Welcome to the last (belated) trolleypost of January! We hope you have enjoyed the country of Canada, as we venture south to Mexico and Central America next month.
As for today's topic, it's one that's rather out there, even for the scope of this blog. In all the coverage we've had over the past three years, the stories of the interurbans we tell all seem to end the same: company goes belly-up due to nobody caring about its existence anymore, so the cars get sold to scrap merchants or donated to museums, or (more rarely) sold onto other uses. For many American interurban cars, their ultimate fates involved another life in the Great White North, and it is for that purpose why today's Trolley Thursday will look at the second-hand interurban cars of the Pacific Great Eastern.
Vancouver! Vancouver! This is It!
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PGE No. 53 is running an extra train of lumber as it poses for the photographer
in July 1914. It was later lost when it hit a landslide and went into Seton Lake
on 1/23/1950 , killing its crew. It's probably still down there.
(Paul McGrane) |
The beginnings of this secondhand home for redundant interurbans began on February 27, 1912, when the
Pacific Great Eastern Railway (PGE) was incorporated to build a line from Vancouver, BC, to Prince George to connect with the
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (GTP). Though the latter line did not begin operating until 1914, PGE's incorporation agreed that GTP could use its line to Vancouver to reach the ocean, rather than GTP's more remote terminal of Prince Rupert (which was much closer to Alaska than Vancouver Island). After three years of construction, the PGE had reached Chasm (now the Chasm Provincial Park, near the town of Clinton, BC) from its start in Squamish, some 40 miles north of Vancouver in the Garibaldi Highlands, and money was beginning to run out by the time of the 1916 provincial election. To make a long governmental story short, the Liberal Party was alleging that the PGE's main contractors (Timothy Foley, Patrick Welch and John "Not the one on Comedy Central" Stewart) failed to pay off their bonds in order to direct $5 million in unaccounted funds to the Conservative Party.
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PGE's Quesnel Railway Station, the top station for many decades.
(City of Quesnel) |
Following the election, in which the Conservative Party lost to the Liberals, Foley, Welch, and Stewart were taken to court over the missing $5 million. After two years of trialing, the PGE's financial backers agreed to pay a minimum settlement of $1.1 million and turn the PGE over to government control, beginning a long and arduous tale of a railroad always on the verge of just up and dying. By the time the government took control, another line had been added with the opening of a twenty-mile stretch between North Vancouver to Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver. This stretch was still 28 miles south of Squamish, and the two lines remained only nominally connected by way of an already-existing barge operation. To make matters worse, the PGE was obligated under contract to provide passenger service until 1928. The Great Depression further stymied any improvements PGE or the provincial government could make, as they never really reached Prince George and stopped 80 miles south at Quesnel. PGE, then, remained a barren, insular "nowhere-to-nowhere" run for the next twenty years due to having no major urban centers along its mainline and having to depend on timber and ore traffic.
The Reason Why You Are Here
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The Oregon Electric's finest parlor car, "Champoeg", now the PGE's "Bridge River".
(Unknown Author) |
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PGE's "Quesnel" business car, originally the OE parlor car "Santiam".
Note the retained stained-arch windows and the cut-down interurban
car to the left.
(Canada Science & Technology Museum) |
Because of the sorry state of the railway, it was up to PGE's mechanical and motive power departments to ensure they had adequate rolling stock to keep the railway from bankruptcy hell. At the same time in America, the
Oregon Electric Railway (OE) running from Portland to Eugene via Albany, had announced that due to severe losses and a burgeoning desire for freight-only service, it was ending its passenger services on May 13, 1933. Nine ex-interurban cars, including parlor cars No. 1001 "Champoeg" and No. 1010 "Santiam", were sold to PGE in 1934 for passenger operation in and around North and West Vancouver. The parlor cars were demotored and were given new names as business cars, with the "Champoeg" becoming the "Bridge River" and the "Santiam" renamed into the "Quesnel".
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"Observation" car No. 15 trails behind a steam-hauled PGE train outside of Quesnel, BC,
in this April 1947 photo. The car in front may very well by the "Quesnel" seen above.
(W.E. Miller, Canada Science & Technology Museum) |
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Ex-OE Car No. 125, now PGE 605, trails on a mixed train shot
in Lillooet, BC, January 21, 1961.
