Working on the railroads (Part 4) Northern B.C. — a sequel

I was hard pressed to finish Part 3, as I thought I might lose the entire effort when I received a message from my friends at Medium advising me that they could no longer save my project. (Truth to be told, I had probably edited it far too many times) I therefore published it with pieces missing so here is the rest of it.

Here, again, is the map illustrating the territory from Jasper, Alberta, and into British Columbia, across the great continental divide and onto Prince Rupert, a distance of 722 rail miles

Moose Lake, 42 rail miles west of Jasper; Redpass and the junction to the north line just a couple of miles to the west

British Columbia is mountainous, and whether you see it from railway or highway, the vistas are magnificent and the viewer never grows tired of taking them in.

Speaking of moose, here’s one moseying across Hwy 16 (The Yellowhead) east of Prince George

Moose on the winter rail line as seen from a high-rail vehicle and locomotive; a scary time for animals and train crew both

The Bulkey River (160 mi/257 km) meets the Skeena at Hazelton (founded 1866)

Bulkley River moose

‘Ksan Village in Old Hazelton (long houses and totems) and Roche De Boule (elev. 2999ft/914m)

Skeena River images

Open sea and fly fishing very popular on the Skeena; plenty of steelhead, salmon, cod and halibut

The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway first arrived in Prince Rupert in 1914. The town was named after the first governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company, a legendary organization involved in fur trading and exploration throughout Canada and incorporated in May, 1670. Canadian National took over a bankrupt GTP in 1919 and the Canadian Northern Railway, the line running from Winnipeg to Prince Rupert via Melville, Saskatchewan and Edmonton, Alberta, in 1923.

In 2016, the census indicated that 12,220 people lived in Rupert, as it is commonly called. It was incorporated in 1910. It is called The City of Rainbows and is Canada’s wettest city, recording about 100 inches of rain each year.

Prince Rupert was really only a secondary port to Vancouver for most of its life. Ridley Island was opened in the 1980’s to handle coal from Tumbler Ridge in B.C.’s northeast, along with grain and forest and petrochemical products. That changed hugely in 2007 when the container terminal opened after expansion and provided a quicker and more cost-competitive route to the Orient and has handled great container volumes since. Continued growth is forecast.

It is the deepest harbour in North America (3rd in the world) and is ice-free year round. Regular ferry services operate to Haida Gwai, Port Hardy (N. Vancouver Island) and Alaska. A rail barge service runs bi-weekly between Rupert and Whittier, Alaska. It’s called the AquaTrain.

Here are some promotional CN posters from back in its heyday…

Thank you for reading and please take care.