YVR Cockroach
Dec 19, 01, 8:40 pm
Back in March, I went up to visit a mine my friend (since moved to QDX) was consulting for near the town of Likely to see how badly a mill can be operated. Since there’s not much (cheap) air service to the nearest large town of Williams Lake, the 2x weekly (in winter) Cariboo Prospector train service by B.C. Rail was an economical option at about C$90 with the 40% discount for 3-day advance purchase - no other taxes and fees imposed.
I’ve mislaid the timetable (http://www.bcrail.ca/Cariboo/schedule/timeschart/chart.html) with mileage details where I noted the actual arrival and departure times so everything is approximate.
24 March BCR 1 North Vancouver 0700 Williams Lake 1725
Friend drops me off at the North Vancouver B.C. Rail station at 0630. it’s a cloudy wet morning but the rain’s died down. There are some 40 people in the station waiting for the train’s departure with more slowly arriving. The waiting room is large waiting lobby open to all with a ticket counter (where went and quickly collected my prepaid ticket), baggage check desk and some concessions.
No train to be seen until around 0640 when 4 Budd cars roll past the sole platform on one track and minutes later, pull up to the platform on the right track. Catering and baggage loading happened nearly simultaneously. The stuff was loaded onto the large railway baggage trolleys which are wheeled up to the doors and loaded. This is done relatively quickly and boarding commences with some 5 minutes to go before the departure time of 0700.
For those who are not familiar with them, the Budd rail car is a self-propelled diesel unit car (I think SEPTA and NJ Transit uses them). Each car can be controlled at either end and can run independently. BCR configures its 50 year-old cars with seats and a galley and/or baggage area. This was the railway’s sole passenger service (excluding the Royal Hudson tourist train) until a new deluxe tourist service called the Northwind was launched for the tourist season.
The lead car was left empty as this is for the short haul trippers (the train makes flag stops on request along the way) with the 2nd car for passengers headed beyond Lilloett (the half way mark). The 3rd and 4th cars are for passengers disembarking before Lilloett with most (some 40) bound for Whistler. Found a seat on the left side of the train. It never becomes so crowded (some 20-25 pax) so no one ends up sitting next to me. Overhear the passengers behind me. A mother and son who had come down to Vancouver from Mackenzie which is far beyond the other side of Prince George.
Presumably there was a train driver and a conductor. Both had radios used to maintain contact with traffic control and other trains (the track is single for virtually the whole route). The cabin attendents were apparently employed by the caterer and comprised of 3 or 4 staff.
The train rolled out sometime after 0700 and came to a halt just outside the station where there is a wait for some 10 minutes. Seemed there was a freight traffic being shunted around and then we’re on our way (on the 2nd straightest stretches of track) through the North Vancouver rail yard, and then over the Capilano river into West Vancouver. I like this part of the journey. West Vancouver is a now a rather upscale town but was much less desirable when the railway was built. Houses have been built around the tracks and there are small little crossings everywhere. I’m rather amused by the fact that the homeowners here have to live with long freight trains with heavy throbbing diesel electric motors passing their houses at all hours sounding their wailful mouning diesel horns whenever they encounter a road crossing.
The conductor comes around to collect tickets and then the service attendents come around and offer tea and coffee, in plastic disposible cups with reusable handles. The tea’s a bit weak but drinkable.
The train passes all this when it rounds Horseshoe Bay and starts making its way up Howe Sound. The scenery is a veiled by mist and low clouds this morning. Breakfast is then served and the menu offers:
Scrambled eggs - breakfast sausage - hashbrowns
or
Waffles - butter and syrup
served with fruit yogurt - juice - coffee or tea.
I chose the scrambled eggs which sort of resembles a Mcbreakfast but wasn’t. There’s a bit of tinfoil stuck to my overcooked eggs. The sausage and hashbrowns were small. Fruit yogurt and juice are in those foil-topped disposible packs. Not much but not too bad. tea and coffee are offered again.
