A British Columbia Railway interlude...

Whilst sat in bed with this stinking cold I’ve been day dreaming of a N scale empire to rival Grant Eastman’s Southern Alberta in scale and ambition, as you do...

I’ve been enjoying videos of BC Rail, a shortline I have always had a soft spot for starting in 1989 when I saw the Royal Hudson north of Vancouver and ended up with a Lifelike 40’ box car in British Columbia Railway livery to go with that first CN Bachmann F7...

I loved the fact it wasn’t CP Rail or CN, almost like an under dog, some truly breathtaking scenery, steam, Budd RDCs, Alco/MLW units in Western Canada! When I got home I used to pore over photos and longed for an Atlas C in BCR lighting stripe green!

Later, in 1999 my trip north along the Cassiar Highway led to the story of the abandoned plans for a line to Dease Lake, documented in my post here...

Whilst day dreaming I found this very detailed Trains magazine article with some evocatively shot accompany this photos of a trip along the extent of the Dease Lake sub in the early eighties - oh for a time machine!

So neither the PEI cameo or HSWR line can warrant a BC Rail machine, but if I should find one it might end up in the roster for the memories... a cut nose MLW RS-18 in white red and blue and Halifax standing in for Vancouver perhaps, or a Dash-8 full body which did make it to Halifax under CN ownership appearing, these days it’s definitely the final white/red/blue livery which I am drawn towards, rather than the time machine greens, but even if nothing comes from this nostalgia I’ve enjoyed the day dreams, until next time,  more soon...