BC Rail - WikiHQ

The British Columbia Railway Company , commonly known as BC Rail, is a railway in the Canadian province of British Columbia.

Chartered as a private company in 1912 as the Pacific Great Eastern Railway (PGE), it was acquired by the provincial government in 1918. In 1972 it was renamed to the British Columbia Railway, and in 1984 it took on the BC Rail branding. From 1978 to 2000, BC Rail was highly profitable, posting profits in every year throughout that period.

Until 2004 it operated as the third-largest railway in Canada, providing freight, passenger, and excursion rail services throughout BC on of mainline track. It also ran the Royal Hudson services, as well as the premier of British Columbia's private train.

It was designated a Class II Railway until 2004. In 2004, the freight operations (including a vast amount of land, buildings, and all rolling stock) of BC Rail were leased to Canadian National Railway (CN) for an initial period of 60 years, with the exception of the Deltaport Spur, for the price of $550 million.

BC Rail remains an operating Crown corporation today. It retains ownership of the entire right of way stretching from Prince George to North Vancouver, as well as ownership of all assets leased to CN. BC Rail retains significant real estate investments throughout BC, and a stretch of track from Roberts Bank Superport in Delta to Langley.

thumb|180px|left|A 1964 PGE [[passenger timetable cover; Peace River at Taylor.]]

In 1958, Premier of British Columbia W.A.C. Bennett boasted that he would extend the railway to the Yukon and Alaska, and further extension of the railway was undertaken in the 1960s. A spur was constructed to Mackenzie in 1966. A third line was extended west from the mainline (somewhat north of Prince George) to Fort St. James. It was completed on August 1, 1968. The largest construction undertaken in the 1960s was to extend the mainline from Fort St. John north to Fort Nelson, less than away from the Yukon. The Fort Nelson Subdivision was opened by Premier Bennett on September 10, 1971. Unfortunately, the opening of the line was overshadowed by the inaugural train derailing south of Williams Lake, south of Prince George.

1972–1989

thumb|200px|right|British Columbia Railway logo (1972–1984)

The railway underwent two changes of name during this time period. In 1972, the railway's name was changed to the British Columbia Railway (BCR). In 1984, the BCR was restructured. Under the new organization, BC Rail Ltd. was formed, owned jointly by the British Columbia Railway Company (BCRC) and by a BCRC subsidiary, BCR Properties Ltd. The rail operations became known as BC Rail.

In 1973, the British Columbia government acquired and restored an ex-Canadian Pacific Railway 4-6-4 steam locomotive of the type known as "Royal Hudsons", a name that King George VI permitted the class to be called after the Canadian Pacific Railway used one on the royal train in 1939. The locomotive that the government acquired, numbered 2860, was built in 1940 and was the first one built as a Royal Hudson. The government then leased it, along with ex-Canadian Pacific 2-8-0 #3716 to the British Columbia Railway, which started excursion service with the locomotive between North Vancouver and Squamish on June 20, 1974. The train ran between June and September on Wednesdays through Sundays from 1974 to 2001. During this time, the Royal Hudson Steam Train was the only regularly scheduled, mainline steam operation on a Class 1 railroad in North America.

thumb|left|240px|Map of the British Columbia Railway

In the 1960s, a new line had been projected to run northwest from Fort St. James to Dease Lake, away. On October 15, 1973, the first of the extension to Lovell (lat 55°33′, long 126°2′) were opened. The cost of the line was significantly greater than what was estimated, however. Contractors working on the remainder of the line alleged that the railway had misled them regarding the amount of work required so that it could obtain low bids, and took the railway to court.

The Dease Lake line was starting to appear increasingly uneconomical. There was a world decline in the demand for asbestos and copper, two main commodities that would be hauled over the line. As well, the Cassiar Highway that already served Dease Lake had recently been upgraded. Combined with the increasing construction costs, the Dease Lake line could no longer be justified. Construction stopped on April 5, 1977. Track had been laid to Jackson Creek (lat 56°50, long 128°12′), past Fort St. James, and clearing and grading were in progress on the rest of the extension. It had cost $168 million to that point, well over twice the initial estimate. The trackbed can be seen on Google Earth all the way to Dease Lake, via the small towns of Leo Creek (lat 55°3′, long 125°33′) and Takla Landing (lat 55°29′, long 125°58′).

