If you have seen the picture that we used at the start of this petition, it was from early 1908 indicating the first engine of the new turntable.  The very same turntable that we are trying to preserve and save.

One of the many people that we have met due to this initiative is William Walker.  He lives in Oakville, Ontario whose family were from Dauphin, Rivers and Brandon and all had a long history of railroading in the Dauphin area.  He shared this history.

His Grandfather, William Alfred Walker (1863-1923) is the locomotive engineer on the steam engine in the picture above.  He was the "oldest man on the road and locomotive fireman" with the Canadian Northern Railway (1899-1923).  Five of his sons became members of the Canadian Northern family and later Canadian National Railway (CNR).  The sons accumulated over 200 years of service on these railways as noted in a retirement service held in Victoria, BC in the late 1950's.  His Father, Frank Hector Walker, retired from the CNR in 1966 with 46 years of service.  He retired as a Locomotive Foreman in Brandon, MB.

He never had a chance to meet his Grandfather, as he died in 1923, but obviously he did know his Uncles and other later generation of family members including the Thompson family (his Mother's side of the family who were also Canadian Northern and CNR employees).  Although he never met W.A. Walker, walking around the turntable and inside the Roundhouse gave him a wonderful sense of following in the footsteps of my long gone family.  It was a wonderful and spiritual feeling.

This is just one example of the people and stories that this 119 year artifact, the last remaining in Manitoba tells.