Passed Britannia and make to to Squamish about on time (0820) though we were some 25 minutes late at one point. It’s taken 1:20 to cover 40 miles. The train station here is strangely nowhere near the town. The tracks here are also the straightest on the route all the way to Williams Lake.
One woman whose son is a rail employee boards the train here. There’s some confusion over her pass but the conductor fixes it. Train rolls on for the 33 mile trip to Whistler. The highlight of this leg is the trip through the canyons of the Cheakamus river. The train also makes a brief stop at Brandywine Falls for phototaking. The falls were apparently named on the bets of the survey party (brandy or wine). Mid-morning tea and coffee were served en route.
Whistler is covered by the wet snow left by a late winter snowfall. Most of the passengers in the secnd 2 cars disembark here. Only one passenger, a Japanese backpacker, embarked here. The lake (Alta?) is frozen as I get a view of the town never seen from the highway. A descent starts after this to the Pemberton valley where it starts to get dry again, and sunny along the way. At d’Arcy,the train skirts along the north shore of 2 lakes for some 20 miles. It’s a pretty nice view that one doesn’t see from a car (no roads). A few stops are made for native children catching a ride.
Lunch is served somewhere along this journey. The menu offers:
Beef Stirfy with rice
or
Smoked salmon pasta topped with sundried tomato cream sauce
served with bread roll - butter - Nanaimo bar
Had the pasta which is nice if not a bit dry. Small chunks of salmon. Nanaimo bar is a local delicacy which has chocolate and coconut. Hot beverages offered again.
After another descent from Seton lake, we’re into the dry interior where there’s sagebrush growing. Get to Lilloett pretty much on time schedule. The two rear Budd cars are detached at this point and go into a siding. There’s a wait of 3 hours before they head back to North Vancouver (on the days a train is coming down from Prince George, it hooks up to the trains that terminate here). The continuing service had a15 minute wait as the cars are refuelled by the local Esso dealer. The train's crew changed but the catering/service attendents stayed on. Nice chance to visit the toilet in the station as I never looked into using the train’s one.
Leaving Lilloett, one is treated to a spectacle of the bridge over the Fraser river followed by a climb of 2,000’ over 20 miles, along this winding rail track perched high on the east bank of the river. Not much seperates you from a long roll down a 40+ degree slope and then a final plunge into the Fraser. Fishing and other native relics can be seen along the river.
The train then takes a sudden cut into a valley and its cold, wet and snowy again. We’re in another bioclime with different tree and understorey species. Made several stops along the way at small stations with pax disembarking. Outside a mill at Chasm, we stop and then reverse into a siding to let a freight train head the other way. This was the only time the train got out of the way for a freight train. The train route wound its way the south central interior dodging lakes and small hills as well as big holes in the ground (how Chasm got its name). The high elevation point of the trip is a Lone Butte. The major stop along this part, before Wlliams Lake, is Exeter also known as 100 Mile House. Much of the surrounding land is owned by the present Marquis of Exeter whose family has left the U.K. (British peers and the other nobility have long been officially forbidden to use their titles in Canada, and Canadian citizens are not permitted to receive peerages except by inheritance).
Afternoon refreshment (tea, coffee, and a small package of biscuits) are served after this stop. The train continues a gradual winding descent and skirts the west shore of several frozen lakes (the highway often was on the other side).
Some sign of major industrialisation as we approached what has been the biggest town since leaving North/West Vancouver with several mills in sight. Disembarking at the rail station, I take a look around at the town. Williams Lake is a forestry and cowboy town so I’m in no mood to go to a bar and get caught up in a whites vs natives brawl. Although a few minutes later, the train has left and is headed up to Prince George which is another 150 miles, 4 hours and many of the longest and highest trestle bridges across Cariboo country creeks down the track. Being a few minutes until the appointed pick-up time, I took a short walk into the town. The downtown core is a bit slow commercially as suburban malls have sprung up.