The management and operation of the railway had been called into question, and on February 7, 1977, the provincial government appointed a Royal Commission, the McKenzie Royal Commission, to investigate the railway. Its recommendations were released on August 25, 1978. It recommended that construction not continue on the of roadbed between Dease Lake and the current end of track, and that trains be terminated at Driftwood (approx. lat 55°42, long 126°15′), past Lovell. The rest of the track would be left in place but not used. In 1983, after logging operations ceased at Driftwood and traffic declined sharply, the Dease Lake line was closed. However, it was reopened in 1991 and, as of 2005, extends to a point called Minaret Creek, British Columbia (lat 56°20′, long 127°17′), still over south of Dease Lake. Many of the commission's other recommendations, including the abandonment of the Fort Nelson line, and discontinuation of uneconomic operations such as passenger services, were not followed.

thumb|right|Two [[GMD GF6C electric locomotives lead a coal train on the Tumbler Ridge Subdivision in 1987.]]

In the early 1980s the railway built a new line and acquired another. The Tumbler Ridge Subdivision, a electrified branch line, opened in 1983 to the Quintette and Bullmoose mines, two coal mines northeast of Prince George that produced coal for Japan. It has the lowest crossing of the Rocky Mountains by a railway, at . There are two large tunnels under the mountains: The Table Tunnel, long, and the Wolverine Tunnel, long. Electrified owing to the long tunnels and close proximity to the W. A. C. Bennett Dam and transmission lines, it was one of the few electrified freight lines in North America. Although initially profitable, the traffic on the line was never as high as initially predicted, and by the 1990s was under one train per day. The railway had incurred much debt building the branch line, and the expensive, unprofitable operations on the branch line could not help to repay that debt. In 1984, BC Rail acquired the British Columbia Harbours Board Railway, a line that connects three class I railways with Roberts Bank, an ocean terminal that handles coal shipments. Since the line had been constructed in 1969, it had been leased to the CPR, Burlington Northern Railroad, and Canadian National Railway in succession.

1990–2003

thumb|200px|Two [[EMD SD40-2|SD40-2s and a GE C44-9WL at Pemberton in 1995]]

In the early 1990s, the provincial government reduced subsidies to BC Rail. As a result, BC Rail, burdened with several money-losing services that it was required to operate, saw its debtload grow more than sixfold between 1991 and 2001.

In the 1990s, BC Rail branched out into shipping operations, acquiring terminal operator Vancouver Wharves in 1993 and Canadian Stevedoring and its subsidiary, Casco Terminals, in 1998. In 1999 these operations became the three operating divisions of a new entity, BCR Marine. BCR Group became the parent company of both BCR Marine and BC Rail. In early 2003, attempting to reduce the railway's large debt, BCR Group sold its BCR Marine assets except for Vancouver Wharves (which was also not included in the subsequent sale of BC Rail to Canadian National, and remains a provincial Crown corporation).

On August 19, 2000, the Quintette mine closed, and the portion of the Tumbler Ridge Subdivision between Teck and Quintette, British Columbia, was abandoned. The last electric locomotives ran along the line on September 29, 2000, after which the line was worked by diesel locomotives. The Bullmoose mine closed on April 10, 2003, after which the remaining of the Tumbler Ridge Subdivision between Teck and Wakely was abandoned, although the track is still in place. The electric locomotives were shipped south to Tacoma, Washington, where they are being dismantled by CEECO Rail Services. One of the locomotives (6001) was purchased by the Paul D. Roy family and they donated it to the Prince George Railway and Forestry Museum in Prince George where it is being preserved.

Several other services were also discontinued around this time. The Royal Hudson steam train excursion was discontinued at the end of the 2001 excursion season. The 2860 was out of service in 2000, needing extensive repairs. The backup steam locomotive, a 2-8-0 locomotive built for the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1912, broke down in May 2001, and for the rest of the season BC Rail used a former Canadian Pacific Railway FP7A diesel locomotive #4069 that it had leased from the West Coast Railway Association in Squamish.

