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Diaries of a Lodge Owner
In 2009, sheet metal mechanic, Steve Niedzwiecki, turned his passions into reality using steadfast belief in himself and his vision by investing everything in a once-obscure run-down Canadian fishing lodge.
After ten years, the now-former lodge owner and co-host of The Fish'n Canada Show is here to share stories of inspiration, relationships and the many struggles that turned his monumental gamble into one of the most legendary lodges in the country.
From anglers to entrepreneurs, athletes to conservationists; you never know who is going to stop by the lodge.
Diaries of a Lodge Owner
Episode 95: Steel Wheels and Wild Places - A Train Engineer's Life
Have you ever wondered what it feels like to control thousands of tons of steel, stretching nearly three miles behind you? In this captivating conversation, Willie sits down with Matt Oleski, a train engineer whose decade-long railway career provides a fascinating glimpse into one of North America's most essential yet mysterious professions.
Matt shares his journey from construction work to becoming a fully qualified engineer, detailing the rigorous training process and career progression from brakeman to conductor to engineer. You'll discover the astonishing physics behind train operations—like how even empty rail cars weigh 30 tons, and a fully loaded train requires more than a mile to stop. Perhaps most surprising is the confirmation of an old railway warning: "rolling cars don't make noise," as steel wheels on steel rails can move massive weight in near silence.
Beyond the technical aspects, this episode explores the profound impact railway careers have on family life. With unpredictable on-call schedules and trips lasting up to 30 hours, Matt credits his wife Shelby's understanding and support as crucial to his success. Their story highlights the delicate balance railway families must maintain and the importance of making time count when at home.
The conversation takes fascinating turns through Matt's parallel passions for hunting and fishing in Northern Ontario, including his specialty for turning often-maligned Canadian goose into gourmet delicacies like pastrami and "goose poppers." His enthusiasm for musky fishing reveals how these outdoor pursuits provide necessary mental balance to the high-responsibility demands of railway work.
Whether you're curious about trains, outdoor life in Northern Canada, or the human story behind essential infrastructure, this episode delivers authentic insights into a world most people never see. Join us for a journey along the tracks of one engineer's remarkable life and career.
it is very dangerous place and they always say rolling cars don't make a noise. And it is 100 true you don't hear them rolling down really, yeah so, and a 30 ton unit.
Speaker 2:If it was by itself on a train track and if it was just like the wind blew it and it started creeping and crawling backwards, you wouldn't hear it. Oh really, that's unbelievable.
Speaker 1:There's a little flat spot in the wheel, yeah yeah. A bolt in the rail or something, but if it's steel on steel, and if it's just, it's amazing.
Speaker 2:Wow, it's amazing, that's awesome.
Speaker 4:That's something I never would have thought this week on the Outdoor Journal Radio Podcast Networks Diaries of a Lodge Owner, stories of the North Folks. Willie takes the controls on this one and does his best to keep her on the tracks with another great guest for us all to get to know Matt the Engineer Olsky. On this show, willie the Oil man and Matt the Engineer talk about, yes, trains, their immense power, their importance to the North and Northern-based tourism operations throughout the years. They talk about the training involved, development and the impact they have on our families, with a few hunting stories sprinkled in for good measure. So, folks, if you love great stories and love great people and love Willie the Oil man, hitch a ride on this one. Yes, you will love it. Here's Willie's conversation with Matt the Engineer.
Speaker 2:Hello folks and welcome to another episode of Diaries of a Lodge Owner's Stories of the North Oil man, willie. Here today I'm sitting in my office slash dining room looking out over beautiful Black Sturgeon Lake again today Gosh, it's like 25 degrees here in the north. I think we're having better weather than most folks down in the States and down in Toronto here, southern Ontario right now, in Ontario right now, we just lost the ice on our lake here and my boat is going to take its first dunk in my lake after this podcast is shot, so I'm pretty jacked up for that. We got a great guest today, someone who's really special to me uh. You know I've known him for five, six years now and he was introduced to me through uh, through my, my best man at my wedding there, kyle mcmahon, and and you know, we've grown our relationship now to uh to the point of to uh I would say close to uh right now probably one of my best friends in my life and he's definitely here for me when I got decisions to make and he's helpful in that way.
Speaker 2:He's an outdoorsman, he's a hunter, he's a fisherman, he's a wonderful human, but above all he's a train engineer and he's worked his way up, uh, in the train world. We won't say who he works for, just for reasons of, but he's part of the one of the big two out there and he uh, I think it's super cool to have somebody on our show that drives a train for a living. You know, just imagine having all of that power behind you and what you can do with it and what it feels like. And today we're going to find all that out. So, without further ado, I'd like to welcome Matt Oleski, who's sitting at my living room table here. Now. Matt, say hi to the Diaries of a lodge owner, family and friends out there hi, family's uh diaries of a lodge owner.
Speaker 1:Um, I've listened to this podcast for about a year now, learned a lot of cool things. Um, nice, nice, always good to listen to lots of good information. Between fishing and how it is to own a lodge, I've always been interested in that kind of stuff. Grew up here, lots of my friends own lodges.
Speaker 2:Well, let's get a little grasp here. So, matt, like you said, let's take that and run with that. We always are going to do an intro as to who matt is and we'll walk through his life here, uh, but let's just step back. So, like you being even I've, I've had, I've been part of this podcast for under a year now. Steve's had it for about a year, you know, and it's he's had great following. We've grown the following together and that's interesting that you can hear straight from a friend's mouth what attracts them to our podcast. That's a first, so that's cool. Thanks for saying that, buddy. You're welcome.
