The Canadian Northern "Pioneer" near Lloydminster, Sask., 1905.
Gangs on the "pioneer" (a generic term applied to all track-laying machines) were the aristocrats of the grade. The nature of this job meant that they would be closer to civilization, and because this work was carried out by either the head contractor or the railway itself, they did not have to contend with gouging sub-contractors. A journalist provided an excellent description of the "pioneer" and its train: "in the middle is a locomotive. Along each side. . .runs a wooden trough, suspended in air, bottomed with rollers. From the cars, into the trough at the right of the train, men are throwing ties; into the trough at the left, rails. A steady current of ties and rails flows forward over the rollers of the troughs, forward all the way to the Machine. The Machine stands like a gallows frame at the front of the foremost car. Ahead of it crosswise on the grade, the ties fall;... Whereupon, with long wooden arms extending forward from its bony frame, with steel cables for tendons and compressed air clutches for hands, the Machine lifts the rails, swings them and lays them down on the ties to make the skeleton of the track."