Passenger train service, which consisted of the Budd-RDC operated Cariboo Prospector and Whistler Northwind (Pacific starlight dinner train) trains, ended October 31, 2002. The service was unprofitable, allegedly owing to BC Rail's heavy dependence on their fleet of aging Budd Rail Diesel Cars (RDC), which were becoming increasingly expensive to keep in service. The RDCs have since been sold to various museums and operators around North America, such as the Wilton Scenic Railroad in New Hampshire and the West Coast Railway Association in Squamish.

Service between Seton Portage and Lillooet was replaced by a railbus. As well, around this time BC Rail ended its intermodal service.

Lease to CN

On May 13, 2003, BC Premier Gordon Campbell announced that the government would sell the operations of the railway (including all assets other than the rail right-of-way). During the previous election, he had promised not to sell the railway, and said that he was keeping this promise by retaining ownership of the right-of-way and only leasing the land to the operator. On November 25, Canadian National's (CN) bid of $1 billion was accepted over those of several other companies, including the Canadian Pacific Railway, the BNSF Railway, and OmniTRAX. The transaction was closed on July 15, 2004. Conversely, as of July 15, 2009, the fifth anniversary of the contract, CN has the right to decommission any part of the line, but upon doing so the land reverts to the Crown, though the Crown can sell it back to CN for $1. Canadian Pacific, a rival bidder, privately stated in since-released communications that the bid was "rigged".

In 2010, two BC Liberal Party ministerial aides pleaded guilty to charges of breach of trust and receiving a benefit for leaking information about the BC Rail leasing process, with both being sentenced to two years less a day of house arrest and 150 hours of community service.

CN era (2004–present)

On August 5, 2005, a 144-car CN train heading inland from Brackendale, derailed spilling eight empty lumber flat cars and one tank car of sodium hydroxide. The tank car spilled sodium hydroxide into the Cheakamus River, killing most of its fish.

Moran is a railway point on the BC Rail line north of Pavilion, British Columbia. The location, which is high on the side of the stretch of the Fraser Canyon known as Moran Canyon, is notable as the site of the proposed Moran Dam. At Moran, on June 29, 2006, a diesel locomotive hauling one flatcar of lumber down the steep Pavilion grade north of Lillooet had its air brakes fail. The train gathered speed until it derailed over a steep gravelly slope; two of the three crew members were killed.

In late March 2020, CN announced that it planned on abolishing through freight on the Lillooet Subdivision, between Williams Lake and Lillooet; as well as on the Squamish Sub, between Lillooet and Squamish. With some mills already curtailing operations and a further slowdown expected due to the emerging COVID-19 pandemic, on-line traffic did not warrant use of the section of railway, which runs through treacherous and maintenance-intensive territory. On April 7, the last regularly scheduled freight train arrived at the yard in Squamish. The remaining traffic in Williams Lake and points north now moves to the Greater Vancouver area via Prince George and the CN mainline. On the Squamish Subdivision, CN reportedly provided service to Continental Log homes in Mount Currie, and continues to use the line for railcar storage. The Rocky Mountaineer luxury railtour sightseeing train still operates during the summer, as the only remaining through train on the line.

On July 11, 2025, CN announced plans to abandon the route. This raised the possibility of the BC government terminating the freight operations lease and simultaneously relaunching passenger service, according to Patrick Weiler, the member of Parliament for that region.

Freight services

The railway transported a wide variety of products, from resource traffic to intermodal freight. Forest products were one of the main products transported by the railway. Before the lease of operations to CN, the railway transported over 120,000 carloads of lumber, pulp, woodchips, and other forest products per year. The railway served several lumber and pulp mills in the province. Between 1983 and 2003, the railway hauled coal in unit trains from the Teck and Quintette mines near Tumbler Ridge to Prince George, from where CN would haul the trains to Prince Rupert for shipment to Japan. The Quintette mine, the larger-producing of the two, closed in 2000 and the Teck mine closed in 2003.

