harrym,
Your remark:
"A British product, the Airspeed Oxford was a trainer based on the Envoy, a small commercial airliner of the thirties" , makes one wonder why this was the aircraft chosen, of all things, to be the lead-in to the Meteor (the "Tornado" of the Fifties, remember). No wonder the new boys did't know what hit them ! And that was the case as late as '54, to my certain knowledge, as that year 608 got a National Service P/O trained on them at Dalcross.
Hearing your harrowing tale of the Frozen North makes me appreciate my good fortune in drawing Florida and Alabama out of the "Lucky Dip" ! (not that "Ol' Alabam" was all that warm in late winter, even though it was in the Deep South and "The Cradle of the Confederacy").
The American locos and rolling stock looked much the same as your pic of the Canadian ones, Chugalug, and that distant lonesome double wail in the night will be forever unforgettable.
Cheers, both..... Danny.