(Canada Science & Technology Museum) |
All cars were stripped of their motors (if motored) but kept their original interurban trucks, leaving them looking quite light-weight. End windows were also painted over to blank them out, while the arched stained glass was kept until an unknown amount of time, when they were painted out. In the 1940s, ex-OE Nos. 140 and 122 (now PGE 14 and 15, and an unknown No. 16) were cut down to the window beltline and used for excursion and passenger services between Squamish and Quesnel. Even express trailers from the OE were not spared as they were reworked into express baggage and mail cars, the end windows making for quite an odd appearance when paired with ex-Milwaukee Road Hiawatha coaches. After passenger numbers dwindled on the PGE into the 1960s, these cars were increasingly used on work trains alongside another interurban interloper.
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In an unknown year, possibly the early 1950s, a PGE RS-3 diesel and an ex-US Army car
lead a train of ex-OE interurbans, steel heavyweights, an IPS sleeper car, and an ex-OE "open car"
on a sunny day along the Squamish River.
(Ben Cutler) |
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The PGE's "Clinton" sleeper car at Squamish, showing the little
sleeper windows above the new headboard name.
(Canada Science & Technology Museum) |
Pacific Great Eastern also purchased three heavyweight interurban sleeper cars from the
Interstate Public Service (IPS), an interurban railway that was one of only a handful in America to run a regular sleeper car service. These cars were originally built by American Car & Foundry in 1924 to operate the 114-mile run from Indianapolis to Louisville, and as such were outfitted with sleeper compartments to assist sleepy travelers between the two states. When the Great Depression curbed these unprofitable operations, all three cars (No. 166 "Indianapolis", No. 167 "Scottsburg", and No. 168 "Louisville") were sold to PGE in 1937. Much like the OE cars, the IPS cars were stripped of their motors but kept their interurban trucks, and operated much as they did in interurban service around British Columbia, gaining the names "Barkersville", "Clinton", and "Pavilion", respectively. Following a decrease in passenger use, cars like the "Clinton" became part of work trains until their retirement in 1965.
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Ex-IPS sleeper "Barkersville" (originally "Indianapolis") at Lillooet, BC, on January 19, 1963.
The photo suggests the car is painted in the then-new yellow-and-green-stripe livery.
(Canada Science & Technology Museum) |
Surviving Artifacts
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In this blurry home film view from 1965, the interurban lines of these fine OE cars are
on full display as they operate on the Vernonia, South Park & Sunset Railroad.
The full film can be found here.
(Thomas Matlock) |
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No matter where they go, these handsome wooden cars possess
a little bit of interurban flavor you can't get anywhere else.
(Rapid City Journal) |
Incredibly, these old wooden and steel interurban cars were able to outlast their own railroads, with the
Oregon Electric ending their electric operations and ceasing to exist in 1945 and the
Indiana Railroad (the successor to the IPS
) ceasing their operations following a vicious collision in 1941. Eight ex-OE cars returned to Oregon when PGE sold them to the
Vernonia, South Park & Sunset Steam Railway Association of Northwestern Oregon (some 25 miles northwest of Portland) for their steam excursion line between 1965 to 1969. Following the railway line's lease expiration and subsequent abandonment back to nature, the cars were purchased by the
Black Hills Central Railway of South Dakota in 1970 to run on their Hill City railroad line. One of these cars, ex-PGE 14 (ex-OE No. 140) was the only one of the two cut-down excursion cars to be retained, while a second was fashioned by
Black Hills Central out of ex-freight motor No. 144 (later PGE No. 602). All cars have since been restored and can be ridden on today at the railroad, complete with new names which I will not elaborate on here.
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The Champoeg, as it arrived to the Western Railway Museum from the WVER in 1974.
(Western Railway Museum) |
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No. 1001 takes her rightful place on the back of a WRM excursion train,
looking once again like a shining example of what an interurban should be:
luxurious and practical at the same time.
(Joseph C.) |
As for the one not mentioned, ex-
Oregon Electric No. 1001, "Champoeg" (known at this point as PGE's "Bridge River") was first saved by the
Willamette Valley Electric Railway Association (WVER) of Glenwood, Oregon, in 1956. The WVER also saved two future
Black Hills Central interurban cars (OE No. 133 and 65) from the
Skagit River Railway of Nehalem, Washington, USA, before selling them to
Vernonia, South Park & Sunset in 1966. The "Champoeg" was eventually purchased by the
Western Railway Museum (WRM) of Rio Vista, California, USA in 1974 and came to the museum in a shambolic state (as seen by the photo above). It was restored over a long period back to its
Oregon Electric paint and configuration, complete with those enormous rear observation windows. It can sometimes be found on the museum's excursion train, but plans have been made to return it to full operation, as well as restoring the interior to its former glory.