Starting in the 1960s, the PGE operated an intermodal service that transported truck trailers between North Vancouver and Prince George, and to places further north. Unlike most of the railway's other traffic, most of the intermodal traffic was northbound. In April 1982, the railway combined its piggyback and less-than-carload (LCL) services to form a new Intermodal Services Department. BC Rail halted its intermodal services in 2002. Starting in 1958, the railway started to haul grain from the Peace River District, serving grain elevators at Dawson Creek, Buick, Fort St. John, and Taylor. With an amendment to the Western Grain Transportation Act in 1985 that included the railway in the act, it became economical for the railway to transport grain, and it also carried grain from Northern Alberta bound for Prince Rupert, interchanging with CN at Dawson Creek and Prince George.

From the 1920s to the 1960s, the railway also carried gold concentrate and bullion from the Bridge River goldfield towns of Bralorne and Pioneer Mine, which were trucked out of the goldfield area over the Mission Pass to the railway at Shalalth. The main freight company operating out of Shalalth was Evans Transportation Co., which grew to be one of the biggest transportation companies in the province. In addition to gold concentrate and ore, Evans and other companies based in Shalalth carried passengers, heavy equipment, and supplies of all kinds over the Mission Pass.

Interchanges

Between 1928 and 1952, the PGE interchanges were difficult—at Squamish there was a barge connection to North Vancouver and the rest of the North American railroads; after 1952 the PGE could connect with CN at Prince George. Connections were made to other railways when the railway completed its Howe Sound link in 1956. The main connection to the North American rail network was in North Vancouver, where there was a connection to CN. There was also a rail connection to deep-sea terminal operator Vancouver Wharves, and some interchange occurred with the Union Pacific Railroad through the Seaspan railbarge link between North Vancouver and Seattle, Washington. The railway also interchanged with CN at Prince George, and with Northern Alberta Railways (acquired by CN in 1981) at Dawson Creek. CN's line between Dawson Creek, British Columbia, and Hythe, Alberta, fell into disuse in 1998, but CN agreed to reopen it as a condition of purchasing BC Rail.

Two other excursion services were introduced by BC Rail in 1997 and 2001. In 1997, BC Rail introduced the Pacific Starlight dinner train, which ran in evenings between May and October between North Vancouver and Porteau Cove. In 2001, BC Rail introduced the Whistler Northwind, a luxury excursion train that ran between May and October, northbound from North Vancouver to Prince George or southbound from Prince George to Whistler. The train used several dome cars built by Colorado Railcar. Both services were discontinued at the end of the 2002 season along with BC Rail's passenger service.

Historically, and discontinued in the 1960s, the railway operated open-top observation cars all the way from North Vancouver to Lillooet and sometimes beyond.

A series of lodges of varying quality grew up along the railway, drawing on weekend tourist excursions from Vancouver via the steamer service to Squamish. The most famous of these was Rainbow Lodge at Whistler, then called Alta Lake, but others were at Birken Lake, Whispering Falls, D'Arcy, Ponderosa, McGillivray Falls, Seton Portage, the Bridge River townsite (where there was a first-class hotel serving mining and hydro executives and their guests), Shalalth, Retaskit and at Craig Lodge near Lillooet. The last-named was a swank tennis resort, its attraction being the arid, sunny climate and the waters of Seton Lake.

While BC Rail no longer operates excursion services, it did lease out its line to Rocky Mountaineer Vacations to use, operating two services over the former BC Rail route. The Whistler Sea to Sky Climb operated (until spring 2016) between Vancouver and Whistler, which featured an observation car similar to the historical open-top car. The Rainforest to Gold Rush train operates north from Vancouver via Whistler and Quesnel to Jasper. Rocky Mountaineer services are exclusively tourist-oriented and do not make local stops nor accept local-area travellers. The fares are significantly higher than former BCR passenger service rates. The West Coast Railway Association returned the Royal Hudson No. 2860 to service during 2006.

Locomotives

thumb|CN train with BC Rail locomotive at East Edmonton Junction

thumb|A former BC Rail electric locomotive now on display at the [[Prince George Railway and Forestry Museum in Prince George]]

thumb|right|Royal Hudson locomotive No. 2860 at North Vancouver station before departure to Squamish in June 1996

thumb|right|Canadian Pacific No. 3716 hauling the Royal Hudson to Squamish on 22 May 1986, during [[Expo 86 when No. 2860 was a part of the ceremonies.]]