Speaker 2:I appreciate that. So, matty, you tell the family where you grew up. Tell me where did you grow up, tell me your sequence of events that got you kind of up into your adolescence, and then and I'll cut you off and stop you, or we need to tell a crazy wild story, because I know you got lots of them yeah, I grew up here in uh canora, ontario, uh actually, on blot surgeon and so this is your home water that we're sitting on nice uh, my dad bought the property back in I believe it was 1985, built the house on it and actually I was lucky enough to purchase it, uh, four years ago nice, so you kept your, you kept your homestead in your family.
Speaker 2:Yeah, from when you were a kid, nice, so did you go to, you went, you go to. You went to public school here, you went to high school here.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Nice and then at that young age, I'm guessing you developed a love for fishing and hunting. I just know you now, but I'm assuming that that started way back then.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my dad got me into hunting at an early age, shooting an old Cooey .22, actually when I could barely hold it and growing up with a lot of his older friends and trying different guns, and got into hunting and fishing and loved being on the water fishing.
Speaker 2:What's the first thing you ever shot?
Speaker 1:Gross, Gross. Yeah, the .22, single shot very gotcha 22.
Speaker 2:That's stevie's new weapon. Stevie's yeah, everyone's, everybody out there. If you got some guns, some 22s, get a hold of us on the show, stevie's, stevie's, rebuilding them and selling them and probably got some really beautiful ones. But yeah, gross on me, yeah nice.
Speaker 1:One of my favorite things to still go and do when I have time from work is sneak out with the wife and go for a walk and shoot some chickens and hopefully, when my daughter's big enough, get her involved in it and get her a love for the outdoors as well. Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Nice. So you're a young man on Black Sturgeon Lake, you're fishing, you're hunting. You're young man, on black sturgeon lake, you're fishing, you're hunting. You're in canora. Portion of your friends must have lodges, which you said that's. You know, you've always had a you know, understanding for them and kind of a desire for them or a passion. It kind of comes with the outdoors up here. Yeah, right, um. So then you get out of high school and what do you do?
Speaker 1:ended up working construction jobs bouncing around.
Speaker 2:Moved out to vancouver for oh yeah, that's, that's like the 20 year old lifestyle, right? Everyone, everyone tries to go west and the grass is always greener, right?
Speaker 1:and then um back and started working construction here and kind of bounced around and got tired of it and ended up going to Red River College in Winnipeg.
Speaker 2:So what year was that? When did you go to Red River?
Speaker 1:2014, I was on it to take the conductor training program.
Speaker 2:It was actually a really good class to take, steve Baker was the instructor, so there's actually a class you can take to get in prior to working for either CN or CP or VR. Whoever you're working for, you can take an educational course just to get you going.
Speaker 1:Yes, nice, I believe it was a three-month long course that we did. Nice. Month long course that we did, uh, nice, it really benefited me to take it because I got in and qualified very quick. Once, getting on at the railway that I'm at, I gave you all the fundamentals and rule knowledge leading up to it. So the classroom that lots of guys stress about when you're being trained and everything to me was I just did three and a half months of it, yeah, so it was kind of a breeze to go through all the training.
Speaker 2:Well, that's good. So it was kind of like a. It was a preparation for getting in the field, with the guys actually getting in the training.
Speaker 1:Yeah, having all the fundamentals, and I believe it made it easier on the trainers as well, because, yep, it wasn't basically baby steps. They could throw you in and have you working with them and, yeah, doing more stuff than you should be. So there's two parts.
Speaker 2:When you go to training, you go do two weeks of schooling and then you're on the ground for usually about three weeks to a month so on the ground, like you're on the ground, you're, you're at the train yard, uh, when you're working with the crews learning, or is there like a facility in the college where they have, like, like I know, in the oil field in nisku they have, um, you'll do it some ways, you'll go out with the team. Some companies like precision drillingilling they're so big, they have a massive yard with a drilling rig cut in half and the guys go and train there for a couple months. What is it so?
Speaker 1:when I was in Red River they had a part of CN in Winnipeg rented out and they had a little chunk of yard and they had one yard unit and a dozen cars they could move around. So once a week we'd go out there for half a day.
Speaker 1:I believe there's 60 people in our class, so that's a big class man, 20 people for half a day out there and you'd switch cars and ride them and just get used to getting on and off and safety and so it wasn't like the typical oil field school class.
Speaker 2:So when I had to go redo my H2S by 9.15, if I didn't have a third coffee I'd probably fall asleep on my desk and then wake up and write the test and walk out, which is horrible. I shouldn't be doing that. Don't listen to that any of you kids out there. Don't be doing that. Listen to Matt and actually do the courts in class and pay attention don't be doing that.
Speaker 1:Listen to matt and actually do the courts in class and pay attention. But you get all this training when you do go to the companies. They train you up pretty good. But it was nice having that initial start because it's took my qualifying time down from usually five months. I believe I was qualified under three. Oh, that's great.
Speaker 2:From starting, so that's so. It's kind of like a co-op, you know what I mean. You accumulate your hours and get ready and then you go. So now you've done your school in school, you've done your little bit of yard training, you're getting a little bit comfortable, so you're a conductor at that point, or when do you get hired as a conductor?
