubleday (the only woman on the work train), and her son Murray of Nova Scotia and baker Peter Durlec see to it that lunches are prepared to send with the crew for their meal out on the job.

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