Until the late 1940s, most motive power on the PGE was provided by steam locomotives. The majority of the railway's locomotives were of the 2-6-2, 2-8-0 and 2-8-2 (Whyte notation) wheel configurations. In addition, the railway also used a handful of gasoline cars, notably on a flatcar automobile ferry between Shalalth and Lillooet known simply as the Gas Car, once a vital lifeline for the communities of the upper Bridge River basin before the completion of a road from there to Lillooet.

The railway received its first diesel locomotive in June 1948, a General Electric 65-ton locomotive. Over the next two years the railway acquired six GE 70-ton locomotives. In the 1950s, the railway bought RS-3, RS-10, and RS-18 locomotives from the Montreal Locomotive Works (MLW). The railway had fully dieselized by 1956, and by the end of the decade had nearly 40 diesel locomotives. The railway purchased new locomotives exclusively from MLW until 1980. During the 1970s, the railway also purchased several used locomotives, mostly American Locomotive Company (Alco) models from American railways. In the 1980s, the railway acquired new SD40-2 locomotives made by General Motors Diesel, and used SD40–2s made by General Motors Electro-Motive Division (EMD). In the 1990s and early 2000s, a number of locomotives were purchased from General Electric. Purchased new from GE were 26 (4601-4626) C40-8Ms, 4 C44-9WLs and 10 C44-9Ws. Older, secondhand GE locomotives in the form of B36-7s, C36-7MEs, and B39-8Es were also purchased.

In 1970, the railway started using remote controlled mid-train locomotives, allowing longer and heavier trains to be operated through the steep grades of the Coast Mountains. It initially used separate remote control cars to control the mid-train locomotives, but in 1975 it received eight M-420B locomotives from MLW. These locomotives were specially designed for mid-train operation. They contained remote control stations, and were cableless.

The railway also leased seven GF6C electric locomotives made by GMD for use on the electrified Tumbler Ridge Subdivision from 1983 until electrification was removed in 2000. In 2004, the Paul D. Roy family purchased engine 6001, and they donated it to the Central BC Railway and Forestry Museum in Prince George; the remaining six were scrapped.

For passenger service, the PGE purchased seven Budd Rail Diesel Cars in 1956. Starting in the 1970s, the BCR started to purchase some used RDCs. The RDCs were retired in 2002, when BC Rail ended its passenger services.

The BCR also used some historic locomotives for its Royal Hudson excursion service. The primary steam locomotive for the Royal Hudson excursion train was Canadian Pacific Railway No. 2860, a class H1 4-6-4 Royal Hudson. Made by MLW for the Canadian Pacific Railway in June 1940, it was the first locomotive built as a Royal Hudson. A sister locomotive, No. 2850, pulled King George VI's and Queen Elizabeth's royal train in 1939. After the tour, the King gave the CPR permission to use the term Royal Hudson for the class of locomotives. Between 1940 and 1956 it hauled transcontinental passenger trains between Revelstoke and Vancouver. Damaged in a derailment in 1956, it was refurbished and transferred to Winnipeg in 1957 for service on the prairies. It was withdrawn from service in May 1959, replaced by diesel locomotives. It was sold to the Vancouver Railway Museum Association in 1964 and was stored in Vancouver until 1973, when the British Columbia government acquired the locomotive from Joe W. Hussey, who had purchased it three years earlier. It was restored by Robert Swanson and then leased to the British Columbia Railway, who used it in excursion service between 1974 and 1999. It was out of service during the 2000 and 2001 tourist seasons as it needed extensive repairs.

References

Citations

Bibliography

This 450-page hardcover book covers the history of the PGE to the formation of BC Rail to British Columbia Railway and has hundreds of colour prints.

External links

Archived BC Rail website
West Coast Railway Association, focused on preserving "British Columbia's Railway heritage"
November 2003 Announcement of the selection of CN, from the B.C. government website
Points in the controversial sale, a November 14, 2003 article from The Tyee
Prince George Railway & Forestry Museum Collection (2002.1) at Northern BC Archives
David Davies Railway Collection (2013.6) at Northern BC Archives