For those interested in the dinner menu (served probaly before arrival in Quesnel):
Seasoned chicken with basmati rice
redwine mushroom sauce
or
Roast leg of lamb with nugget potatoes
mint demi-glaze
served with vegetables of the day - side salad - butter tart - dinner roll
Friend drives up just as the ticket/info office closes (there won’t be another passenger train for several days). Head south and go to a bistro that tries to be upscale. The food and service is good and we’re a bit surprised by the wait person who is of a sexual orientation which is generally kept well-hidden in a country cowboy town.
It’ s a long 50 mile drive to Likely at one end of Quesnel Lake, with a drive first to 150 Mile House, then onto the road to Horsefly and then off a side road to Likely, all the while keeping an eye out for big ungulates and other critters. Got to the town, which you can drive through in seconds. There’s only one motel in town so we’re lodged there. It’s comfortable, and you get all of 2 channels for entertainment on T.V. (Glenn Close’s South Pacific was the big show for that weekend).
Didn’t head out to town with my friend that morning so I walked back to the town. The commercial establishments are a motel/restaurant, an auto/truck shop, a placer mine, a post office/convenience/government mining agency as well as the one bar which is also an old-style western hotel and calls itself the Hilton. It’s had that name long before Conrad started his first so it seems there are 3 Hilton Hotels in B.C. with this being the first.
Decided on a whim to get a B.C. Prospector’s License which you can get by completing a take-home exam and pay a fee. Friend picks me up at lunch time and his car promptly gets a flat. Thankfully one of us knows how to use a spare tire and we get it to a shop while we have lunch back at the motel. Head out to the mine after that and get a view of all the inane practices.
Headed back to Vancouver on Monday afternoon. We get to main highway at 150 Mile House and head south. Made a stop at Tim Horton’s for lunch at 100 Mile House just as it started to snow. We should have gone ahead as we ran into an accident around 70 Mile House (no way to drive around it without a detour of several hundred miles) involving 4 small vehicles. My friend speculates the cars will be pushed off the road as this is apparently standard practice further north (no emergency services). Told him that the compassionates like he used to be prevented us from doing that. It’s 2 hours before we get going again. Made a stop at Cache Creek for refreshments and then it was straight down the Thompson and then the spectacular Fraser canyon. Didn’t notice the burnt-out remains of the cafe at Spuzzum (a “town” that is the butt of many local jokes) as we drove past it. Uneventful drive to Vancouver otherwise. Even with the unscheduled stop, it was a much quicker trip south by road than north by rail!
I’ve mislaid the timetable (http://www.bcrail.ca/Cariboo/schedule/timeschart/chart.html) with mileage details where I noted the actual arrival and departure times so everything is approximate.
24 March BCR 1 North Vancouver 0700 Williams Lake 1725
Friend drops me off at the North Vancouver B.C. Rail station at 0630. it’s a cloudy wet morning but the rain’s died down. There are some 40 people in the station waiting for the train’s departure with more slowly arriving. The waiting room is large waiting lobby open to all with a ticket counter (where went and quickly collected my prepaid ticket), baggage check desk and some concessions.
No train to be seen until around 0640 when 4 Budd cars roll past the sole platform on one track and minutes later, pull up to the platform on the right track. Catering and baggage loading happened nearly simultaneously. The stuff was loaded onto the large railway baggage trolleys which are wheeled up to the doors and loaded. This is done relatively quickly and boarding commences with some 5 minutes to go before the departure time of 0700.
For those who are not familiar with them, the Budd rail car is a self-propelled diesel unit car (I think SEPTA and NJ Transit uses them). Each car can be controlled at either end and can run independently. BCR configures its 50 year-old cars with seats and a galley and/or baggage area. This was the railway’s sole passenger service (excluding the Royal Hudson tourist train) until a new deluxe tourist service called the Northwind was launched for the tourist season.
The lead car was left empty as this is for the short haul trippers (the train makes flag stops on request along the way) with the 2nd car for passengers headed beyond Lilloett (the half way mark). The 3rd and 4th cars are for passengers disembarking before Lilloett with most (some 40) bound for Whistler. Found a seat on the left side of the train. It never becomes so crowded (some 20-25 pax) so no one ends up sitting next to me. Overhear the passengers behind me. A mother and son who had come down to Vancouver from Mackenzie which is far beyond the other side of Prince George.
