West Coast Railway Museum - Squamish BC

New thread for info at the museum in Squamish BC Canada , home of Royal Hudson # 2860

 

Great to see. I visited by way of the Royal Hudson from Vancouver North (Hell, that must have been last century ) and still have the tie to prove it ! A fascinating collection of railway history and well laid out. I can thoroughly recommend it.
I hadn't realised the steam connection from Vancouver had stopped. It was a very interesting ride up the inlet past the logging boats and the mine. What happened ?

Mike

 

Yes the Province withdrew funding for the 2860 excursion , then put BC Rail up for sale ,. CN took on the railway but being freight only , no passenger service . This all happened years ago ....2860 was donated by the Province of BC to the WCRA museum where she has lived since 2001 . We did get her back in steam in 2006 and ran her till the end of 2010 when her boiler certificate expired , safety rules were changed by Safety BC so inspections are due every 5 yrs instead of 10 yrs..... hence its too expensive to run her , she sits inside the Roundhouse in Squamish for now . So the museum have just bought the old BC Rail loco workshops across the road from the museum known as MP2 , we use this for loco storage and overhaul ...other changes are taking place at the main site until Covid19 stopped all play .....to be continued .....

 

Answer to Monkey Magic from West Somerset thread ......the colonist car was still in the shop last time I checked , there was someone working on it , but to what stage I can t tell you , whole place is shut down right now ....will try to update later as we open up ....cheers

 

Hunter Harrison's trail of destruction. BC rail lost their passenger services. When he moved to CP I think ended steam on there as well.

What is the state of the railways on Vancouver Island?

When I rode on the train from Squamish I travelled behind 3716.

 

Monkey Magic, to answer your question on state of railways on Vancouver Island ..... what railways ! ....I'll qualify , no mainline traffic for several years now, nothing from Victoria northwards , track in situ , nothing happening although there is supposedly an Island Corridor Foundation ,they are supposed to bring service back ! no action as of the present . There is a small amount of traffic , propane that is offloaded from a barge at Welcox yard, Nanaimo, regularly it is tripped a few miles north and empties returned ..handled by 2 x GP9 s of SRY or as its known SVI ....other than that nothing ........maybe in the future , we are still waiting ..

 

We rode the train with 2860 in 1989 (bought the t-shirt, still wear it at the model railway club!) as part of a three week trip across the Dominion, got invited onto the footplate for the run-round at Squamish, wife was elated it was her birthday that actual day! We have been back to Canada several times since.
Visited Squamish museum in 2015, hence the foto in my avatar. Will be returning if the world, my wife and I survive the angel of death!

 

Glad you had a good trip out to the colonies and you got to see F7 4069 { your Avatar } , we now have F9u 6520 in CN ' zebra ' stripe livery as of last year , some other projects on going also.....hope you get to visit again in the future { after the virus departs us also ...} ...cheers

 

Took a bit of digging, here is her ladyship hanging out of the cab as mentioned above, then sat in the cab of 4069 some 26 years later!

 

A brief update from the Museum in Squamish ....Royal Hudson # 2860 has been moved across the street to our workshop for storage as the Roundhouse is being used for the annual Xmas ' North Pole Express ' event and space was at a premium . Work continues on our cosmetic restorations of Baldwin diesel DRS-4-4-1000, CP 8000 and also BC Electric center cab 960 , a couple of carriages have received repaints this year , including the open car # 598 . F7a # 4069 and F9u # 6520 will be used to haul the ' North Pole Express ' trains starting this weekend. Hope any folks visiting western Canada next year pop by our Museum and take in the sights.

 

Thanks for your posting.
I enjoyed the trip up to Squamish behind #2860 and my visit to the Museum back in late 1990s. Is #2860 just awaiting maintenance or are you prevented from running to North Vancouver ?

 

Dainton Banker , thanks for the interest , 2860 is out of boiler ticket , expired in 2010 ... needs a lot of work , tube plates , new tires , possibly a new inner firebox , as well as a water pump that was only on loan , lots of dollars required to overhaul her , so she is on display in our Roundhouse that's heated and dry and will be unless a benefactor is found ....We would also need another agreement with CN to run her locally ....cheers Richard

 

Sorry to hear that. Have you tried a public appeal ? I'd have thought Vancouver would provide plenty of supporters ?

 

Unfortunately there is not the interest in railway restoration as there is in UK , we did have a fund a while back but we really need corporate backers for this repair , we will require multiple millions of dollars for repairs to start , so we wait .........