Speaker 1:So after, like one of the big companies, CN or CP hires you, you start again in class. So you do two weeks of class and then usually I'd say three weeks to a month on the ground. So you're working hand in hand with a conductor and switching cars, going for on the train wherever you go.
Speaker 2:Switching cars, as in, you're switching what do you call the cars? So the Diaries fans know. So on a train.
Speaker 1:There's the engine and then every car behind it is.
Speaker 2:They call it a car, okay.
Speaker 1:There's lots of different kinds of them, but just, you're working hand in hand, so the qualified conductors riding the other side or walking right beside you while you're doing everything Supposed to be within arm's length. I always liked having a bit more leeway, or giving a bit more leeway when I, in the future, was training guys, where I believe, as long as you're within not arm's reach, but a little bit outside of arms reach, to give a guy a bit of confidence.
Speaker 2:So it's not like like you're not right in his face. Yeah, yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1:But it is very dangerous place and they always say rolling cars don't make a noise, and it is 100% true you don't hear them rolling down, really, yeah.
Speaker 2:So hold on a minute. So an average car, let's say you know whether it's holding grain or vehicles. I mean, yes, it can fluctuate, I'm guessing, in weight drastically. What's an average weight of an average car on one of the trains you drive?
Speaker 1:Well, most empty cars are 30 tons, okay so, before any product is in it.
Speaker 2:it's 30 freaking tons, so in a 30-ton unit. If it was by itself on a train track and if it was just creeping like the wind blew it and it started creeping and crawling backwards, you wouldn't hear it. Not really, that's unbelievable. A little flat spot in the real, in the wheel yeah yeah, a bolt in the rail, or, but if it's steel on steel and if it's just, it's amazing, wow, it's amazing, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:That's something I never would have heard loaded grain cars are 140 tons on average, so it's a lot of weight behind you. You get hit by a lot. You're definitely going to be feeling it. Wow, wow that's incredible.
Speaker 2:So okay, so skip back here. So now you've done a little bit of training, right? So now you get hired with the company you're on, you do some more in-house training and then do you finally get the call for your first actual drive on a train.
Speaker 1:Well, so, like I was saying, it's usually about a five-month process. So after the first month out on the ground, you go back for two weeks of class and have to write all your final exams and then you're back out and you're doing more extensive training exams. Yeah, and then you're back out and you're doing more extensive training and the field placement people are riding with you and seeing till you're ready to qualify.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I'm guessing your training always continues with a job.
Speaker 1:This serious right for sure and then you get a qualification one. So I actually qualified out in saskatchewan, which I very happy I did end up training out there, because the training that we did out there versus kenora it's more extensive switching of cars, yeah and you have a better grasp on everything than if you train out of, like, a mainline terminal.
Speaker 2:That doesn't do a lot of it, it's mainly just riding on the train and you were in the north by like folks. You remember me and Stevie fishing Tobin Lake, there the Vanity Cup. You were right up in that area, just south of there, right we?
Speaker 1:actually our line. Our north line ran right up to Tobin Lake. Oh okay, I actually stayed at the Tobin Lake Motel quite a few times.
Speaker 2:Nice, nice, nice, good place. Yeah, I uh, yeah, I fell asleep there on, uh, on a table once or twice, you know, back back in my 20s for sure. Uh, awesome, cool. So tell me that first time, the first time that you're like if there's no training going on, there's no one watching you, you're not getting testing or certified, or you're actually an employee of company x to go on the train and be a conductor for this engineer and and do a job, how is that feeling? Was it fucking nerve-wracking? Was it scary?
Speaker 1:it's very nerve-wracking. And the other nice thing about the terminal I went out of you ended up being a brakeman, so brakeman just assists the conductor with this. Oh so there is a job. Two underneath conductor. I didn't know that okay, in some terminals where you're doing lots of switch and they run brakeman and conductors.
Speaker 1:So cool. For the first three and a half months, I'd say, I ended up working as a brakeman, so it's not training. You're on your own, you have to make the decisions, but you still have a senior guy guiding you with making the big decisions, which is very nice. For the first time when you're on your own with an engineer, it's definitely nerve-wracking.
Speaker 2:I'm freaking Batman.
Speaker 1:Lots of lost hours of sleep prior to getting out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah so tell me about your first ride. Your first ride was in. Was it out west in saskatchewan?
Speaker 1:yeah, um, like I said, I was a brakeman, so lots of yard switch and we service potash mines out there oh, yeah, yeah, that's a big thing, yeah, yeah so my first actual trip trip, I'd say, where you're on the main line was trying to remember everything. Be prepared. We work to think all those cs out there, so there's no signals. Yeah, so you really got to know all your mileages. Call the towns. Lots of radiocommunication. Yeah, talking the rtc rail traffic control officer and he's giving you clearances.
Speaker 2:So you're clear from mile five to mile 54 and this is clear from like another train coming in your path, right, yeah, like because think about it like sorry, I don't want to stop here, but let's just for the diaries. People just put this in perspective. So like here's a young man just got out of school Now he's got the world by the curlies and he's on a team with a train that's barreling ahead. So how big is the train and how fast are you going? At this point, just so everyone understands the power and the force of what you're doing, just so everyone understands the power and the force of what you're doing.