Presumably there was a train driver and a conductor. Both had radios used to maintain contact with traffic control and other trains (the track is single for virtually the whole route). The cabin attendents were apparently employed by the caterer and comprised of 3 or 4 staff.
The train rolled out sometime after 0700 and came to a halt just outside the station where there is a wait for some 10 minutes. Seemed there was a freight traffic being shunted around and then we’re on our way (on the 2nd straightest stretches of track) through the North Vancouver rail yard, and then over the Capilano river into West Vancouver. I like this part of the journey. West Vancouver is a now a rather upscale town but was much less desirable when the railway was built. Houses have been built around the tracks and there are small little crossings everywhere. I’m rather amused by the fact that the homeowners here have to live with long freight trains with heavy throbbing diesel electric motors passing their houses at all hours sounding their wailful mouning diesel horns whenever they encounter a road crossing.
The conductor comes around to collect tickets and then the service attendents come around and offer tea and coffee, in plastic disposible cups with reusable handles. The tea’s a bit weak but drinkable.
The train passes all this when it rounds Horseshoe Bay and starts making its way up Howe Sound. The scenery is a veiled by mist and low clouds this morning. Breakfast is then served and the menu offers:
Scrambled eggs - breakfast sausage - hashbrowns
or
Waffles - butter and syrup
served with fruit yogurt - juice - coffee or tea.
I chose the scrambled eggs which sort of resembles a Mcbreakfast but wasn’t. There’s a bit of tinfoil stuck to my overcooked eggs. The sausage and hashbrowns were small. Fruit yogurt and juice are in those foil-topped disposible packs. Not much but not too bad. tea and coffee are offered again.
Passed Britannia and make to to Squamish about on time (0820) though we were some 25 minutes late at one point. It’s taken 1:20 to cover 40 miles. The train station here is strangely nowhere near the town. The tracks here are also the straightest on the route all the way to Williams Lake.
One woman whose son is a rail employee boards the train here. There’s some confusion over her pass but the conductor fixes it. Train rolls on for the 33 mile trip to Whistler. The highlight of this leg is the trip through the canyons of the Cheakamus river. The train also makes a brief stop at Brandywine Falls for phototaking. The falls were apparently named on the bets of the survey party (brandy or wine). Mid-morning tea and coffee were served en route.
Whistler is covered by the wet snow left by a late winter snowfall. Most of the passengers in the secnd 2 cars disembark here. Only one passenger, a Japanese backpacker, embarked here. The lake (Alta?) is frozen as I get a view of the town never seen from the highway. A descent starts after this to the Pemberton valley where it starts to get dry again, and sunny along the way. At d’Arcy,the train skirts along the north shore of 2 lakes for some 20 miles. It’s a pretty nice view that one doesn’t see from a car (no roads). A few stops are made for native children catching a ride.
Lunch is served somewhere along this journey. The menu offers:
Beef Stirfy with rice
or
Smoked salmon pasta topped with sundried tomato cream sauce
served with bread roll - butter - Nanaimo bar
Had the pasta which is nice if not a bit dry. Small chunks of salmon. Nanaimo bar is a local delicacy which has chocolate and coconut. Hot beverages offered again.
After another descent from Seton lake, we’re into the dry interior where there’s sagebrush growing. Get to Lilloett pretty much on time schedule. The two rear Budd cars are detached at this point and go into a siding. There’s a wait of 3 hours before they head back to North Vancouver (on the days a train is coming down from Prince George, it hooks up to the trains that terminate here). The continuing service had a15 minute wait as the cars are refuelled by the local Esso dealer. The train's crew changed but the catering/service attendents stayed on. Nice chance to visit the toilet in the station as I never looked into using the train’s one.
Leaving Lilloett, one is treated to a spectacle of the bridge over the Fraser river followed by a climb of 2,000’ over 20 miles, along this winding rail track perched high on the east bank of the river. Not much seperates you from a long roll down a 40+ degree slope and then a final plunge into the Fraser. Fishing and other native relics can be seen along the river.
