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Post by Kahloke on Jan 12, 2017 5:41:18 GMT -8
Here's a question for you: I remember as a little kid as we were offloading in berth 2 or 3 Swartz bay seeing to my left (towards berth 3 4 5) an open vehicle decked ferry with bow visors in an upright position which created an almost full hoop in the air. This was back when there was the blue and red stripe colour scheme and most likely the expo insignia. Does anyone know which vessel this may have been? Pictures? Could have been the Queen of Cumberland, perhaps? Cumberland had bow visors originally. See first pic in the Cumberland thread: ferriesbc.proboards.com/thread/8527/queen-cumberland-photos-discussion?page=1
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Post by YoursTruly on Jan 12, 2017 10:41:19 GMT -8
Here's a question for you: I remember as a little kid as we were offloading in berth 2 or 3 Swartz bay seeing to my left (towards berth 3 4 5) an open vehicle decked ferry with bow visors in an upright position which created an almost full hoop in the air. This was back when there was the blue and red stripe colour scheme and most likely the expo insignia. Does anyone know which vessel this may have been? Pictures? Could have been the Queen of Cumberland, perhaps? Cumberland had bow visors originally. See first pic in the Cumberland thread: ferriesbc.proboards.com/thread/8527/queen-cumberland-photos-discussion?page=1Hey that must have been it! cool! thanks man.
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Neil
Voyager
Posts: 7,151
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Post by Neil on Mar 29, 2017 20:52:02 GMT -8
This may very well have come up somewhere before, but I don't recall. I'd be interested in experiences on both sides of the border.
I was wondering what the shutdown and startup routine is for the major vessels, and what happens overnight. I was thinking specifically of the route 30 vessels, both of which have just four and a half hours from the end of their last crossing, to their first departure. How long after final arrival would the bridge and engineering crew leave, and how far in advance of first sailing would they arrive? How much do the vessels actually shut down, and how much of an overnight crew is there? It's a long shift on route thirty... at least ten hours. The relatively short layover every day would only allow a half shift, although the boats on routes one, two, and three could have a full shift overnight. What would the duties be for an overnight crew?
I know that even the Hornby route has someone come on shift when the boat finishes its day just before 7pm. I imagine all the smaller routes have the same routine, and I would think that part of the job would involve getting things ready if an emergency run had to be made overnight. The major vessels wouldn't ever have such an occasion.
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Nick
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Chief Engineer - Queen of Richmond
Posts: 2,078
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Post by Nick on Mar 29, 2017 21:37:19 GMT -8
Most of BCF's maintenance is done overnight. The daytime engineering crews are watchkeepers - they monitor all the machinery and respond in the event of an emergency or malfunction. Their primary purpose is for the safety of the vessel and the machinery. Any maintenance that must be done generally has to happen when the vessel is shut down, both from a passenger safety standpoint as well as a practicality standpoint. On most of the major vessels, the graveyard engineering crews are actually bigger than the daytime crew.
Things that they would do on a regular basis: - Scheduled maintenance to all propulsion sensitive machinery (oil changes, filter and strainer cleaning, inspections, etc) - Loading (bunkering) of fuel and lubricating oils - Unscheduled maintenance or more permanent fixes of malfunctions that have been temporarily addressed by the daytime watchkeeping crews - Loading of fresh water - Offloading of sewage, waste oils, bilge water etc.
I don't have any first hand knowledge, but I can imagine that the route 30 graveyard crews are kept very busy with the short downtime. I imagine that the off-season canceled sailings on Saturday nights and Sunday mornings are welcomed by the engineering crews on those vessels, and I would imagine that this is when the more time-intensive tasks would be scheduled.
I am continually amazed at the level of reliability that BCF is able to achieve from their vessels with the limited time for maintenance that they have. Also, the luxury of waiting for hot engine components to cool down before commencing work would not be very common.