Speaker 1:So out there, our chat speeds were anywhere from 30 to 45 mile an hour. Put in perspective a grain train, so 140 tons per car yeah, you're driving 100 cars on a train, plus the unit, oh my goodness shorter. So you're generally 75 to 8 000 feet long train out there. So you're about, oh my goodness, 14 000 ton on the train, oh my goodness. And then you have to oc. There might be switches against you so you actually have to go manually line all the switches so you really have to know where you are and everything else. And then if there's a train following you on OCS, they have a clearance to protect against you. So you have to give track releases. So you have to be like set your counter at different mileages so when you're clear you can say you're clear of model 32 so they can pull up the 32, but they can't go past that, okay you give them another track release.
Speaker 2:Wow, it must be. So. It's kind of like aircraft traffic controlling, but on the ground. Hey, that's an interesting judge. Who is that? So you guys are doing the calls from there. Sorry, who is the guy that? Rtc, rtc.
Speaker 1:Rail Traffic Controller. That's cool. So they're set up in the major hubs Calgary, I believe, for CP and CN. Yep RTC runs out of, I think, winnipeg, they have them Nice and so the RTCs are in charge of, say, 15 subdivisions each and they're given different clearances, or there's CTC and OCS. So OCS is what I worked up north and that's all clearances, whereas CTC is truck lights. Okay, yeah, yeah, they're lining trains up with the lights Yep and making sure everything's going to run that way. They have a very busy job, no doubt.
Speaker 1:Very stressful as well.
Speaker 2:Crazy. No doubt, no doubt.
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Speaker 2:So how long were you a brakeman for before you actually got into the conductor position?
Speaker 1:I'd say three, three and a half months, and then went up to the conductor. It all depended on seniority.
Speaker 2:So the day you hired, Well, I'm sure intelligence too, Like you're, I know, like he has the Stiers family, tires family, don't know and matt's a pretty smart guy. He, uh, he helps me out quite a bit with tinkering around my house and my shop and at my lodges. You know he's got a he's kind of that brain guy in the background. But like there, must you know, you got to have a good common sense and quality of you know what's going on and grasping what's going on mechanically to be able to get up in that position you're going into now the conductor.
Speaker 1:In the end, it's seniority, how you move up Really. Yeah, Okay, it's interesting, but it's finding little tricks to make your job easier, like I do. Where I worked out out of I had a list in my pocket how many cars fit in each truck yeah, the length of each truck. Just a peace of mind. I could glance at something. You're always supposed to ride the point back yep and watch.
Speaker 1:But if you throw in five cars in a track that holds 90, yeah well I can watch the tail end, but at least you always know what's going on. So being prepared ahead of time, taking your list, going over them when you're switching how many cars are in each block that you have to switch out, knowing that.
Speaker 2:There's a lot to it. It sounds like not cheap. There's a lot to it, so you got to really know what's going on out there and be safe. Hey, like it's pretty wild. Well, you know, it's funny. We were talking to, uh, I had dave mclaughlin, uh, who's in a different portions of my life now, but he, um, we had him on here as a guest, me and steve and he owns marmac lodge and lodge 88 in white river and they have to take a train so that they can plane the majority of the guest train through the old cn or cp track that's left there and they go back and forth to the lodge. I think it's one of the coolest things ever. Like they go 88 miles down the bush and then hop off this train and truck.
Speaker 1:That would be very neat.
Speaker 2:Right, I think we should do that. I think we should. I'm talking to Steve right now and I'm trying to get a group of guys together to go to Nipigon. I don't know, we might have to stop in that White River and go do that one. We'll talk to McLaughlin. That would be an interesting one. Oh yeah, it would be. It would be cool and it's right up your alley, and I've heard of a couple lodges doing this. Right, I mean even getting supplies in back in the day. Those old bucket cars. They could handle a lot of weight. If you had to move a lot of wood or if you had to move big rocks, you could have that stuff and push it around. It was just left there from the CN and CP guys back in the day. Cool, so you were a conductor. How long were you a conductor before you went to engineer?
Speaker 1:I ended up being a conductor for seven years. Well, that's a good stint. Then I moved back to Kenora after three years in Saskatchewan three and a half years in Saskatchewan.
Speaker 2:You had enough watching your neighbor's dog run away for a week.
Speaker 1:You got enough of that shit and just move back to be closer to my parents and give them a hand because they're getting older. I always loved Kenora. I loved the hunting out in Saskatchewan.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a beautiful province. They have a lot out there that people don't realize the province of Saskatchewan.
Speaker 2:But the fishing and hunting around here is homey, it's more extensive, for sure, I agree there's nothing like, even though I didn't grow up here. I grew up down in all that Oshawa, colbert, bowmanville, peterborough area right, there's nothing, even though the fishing and hunting down there is good too. It's nothing like here. Like here it's any given day. We can go anywhere we want and do what we want. Any fish we want to catch, we can go catch it. You know the hunting, I know for you. I'm not a hunter, as you guys know, but uh, matt is. You know like you're moose hunting every year and your, your deer hunting is incredible here, grouse, grouse, you can shoot. I hit two grouse yesterday with my car going to town like they're oh, they're stupid right now, man man.
Speaker 1:Oh, I know, made in season.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're horny and dumb.
Speaker 1:Most one-year-old boys Right.
Speaker 2:So you got back to Kenora, and so were you a conductor when you came back to Kenora, correct?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was a conductor when I came back to Kenora.
Speaker 2:And then back up to the engineer. So tell me what the engineer's job. Hold on a minute, let's back up. You're the conductor. Let's give some couple details to the folks about what the conductor does.