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Ex-PGE sleeper car "Clinton" in the backshops of the
Railway Museum of British Columbia, awaiting restoration.
(John Smatlak) |
As for the IPS sleeper cars, only one seems to have escaped the scrapper's torch. The "Clinton" (ex-IPS No. 167, "Scottsburg") was able to find a new lease on life by being rescued by the
Puget Sound Railway Historical Society (better known as the
Northwest Railway Museum) in Snoqualmie, Washington, USA, in 1965, following a brief reassignment to work train service. After spending almost thirty years stored at the museum, the car was sold and purchased by the
West Coast Railway Association of Squamish, BC, who currently keep the car at their heritage park, awaiting restoration. Its existence (one of two surviving interurban sleeper cars, the other being from
Illinois Terminal) caught the attention of
Hoosier Heartland Trolley, an Indiana-based heritage nonprofit whose goal is to return Indiana's mighty interurbans to prominence. While they have no plans to repatriate the "Clinton" and re-letter it the "Scottsburg", they have at least shown their appreciation in having one of their original cars saved for future generations.
BC Rail Now
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BC Rail at its peak, with lines stopping just short of the Alaskan border.
(JYolkowski) |
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CPR "Royal Hudson" No. 2860 proudly steams down the Squamish River
to North Vancouver from Squamish, showing off the spectacular scenery.
(Bill Edgar) |
As the former interurbans were able to find new homes and new lives back in the states,
Pacific Great Eastern was having a barnstormer time up in Canada. Based on the boasts of BC Premier W.A.C. Bennett, who claimed the railroad would reach Alaska and the Yukon by the end of the 1960s, new main lines to Mackenzie and Fort St. James were completed by 1968. In 1971, the railroad almost did reach the Yukon with the opening of an extended line from Fort St. John to Fort Nelson, a distance of 250 miles and ending just 100 miles from the border. At the same time, the inaugural dignitary train on the line nearly derailed south of Prince George. In 1973, following its change from "PGE" to "
British Columbia Rail" (or BC Rail), the railroad bought and restored (on government money), ex-
Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) "Royal Hudson" No. 2860 and used it for excursion service between North Vancouver and Squamish from 1974 to 2001. It remained the only regularly-scheduled, mainline steam operation in North America in the late 20th century.
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An RDC inspection train from 1985 stops at the BC Rail's Tumbler Ridge Subdivision
to check on everything. The electric locomotives developed 6000HP from 50kv overhead
catenary, enabling them to pull 98-car trains of ore weighing 13,000 tons.
(Cliff Bancroft) |
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GMD GF6C No. 6001, now preserved at the
Prince George Railway & Forestry Museum.
(Alasdair McLellan) |
In a hilarious turn of irony, despite rostering ex-interurban coaches and retaining their streetcar parts, BC Rail finally began electrification on the Tumbler Ridge Subdivision in the early 1980s, serving two coal mines northeast of Prince George. Due to the long tunnels and the existence of the W.A.C. Bennett Hydroelectric Dam, electrification made sense. Unfortunately, building the audacious line put BC Rail's finances into a tailspin and following closure of the Quintette Mine on August 19, 2000, the Tumbler Ridge Branch followed suit, with the last electric locomotives working on September 29, 2000. Only one of these giant locomotives, No. 6001, has been saved and put on display at the
Prince George Railway & Forestry Museum. In 2003, BC Rail's operations and assets were sold to
Canadian National while the former retained its track ownership, which led to another political scandal around the railroad, this time aimed at the BC Liberal Government playing favorites to CN rather than rival bidder CPR. After 2004, CN assumed BC Rail's operations, but the original company still technically exists as a track owner and "crown company", as well as significant real estate investments around British Columbia.
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And that, as they say, is that. Farewell, Canada!
(Marty Bernard) |
Thank you for reading today's Trolley post, and watch your step as you alight on the platform. My resources today included the
by Christopher Andreae, and the photo credits under each caption. The trolley gifs in our posts are made by myself and can be found under
. On Tuesday, we finally break through into Mexico and Latin America by looking at Mexico City's streetcar system! For now, you can follow
! It's like Ticket to Ride, but cooler! (and you get to support him through it!) Until next time, ride safe!
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