Gordon Ritchie

, Gordon Ritchie Gordon Ritchie is a System Engineer with Danaher Motion Corp.Got a question about motion control or mechatronics?Ask Gordon via e-mail at contactus@danahermotion.com.

Later that same year, on a cold winter evening, engineer Gordon Ritchie and I were called for a class 5300 "Mikado" 2-8-2 out of Medicine Hat (See picture of CPR's 5361 behind what appears to be a Pacific, page 24).
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After the train was tied down (hand brakes set) the lead engine pulled both locomotives onto the shop track and while walking toward the foreman's office, engineer Ritchie met and warned the Hostler about what a commotion he would cause when he attempted to move that crippled "Mike" toward the roundhouse . The locomotive foreman was also informed of the trouble we had encountered and that we were able to bring that scrap heap into the terminal in spite of losing one cylinder head, in a snow bank, on "Strathmore Hill".

In the late 1940's, or early 50's, while making my second solo trip as an engineer, I remember "Double Heading" a disabled G3, 4-6-2 "Pacific" from Olds to Red Deer and the Master Mechanic met us on the shop track (he had driven up from Olds by car) and accused us of exceeding the speed limit He claimed that he had to drive faster then the highway speed and even then he couldn't catch up to our train with it's two locomotives. (That story was published in the Oct. 2002 WCRA News).