The Province's Great Enterprise

In 1912, the Pacific Great Eastern Railway was formed to connect the remote interior of British Columbia with the port city of Vancouver, opening up the resources of the interior for trade and development. The death of its guiding visionary, Issac Hays, on the Titanic in 1912 and the financial difficulties posed by World War One (capital being hard to find for nonessential ventures) drove the company into bankruptcy by 1918.

The Province of British Columbia, seeing a need to open up the interior and provide better transportation, purchased the company in 1918. The railroad has been a Crown Corporation of the British Columbia ever since.



The change in ownership did not mean a change in pace; the railroad would have to wait through the Great Depression and the Second World War before being completed to Prince George in 1952, and finally linked to Vancouver in 1956. By then, diesel locomotives were becoming the mainstay of PGE's motive power fleet, and its passenger trains would soon be replaced by the legendary Budd Cars. In 1972, the railway would change its name from the Pacific Great Eastern to the British Columbia Railway.

In 1974, the province decided to go into the tourism business, running an excursion train from Vancouver to Squamish. To pull the train, they found the 2860, a former Canadian Pacific steam engine that had avoided the scrapyard only to be hung up in museum limbo. The province purchased the locomotive and started up the excursions, and the 2860 became the only steam locomotive in regular daily service in North America.

The locomotive was a source of pride both to the railroaders and the community, as the operation was truly unique. As long as it was in service, the locomotive never looked anything less than gleaming, and the excursion service was very successful.

But it would not last. To be continued...

For further reading:

The PGE/BCR Special Interest Group
Wikipedia
The Exploration Place
Canadian National