The level of complexity of the smaller vessels is far less than the majors, with far fewer pieces of equipment that would require regular care and attention. One person would be able to take care of the regular tasks fairly easily, I would think. The big stuff would all be done in an out of service period, or if there's a big job that's scheduled (or unscheduled) extra personnel would be called in for the night.
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Post by bigcountry on Mar 29, 2017 21:57:59 GMT -8
So would these crews be responsible for repositioning a vessel overnight? IE: when the Island Sky goes from Saltery Bay to Horseshoe Bay?
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Nick
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Chief Engineer - Queen of Richmond
Posts: 2,078
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Post by Nick on Mar 29, 2017 22:09:08 GMT -8
So would these crews be responsible for repositioning a vessel overnight? IE: when the Island Sky goes from Saltery Bay to Horseshoe Bay? The overnight crews aren't a full operational crew. It's generally all engineering, plus anyone else who may have a specific task to do. Others may know better than me, but my understanding is that vessel repositioning is done by casual or regular crew who are called in to do that specific task. It may be overtime on a scheduled day off. The bottom line is that if the vessel is to sail, it has to have a crew that meets the minimum safe manning document set by Transport Canada. Most ferries have two or three possible crew levels, what we refer to here as licenses. One of those will be a minimum crew with zero passengers for repositioning or transit purposes.
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Neil
Voyager
Posts: 7,151
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Post by Neil on Mar 29, 2017 22:15:03 GMT -8
Thanks for that Nick... very interesting, particularly that the night time engineering crew might be bigger than dayside.
So, it would most likely be what we see at mid-day crew changes- one crew walking off shortly after the vessel docks, with graveyard coming right on? Any idea how they might work the shift on route 30, where layover is so short? Would people be just working 4 hour shifts, or would those short shifts supplement longer stints elsewhere over the work week?
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Nick
Voyager
Chief Engineer - Queen of Richmond
Posts: 2,078
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Post by Nick on Mar 29, 2017 22:25:53 GMT -8
Thanks for that Nick... very interesting, particularly that the night time engineering crew might be bigger than dayside. So, it would most likely be what we see at mid-day crew changes- one crew walking off shortly after the vessel docks, with graveyard coming right on? Any idea how they might work the shift on route 30, where layover is so short? Would people be just working 4 hour shifts, or would those short shifts supplement longer stints elsewhere over the work week? I'm not sure how they would work the scheduling out. I'm guessing that the graveyard crews would work in a rotation with the daytime crews, so they'd have X morning shifts followed by X afternoon shifts followed by Y graveyard shifts, interspersed with Z days off. The shifts would be balanced out so that the annual hours worked is about 2000. I've taken the last route 1 sailing quite a bit and it is exactly like the midday crew change, but it's only engineers and some cleaning staff coming on board. Often, at least at Swartz Bay, there's a B train of fuel waiting there as well.
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Neil
Voyager
Posts: 7,151
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Post by Neil on May 30, 2017 19:26:03 GMT -8
I'm wondering how common this is. Yesterday on the 5:45pm Queen of Alberni sailing from Duke Point, at least two vehicles were turned back after boarding the upper deck, after crew determined, using a measuring pole, that they were too tall. One of the vehicles barely made the sailing, as the lower cardeck was just about fully loaded.
Isn't it up to the cashier in the tollbooth to figure out if a vehicle is overheight? And how difficult could it be to install an overhead gauge, adjustable to the upper car deck of the next ferry, to sort vehicles before they board the wrong deck?