Speaker 1:So, as a conductor, you're in charge of the train, you have to do all the paperwork, you're taking all the clearances, you're talking to the RTC, you're looking after everything behind the engine.
Speaker 2:You're the alert guy that's not sleeping behind the wheel.
Speaker 1:You're going on the ground and switching cars out. If you have to do lifts or set-offs online yeah, Cars to customers and stuff like that you get hit by a hot wheel. You're the one going back there.
Speaker 2:What's a hot wheel?
Speaker 1:I never heard that expression. You came on a bit or some kind of defect. So you go over scanners every 33 miles and they take readings of all the wheel temperatures. Okay, so in case a brake shoe or a brake cylinder release because everything's run off air, all the brake systems, yep. So if there's an air leak, when the air goes out, that's when the brake shoes come on. So if there's an air leak when the air goes out, that's when the brake shoes come on. So if there's an air leak, the piston could come out, which could push the brake shoes on. So by going over the scanners, they have them set up to prevent incident and try and catch an incident before it happens. Gotcha.
Speaker 2:Proactive maintenance yeah, Interesting, so they so. And if it was to engage, obviously it would just heat up because the other 4,000 wheels are still in motion on the train. Makes sense, Makes sense. So that's it. So it can. So that's a conductor. So are you, does the conductor? Are they part of hopping in and out of the train as well, when you got to do disconnects and stuff?
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're the one doing all that. The engineer just deals with the engines.
Speaker 2:Okay, so the engineer, that's the next. So that was your next last. That's where you are right now. Yes, you're a senior engineer, no junior engineer. And how many years you got into that? Ten and a half.
Speaker 1:Jesus, ten and a half Jesus. Different terminals have different seniorities for everything. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like you could go up to Revelstoke and lots of guys are going to train to two years now it's just where are my seniorities at. In Kenora, and when we had retirement of guys retiring, we had a big influx, I guess, of conductors and a bunch of engineers retiring. So I moved up in seniority, gotcha, and then it was my turn to take the engineer course.
Speaker 2:How long was your engineer course?
Speaker 1:I trained for four months as an engineer. Oh, wow yeah, oh wow, did a month in Calgary, then, I believe, three or three and a half months of driving with a qualified engineer.
Speaker 2:Nice, yeah, that's cool. Did you drive out west of the mountains? No Fuck, is that cool, though I mean I don't know if it would be cool for you, but I know like when me I've been out there a million times but I took Chris out for our honeymoon, as you know, this past fall and man, like I forgot how big some of those cliffs were that you drive around right, I was like I was actually super proud of my wife because she's horrified of stuff like that, and she was like right on the edge we're driving around and there was a couple trains that were on the outside of us and I was like man, that is some big balls to be riding that train on that little tiny track on that ledge.
Speaker 1:It's definitely nerve-wracking, like some of the grain trains we're running now. They're 12,000, 13,000 feet long, oh wow, and 30,000 plus tons, yeah, so it's a lot of weight behind you. You're almost three miles long. Yeah, it's crazy, man, two and a half miles long and 30 000 tons you're trying to control with sags and hills. And yeah, the one engineer coach I had coach trainer same thing, um said you basically have to look in a five mile chunk. So what's coming ahead of you in the next three miles plus your two miles of train behind you? Yep, so you're always thinking in five miles.
Speaker 2:It's kind of like a defensive driving for trains. Yeah Fuck, Super cool man, that's a. That's a good tip. I'm guessing you have to use that daily. Awesome. So now you're a full-time engineer in canora. I heard you say you got a wife and a child.
Speaker 1:give them a shout oh, my wife shelby and my 13 month old daughter scarlet. She came in to our lives last april. Definitely a little handful oh yeah, she is. She's cute as a button though makes everything different and like working on the railway for sure, changes a lot of stuff, Makes a lot of strain on families.
Speaker 2:So let's get into that, because that's a huge thing. In the oil field, in the lodge industry, it's a huge thing because you know you've got to be away from. I used to argue with my ex-partner about this all the time and his people, because they wanted to. You know, I even had an argument once with, with, with, with, uh, with a good friend of mine, who we all know here, and they, they wanted to pay people freelance and I'm like you can't do that anymore. You know, this isn't the 70s and 80s and 90s, right, like you have to. People are leaving their family and coming to the woods to live with you, or they're leaving their family in the middle of the night to hop on that train and go to winnipeg. You might be there for a couple days. Yeah, you know, like to me, that has value and it was way undervalued for a long time, whether it was the lodge industry oil and gas you, you know or the railroad. So tell me about that, what the effects that it has on your family.
Speaker 1:I look at it as my wife Shelby's a single parent five months of the year because generally my trips are anywhere from 18 to 30 hours away from home and you're going every other day to work on call. It's a lot to take. It's you got to have a very strong partner and understanding partner and you got to make sure you take time out for them when you're home.
Speaker 2:I agree, I find you do that very well. Buddy, I want to tell you like as a as a as a guy who's interviewing you right now, but as a really close friend of yours and I see a lot of you know we have a lot of friends together that are with the Teamsters right and that work on the rail yard. A lot of those guys don't take that time with their children and I really respect the fact that you, that Scarlett and Shelby are always there with you when you have some time off. It pisses me off when I want to go fishing with you and you'd say no, but next time.