The train then takes a sudden cut into a valley and its cold, wet and snowy again. We’re in another bioclime with different tree and understorey species. Made several stops along the way at small stations with pax disembarking. Outside a mill at Chasm, we stop and then reverse into a siding to let a freight train head the other way. This was the only time the train got out of the way for a freight train. The train route wound its way the south central interior dodging lakes and small hills as well as big holes in the ground (how Chasm got its name). The high elevation point of the trip is a Lone Butte. The major stop along this part, before Wlliams Lake, is Exeter also known as 100 Mile House. Much of the surrounding land is owned by the present Marquis of Exeter whose family has left the U.K. (British peers and the other nobility have long been officially forbidden to use their titles in Canada, and Canadian citizens are not permitted to receive peerages except by inheritance).
Afternoon refreshment (tea, coffee, and a small package of biscuits) are served after this stop. The train continues a gradual winding descent and skirts the west shore of several frozen lakes (the highway often was on the other side).
Some sign of major industrialisation as we approached what has been the biggest town since leaving North/West Vancouver with several mills in sight. Disembarking at the rail station, I take a look around at the town. Williams Lake is a forestry and cowboy town so I’m in no mood to go to a bar and get caught up in a whites vs natives brawl. Although a few minutes later, the train has left and is headed up to Prince George which is another 150 miles, 4 hours and many of the longest and highest trestle bridges across Cariboo country creeks down the track. Being a few minutes until the appointed pick-up time, I took a short walk into the town. The downtown core is a bit slow commercially as suburban malls have sprung up.
For those interested in the dinner menu (served probaly before arrival in Quesnel):
Seasoned chicken with basmati rice
redwine mushroom sauce
or
Roast leg of lamb with nugget potatoes
mint demi-glaze
served with vegetables of the day - side salad - butter tart - dinner roll
Friend drives up just as the ticket/info office closes (there won’t be another passenger train for several days). Head south and go to a bistro that tries to be upscale. The food and service is good and we’re a bit surprised by the wait person who is of a sexual orientation which is generally kept well-hidden in a country cowboy town.
It’ s a long 50 mile drive to Likely at one end of Quesnel Lake, with a drive first to 150 Mile House, then onto the road to Horsefly and then off a side road to Likely, all the while keeping an eye out for big ungulates and other critters. Got to the town, which you can drive through in seconds. There’s only one motel in town so we’re lodged there. It’s comfortable, and you get all of 2 channels for entertainment on T.V. (Glenn Close’s South Pacific was the big show for that weekend).
Didn’t head out to town with my friend that morning so I walked back to the town. The commercial establishments are a motel/restaurant, an auto/truck shop, a placer mine, a post office/convenience/government mining agency as well as the one bar which is also an old-style western hotel and calls itself the Hilton. It’s had that name long before Conrad started his first so it seems there are 3 Hilton Hotels in B.C. with this being the first.
Decided on a whim to get a B.C. Prospector’s License which you can get by completing a take-home exam and pay a fee. Friend picks me up at lunch time and his car promptly gets a flat. Thankfully one of us knows how to use a spare tire and we get it to a shop while we have lunch back at the motel. Head out to the mine after that and get a view of all the inane practices.
Headed back to Vancouver on Monday afternoon. We get to main highway at 150 Mile House and head south. Made a stop at Tim Horton’s for lunch at 100 Mile House just as it started to snow. We should have gone ahead as we ran into an accident around 70 Mile House (no way to drive around it without a detour of several hundred miles) involving 4 small vehicles. My friend speculates the cars will be pushed off the road as this is apparently standard practice further north (no emergency services). Told him that the compassionates like he used to be prevented us from doing that. It’s 2 hours before we get going again. Made a stop at Cache Creek for refreshments and then it was straight down the Thompson and then the spectacular Fraser canyon. Didn’t notice the burnt-out remains of the cafe at Spuzzum (a “town” that is the butt of many local jokes) as we drove past it. Uneventful drive to Vancouver otherwise. Even with the unscheduled stop, it was a much quicker trip south by road than north by rail!