Memories of a Railfan

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My first Canadian Rail Adventure.

My first Canadian Rail trip was not a well-known one.

It was a trip on BC Rail, on a line that no longer sees regular passenger services.

I’d arrived into Vancouver on a cold Sunday morning on 28 January 1996.  I’d heard of BC Rail (the British Columbia Railway between 1972 & 1984, and originally the Pacific Great Eastern Railway). After a quick call to them I found I could do a day trip the next day to Lillooet (pronounced Lil-loo-et), approximately 250km north & East of Vancouver. A booking was made!

An early morning taxi ride across the Lions Gate Bridge to North Vancouver for a 7.00am departure.

Monday 29th’s service was only going as far as Lillooet. On some days, the service travelled all the way to Prince George.  The service, known as the “Cariboo Prospector”, was operated by a single Budd-RDC; BC15.

The trip turned out to be quite an amazing one, even though it was a relatively dark and overcast mid-winter one.

The line first heads north along the eastern shore of Howe Sound, to Squamish. The line then climbs towards the Ski Resort of Whistler, where many of the passengers left at Alta Lake station.

Further north, the line follows the shores of Anderson Lake, then east along Seton Lake, often cut into the cliff side just above water level.  Along this part of the journey we wee preceded by a Rail-Road vehicle, on the lookout for land slides, with plenty of evidence of previous ones.

This part of the route had many amazing views, with snow-covered peaks, frozen waterfalls and eerie mists rising from the lakes.

After about 2 hours in the extremely cold town of Lillooet, it was a 3.20pm departure back to Vancouver, with Budd BC19 added to another, which had arrived from Prince George. Unfortunately, being mid winter, it was dark for most of the trip back.

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Numurkah Station, Then & Now

What a difference between the early 70’s and today.

From a thriving station & yard, seeing multiple passenger & goods trains on most days, to just a through line seeing a couple of freights a week now.

The relatively modern station building remains but the yard tracks & freight buildings have all been removed.

Whilst the station building looks boarded up in today’s photos, the street side tells another story. The building is in everyday use – as a funeral parlour! How ironic!

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Numurkah

My home for the first 18 years of my life.

Numurkah is located on Victoria’s Goulburn Valley line, heading north from Seymour to Tocumwal, just over the border in New South Wales

The local station was the centre of my railway universe.  Luckily I had easy access. My grandfather was the local carrier, moving merchandise from the station to the local businesses. This included “parcels” that arrived on the passenger trains, along with everything from beer to the local pubs to steel and timber for local engineering & joinery businesses that arrived on the “goods”.

The photo is typical of the station on a Sunday, from the mid 60’s to the early 70’s.

In the platform road is the “Sunday Excursion Train” from Spencer Street, complete with a blue CE van, 3 BPL cars, an air-conditioned BE car, a non air-conditioned, B or W class compartment car & a B class loco. If first class was offered, it would have been in the “non-aircon” car at the front. A noisy ride behind the B!

The Sunday train was the only time we regularly saw a B class, as the Murray River bridge at Tocumwal and the branches to Picola & Cobram were both “T & lighter”.

On a Sunday there were always 3 T class locos shut down. The first behind the camera was on the Picola train, in the centre of the photo, complete with 6 wheel ZP van. The other two, adjacent to the B class, for the Monday morning Melbourne passenger train and the goods to Cobram, consists for which are stored on the southern extensions of the run-round/track 2 and track 3 respectively.

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So when did it all start?

One of my earliest memories was being taken on a train from my hometown of Numurkah to Strathmerton to visit my cousins, a trip all of 20 minutes. I don’t know when this was.

The second, more powerful memory, I can be more precise. The inaugural runs of the Southern Aurora in April 1962. The blue & gold S class diesels (still my favourites) and the sleek silver carriages... I was two & a half.