Speaker 1:I understand, yeah you got to try and find the balance. Like you do need your own time to get out, and I remember listening to one of the shows here getting out is like meditation.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so you got to find different cues to do, like Shelby's very understanding, like when I'm getting overtired with work and overstressed, or however you want to put it. Yeah, I need that day just by myself to go with a friend, or even by myself, jump on, jump in the boat, jump on the snow machine or quad, go hunting or fishing and just zone out to everything nice and come back refreshed. But if you do that too much it's going to put huge strain on the family.
Speaker 2:So trying to find that old balance, keithan well, I think in yours too, your personal life and work life, that the mesh that you have is. I see your partner is very, she has the same interest as you. Yeah, you know, I mean like you can like, oh, you know, you and shelb, can you know you can go and sit in the field and shoot your crossbow to go on a date night, or you could go punch some holes, catch a few walleyes, or you can take her to the movies. You know, I mean like you guys. It seems that she is very much into the outdoors, as much as you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that 100% helps being able to do that. She actually got drawn for a moose tag last fall. Unfortunately, we didn't fill it.
Speaker 2:That's super cool yeah that your wife was able to win.
Speaker 1:The daughter in the truck and going out spending time in the bush. Just making memories is the biggest thing.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, that's key. I know I used to love, like when I lived out west back when I was an oilman still, those were some of my favorite times. I'd take Olivia you know Olivia's 22, now 223, I think right away I think, and I'd take her out on my side-by-side. We'd go in the middle of a field and I'd just put up a four-block and she had a tiny little you know what I mean a little crossbow, yeah and she'd shoot, or we'd have her little 22 or 17 mil back then too, and we'd shoot right, and it was just fun, right, Like just to be there with my kid. I never, you know, I missed that time in life. I think now I take life a little too seriously. Now that you learn as you get older. I'm finding that you learn a lot but you start to overthink a lot too of what you want to do. You try to over-perfect things because you know that they need to be good.
Speaker 1:That's one of the hardest things and, like the rare way, definitely is not for everybody. You, it's a huge commitment. The on-call thing is terrible, never knowing your schedule and working with smelly old men, yeah but having a strong partner is one of the biggest keys.
Speaker 1:that makes it easier. Because and family for that matter because you're not going to be able to make a lot of events yeah, because you don't really know when you're going. You have an idea, but you don't know when you're going. You don't know how long exactly you're going to be gone.
Speaker 2:Like I said most. Yeah, you're on call pretty much Like you know a period of time when you're on call, let's say a two-day period, right, matt, but you really don't know when you're going to go on call.
Speaker 1:No, so you come in and you book your rest and then you generally up to 24 hours and then when you hit certain mileages of earned time you can take a 48. So when you come off rest you're on call and you slowly move up a board. It's called where your position. So when you come in you tie up.
Speaker 2:That's your position behind they're actually called tying up a train, even though tying it up wouldn't do shit.
Speaker 1:Yeah really, and you move up the board and then, when you're available and first out that's when you're going to work or if you're available and there's guys ahead of you on your ass, you're going to work. So your life lives a lot around the phone, which is kind of hard to do and, like I was saying, that's where having a strong partner comes in. Knowing like I need to go to sleep, I'm going to work at midnight, I'm going to have dinner, I'm going for sleep, and then you're getting called for work.
Speaker 2:That's got to be tough. Yeah, that's got to be tough. Well, you know what we should do today to make that not tough. We should dunk my boat after we're done this podcast and go catch a largemouth right out here in front of my house.
Speaker 1:Oh, definitely.
Speaker 2:Want to do that. So what, now that we know a little bit of history about the trains, and I just think it's so cool. We know a little bit of history about the trains, and that's just the thing that's so cool. Tell me how you said that fishing and hunting kind of they're your zen time, you know. Tell me how you got into fishing and hunting and what's your favorite thing to do and eat. Tell me your favorite way to fish and where you like to go. And tell me what your favorite hunting abilities are. Tell me a hunting story, maybe.
Speaker 1:So, like I was saying, my dad got me into fishing and hunting. We grew up fishing a lot of back lakes, trout and walleye, and fishing on black sturgeon, obviously, and same with chicken hunting, moose hunting, deer hunting and when I got a bit older I got into waterfowl and that's actually probably my favorite thing to hunt is waterfowl. Really, big game is awesome, it's a huge rush, but once you do make your shot on an animal, your season's done and you can't really. There's a lot of work after the process and I like making all my own stuff, yep, and doing the butchering and all that stuff. That's one of my.
Speaker 2:You're a sausage party kind of guy.
Speaker 1:That's one of my favorite things is processing wild game and making different stuff and trying to change people's opinions on it. Yeah, for sure. And that's where waterfowl as well. Yeah, canadian goose gets such a bad rap for the taste and everything. I think it's one of the most underutilized meats out there.
Speaker 2:Really, I've had goose jerky a couple of times. I had your goose jerky I think McMahon dropped me off some one time but I've never had a goose breast.
Speaker 1:Well, goose pastrami is one of my favorite things. I also do. That's well. That's a five-day cure. You got to cure it for five days and then it takes a day to smoke. Okay, I actually got it off a meat eater the recipe, and it is absolutely phenomenal. If you haven't done it, their recipes online. If you're a waterfowl hunter, give it a try. It's absolutely great. Slice it thin with some mustard on a shakoodoo board. Oh shit really Comes out phenomenal.
Speaker 2:We'll have to do that. We should do that this fall. I love that.
