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Just twelve days after the year of 1950 began, saw the end of an era in Railroading.  
 
With the raucous sound of a motor horn blaring from the Cab of a Diesel Locomotive, the romance of pioneering the west was now only a memory.  
 
As the first metal monster to arrive in Brandon that did not hiss or pant, hauling a Trans-continental Passenger train, the citizenry of Brandon was drawn towards the Pacific Avenue Depot for an initial look at Railroad History.  
 
Local civic authorities solemnly inspected the streamlined unit, which lacked the long familiar ponderous driving wheels, and the large overhead boilers with leaking steam so familiar with the Iron Horse transportation medium of the past seven decades.  
 
After only a few minutes of inspection by Engineer W. McInnis he proceeded to make another first in Railroad History on this day. He was the first local Railroader to take over the controls of this futuristic type of locomotive. The Fireman who accompanied him was Mr. R. J. Cross, and as the train slowly started its journey on its next step westward, the hundreds of spectators in attendance wildly cheered.  
 
Today we have no nostalgic recollection of the wail of a steam train crossing the Prairies in the dead of night, but for the Homesteader it was an assurance to know that others were arriving to help relieve the loneliness of their Prairie farming life.  
 
Source: Daly House Museum Archives.