Speaker 1:One of my other things. I call them goose poppers. So I'll take the breast and cut it up into one inch by one inch cubes and I'll do like a base teriyaki soya, brown sugar, garlic pepper, soak it overnight, pull it out, put two slits, put a water chest on the jalapeno and wrap it in bacon, oh goodness, that sounds lovely smoke it to medium yep, because the biggest mistake most people make is overcooking it and that's where that livery tough taste comes from.
Speaker 1:Is it being overcooked? And, honestly, I put those little poppers up against any fillet bite out of a beef and I guarantee you'll take mine every time.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's incredible I'm gonna put that to the test this fall, for sure, for sure. That's awesome, buddy. Well, what about uh fishing? You know you got grew up in a black sturgeon here fishing. What's your favorite? What do you like to do? Do you like that? You like the musky fish? I know what you do, but tell them what you like. Do you like the walleye fish? You like the musky fish, bass fish what do you like to do?
Speaker 1:just fishing in general, but my favorite thing is musky. Uh, when I moved back in Kenora, one of my good friends, chris Soderman, took me out in the fall jigging. My wife would probably curse him for it, but went out and jigging in this spot on Lake of the Woods and never caught anything. But I remember pulling up the bondi bait and going to drop it back down and seeing had to be a 40-inch musky come up and dive down after it and that just absolutely got me hooked.
Speaker 1:That was the hunt right there and that was seven years ago, and since then it's it's become an obsession of mine. Like I have a musky fishing scene tattooed on my arm and thousands upon thousands upon thousands, he dollars, he really does, folks, I have seen it. To me it's my favorite thing to go for the chase of. It is much adrenaline rushes doing anything. In my opinion, seeing a four-foot-plus fish charge at your bait bait hit by the boat, biggest thing is handling them, having the proper safety and the proper gear.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree, proper gear especially with the more fishing pressure that all these lakes are getting by, you know, by morons like me trying to promote it up here. You know that that's the by the by standard right. The innocent bystander is not people not having the right equipment and the extraction tools to do the job.
Speaker 1:You're right, matt and that's even holding it how you hold it. That's one of the biggest things. Yep, I've learned a lot from watching doug wagner and, uh, glenn mcdonald at 54 boss, yeah, they were great and lots of information learned and, yep, like I said, yeah, very educational man for sure, my buddy. Chris soderman got me into it and he taught me piles of boat control and what to look he's a, he's one of the best on the lake right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, I've never seen it where somebody says there's one following and I'm scrambling trying to get the net for him, he's like don't even bother, it's not going to take it. And then five casts later, ten casts later, here's another one coming. He's like get the net, this one's biting and he catches it.
Speaker 2:It's absolutely unreal how he can read a fish, that's awesome. Well, when you get that good though right, that's awesome. That's how these guys are, man. Well, let's end the show off here with give me one thing I know everybody's going to text us and email us. How many times a year do you hit animals? Do you ever hit bears on the tracks? Do you hit trains? Tell me what it's like when you hit a bear. You hit bears on the tracks. You hit trains. Tell me what it's like when you hit a bear and it goes flying in the woods, and then we'll end off with a tell me the wildest train story you have, and then we'll end off.
Speaker 1:Bears are insanely tough Like.
Speaker 2:Will they stand there on the track and look at you?
Speaker 1:I've whopped them at 60 mile an hour. I've hit them at 25.
Speaker 2:And they're running across, or are they standing there looking at you?
Speaker 1:times they stand there. So the best thing to do when you see an animal shut the lights off and hit the bell and usually take off.
Speaker 2:Sometimes you come around the corner doing 60 and you don't have because you don't want the lights on, because it'll be like a deer in the headlights, as they say.
Speaker 1:Sorry and like I think it was last year, the year before, I hit a bear coming into town on the bridge and bounce them over their side of the bridge and I'm like, well, he must be done. And I look over and there he is running up the side of the hill and it's like how did you? How is that happening?
Speaker 2:yeah, wow what's the big? Have you ever?
Speaker 1:hit a big moose. Never hit a moose. Luckily I've hit a lot of deer.
Speaker 2:Have you talked to anybody who's hit a moose? Yeah, it's a thud but but you still wouldn't feel it. I mean, there's so much weight and power there, right Like you just hear the thud?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's insane. What about a vehicle? Have you ever hit a vehicle? I've been fortunate enough never to have. That's one of my biggest fears driving For sure.
Speaker 2:And I don't mean with someone in it, let's not have a horrible conversation I just mean like a vehicle that broke down on the road and somebody's got away in their way. I've never hit one, wow.
Speaker 1:The biggest thing people don't always understand with it, like a 30 plus thousand ton grain train doing 25 mile an hour. Even it's going to take me, with a full set break, a mile mile and a bit the kinetic energy to stop that train is insane. Yeah for sure so it's be vigilant out there. People don't run across in front of anybody. Yeah, we can't stop on the dime Right. Be smart with it. That's one of the biggest things I can say is safety around there.
Speaker 2:People just don't think Common sense right Like you're in a car.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That is 40,000 cars of weight. Right, Like, come on right, it's just common sense, right.
Speaker 1:And unfortunately there are incidents every year. But try and be vigilant around the charts. People, it's your life and you know what it's ours, because we have to deal with the aftermath. Our families have to deal with how we are after, for sure, right Everything. So be careful around them. Don't be in a rush. The longest you're usually going to be stuck somewhere is five minutes. Leave five minutes early if you know you have to go listen folks.
Speaker 2:We all know it's five minutes from this engineer, but we freaking know it's 10. Tell me a good, tell me a good train stormy. Tell me a funny or uh, you have one off the top of your head not really just working with the guys different people.
Speaker 1:There's always fun.
Speaker 2:You get a good camaraderie with different people and like, is it like a trailer park boys episode kind of working on the train?
Speaker 1:oh, lots of them are you drive with certain people, you don't with the others, but cooking food on the train? We have a hot plate up there. Bring a frying pan. Try and make the best out of a trip. Sometimes you're four hours on the train, sometimes you're 10. Sometimes you're 12. Yeah, so just try to make it enjoyable doing whatever inside the rules and not to yeah, always stay in the rules or not?
Speaker 2:Yeah, always stay in the rules, for sure, awesome. Well, I want to thank everybody for getting this far. I want to thank you, matt, and your beautiful wife, shelby, for letting us have you this morning. Thanks for your time and I was really wanting to do this episode really bad. To learn about trains is really interesting to me and the amount of strength and power and knowledge it takes these guys to do their job. And folks remember, without these guys and the truck drivers and that you know, we don't have a country operating right. Especially right now, we need to stand behind Canada, you know, and these guys are the ones that are transporting our goods from coast to coast right and keeping it on canadian soil. So make sure we uh, we respect their values and what they need on the tracks out there. Um, if you guys have any questions for matt, reach out to me. Um, you guys all know you can get a hold of Steve at steven at fishincanadacom. You can get a hold of Willie here at info at sunsetlimocom.
Speaker 2:Give Lakeside Marine Andrew. Andrew up at Lakeside Marine has some awesome deals going on right now. I just bought a brand new side-by-side off him. The guy drove it down to my freaking house. Unbelievable, like shows up here. It's loaded rear view mirrors in it, like man if it had a back scratcher. That's the only thing that thing doesn't have. Get onto his website. Take a look. He services all of northwestern Ontario. You can order things online from him. Just check him out, give him some support, hop on his page even if you're not from there, like his stuff just because you're a family of the show here.
Speaker 2:Get over to fishingcanadacom and look at Ange and Pete always got Indino. They always got things up there for giveaways. Garmin's giving away another LiveScope. They're giving away that electric motor man that would be so cool to have that going into Backlakes flying in right. So get in there and get those draws filled out. You know, do them 100 to 200 at a time. You know Rick Payne. He won my trip. It was a $6,000 trip and Rick Payne and his wife won it and that's how he did it. It was just continuously going back on. These contests are real folks, so I can vouch for it. Matthew, it was a pleasure having you.
Speaker 1:Thanks for having me as well. It's always fun.
Speaker 2:And thus concludes another episode of Diaries of a Lodge Owner.
Speaker 4:Stories of the North the day I was born, bending my rock, stretching my line. Someday I might own a lodge, and that'd be fine. I'll be making my way the only way I know how, working hard and sharing the north with all of my pals. Well, I'm a good old boy. I buy the lodge and live my dream. And now I'm here talking about how life can be as good as it seems.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Hi everybody. I'm Angelo Viola and I'm Pete.
Speaker 8:Bowman yeah, hi everybody. I'm Angelo Viola and I'm Pete Bowman. Now you might know us as the hosts of Canada's favorite fishing show, but now we're hosting a podcast.
Speaker 3:That's right. Every Thursday, Ang and I will be right here in your ears bringing you a brand new episode of Outdoor Journal Radio.
Speaker 8:Hmm, Now what are we going to talk about for two hours every week?
Speaker 3:Well, you know there's going to be a lot of fishing.
Speaker 6:I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and how to catch them, and they were easy to catch.
Speaker 8:Yeah, but it's not just a fishing show. We're going to be talking to people from all facets of the outdoors, from athletes, All the other guys would go golfing Me and Garth and Turk and all the Russians would go fishing.
Speaker 3:To scientists, now that we're reforesting and it's the perfect transmission environment for life.
Speaker 7:To chefs If any game isn't cooked properly, marinated, you will taste it.
Speaker 3:And whoever else will pick up the phone Wherever you are.
Speaker 8:Outdoor Journal Radio seeks to answer the questions and tell the stories of all those who enjoy being outside.
Speaker 3:Find us on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 5:As the world gets louder and louder, the lessons of our natural world become harder and harder to hear, but they are still available to those who know where to listen. And harder to hear, but they are still available to those who know where to listen. I'm Jerry Ouellette and I was honoured to serve as Ontario's Minister of Natural Resources. However, my journey into the woods didn't come from politics. Rather, it came from my time in the bush and a mushroom. In 2015, I was introduced to the birch-hungry fungus known as chaga, a tree conch with centuries of medicinal use by Indigenous peoples all over the globe.
Speaker 5:After nearly a decade of harvest, use, testimonials and research, my skepticism has faded to obsession and I now spend my life dedicated to improving the lives of others through natural means. But that's not what the show is about. My pursuit of the strange mushroom and my passion for the outdoors has brought me to the places and around the people that are shaped by our natural world. On Outdoor Journal Radio's Under the Canopy podcast, I'm going to take you along with me to see the places, meet the people that will help you find your outdoor passion and help you live a life close to nature. And under the canopy Find Under the Canopy now on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever else you get your podcasts.