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Post by futureferrydriver on Jun 1, 2017 19:20:38 GMT -8
I'm wondering how common this is. Yesterday on the 5:45pm Queen of Alberni sailing from Duke Point, at least two vehicles were turned back after boarding the upper deck, after crew determined, using a measuring pole, that they were too tall. One of the vehicles barely made the sailing, as the lower cardeck was just about fully loaded. Isn't it up to the cashier in the tollbooth to figure out if a vehicle is overheight? And how difficult could it be to install an overhead gauge, adjustable to the upper car deck of the next ferry, to sort vehicles before they board the wrong deck? I don't know much about Duke Point as I have only travelled through there once but I'm sure the loading procedures there are similar to Swartz Bay and the other major terminals. At Swartz Bay when a vehicle arrives at the terminal it is processed and given a lane assignment by the ticket agent. 99% of the time the overheights are put in an overheight lane and the underheights in an underheight lane. But of course the ticket agents make mistakes occasionally. Understandably it is difficult to tell from the inside the booth if a big pickup truck or an SUV with a rack is too tall or not, and getting out to measure is time consuming which causes issues when its busy (especially when on the verge of an overload). So sometimes overheight vehicles end up in the underheight lanes. If the vehicle is in the holding lanes long enough usually the tower will notice and send someone from the terminal to measure it, and the vehicle can be moved (or a lot of the time it is measured and confirmed underheight and nothing happens) or the tower can tell the loader to direct the vehicle to the main deck during loading. The tower is pretty dilligent about this, and I would guess around a dozen vehicles get checked every day. Most of the time they aren't too tall, maybe once every few days a vehicle actually needs to get moved. When the vehicles are loading the underheight loader (the employee directing cars to the upper deck) should also be on the lookout for questionable vehicles. If the loader thinks the vehicle might be too tall he will direct it to the main deck. The frequency of this depends on the loader, some of the more precautions ones will send half a dozen or more per sailing, others might send only one or two, or none. If the UH loader misses something tall, Swartz Bay has a bar hanging at the start of the transfer deck (similar to what you would find at the entrance to an underground parking lot) which is a little lower than the clearance of the top deck on the Spirits (the Spirits are used as a limit case because the clearance on the QoNW and the Coastals is a bit taller). If a vehicle hits this bar the driver usually clues in and turns around, otherwise the UH loader can radio the upper ramp attendant who can turn the vehicle around before the ramp (so the vehicle doesn't have to reverse). This is quite rare, I expect it happens at most a handful of times a month. The last person who might notice an overheight vehicle before it gets on the ship would be the upper ramp attendant, although by the time the vehicle is on the upper ramp it is a very difficult process to back it up. This happens extremely rarely (at Swartz Bay). With all of this it amazes me that an overheight vehicle could ever make it on to the ship, but I know it has happened at SWB before, and clearly it happens at DUK... I guess a lot of the problem is due to a mentality of "the guy before me saw it and decided it was fine so I guess its fine"
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Post by Olympic Ferries on Jun 5, 2017 16:50:57 GMT -8
Hey all, Here is my General BC Ferries Status Log with data comprised from VesselWatch and Marinetraffic status - Should be getting updated every Sunday/Monday depending on occurring vessel swaps. Enjoy. BC Ferries General Status Log
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Post by nautical on Jun 6, 2017 10:29:55 GMT -8
HI ! Can anyone tell me if there are any BC Ferry employees that work from Bowen Island. I have seen terminal workers directing traffic. Is this a posting and if so, does anyone have any information about the posting ? thanks !!
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Post by Kahloke on Jun 6, 2017 10:52:00 GMT -8
bump to signify that I moved the previous post into this thread.
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Post by fivethej on Jul 18, 2017 10:46:11 GMT -8
Does anyone on here have a picture of B.C. Ferries Ticket Booth at terminals when they had that electronic big red arrow thing? Back in 90's.
Can't seem to find anything.
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Post by Kahloke on Jul 18, 2017 12:05:12 GMT -8
Bump to signify that I moved the post above into this thread.
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Post by Mike C on Jul 18, 2017 15:56:46 GMT -8
Does anyone on here have a picture of B.C. Ferries Ticket Booth at terminals when they had that electronic big red arrow thing? Back in 90's. Can't seem to find anything. Could you be a bit more specific in your request? - Possible locations where we would find these "red arrows" (several locations come to mind with a variety of different types) - A bit more clarification on what constitutes a "red arrow" in your mind There are photos floating around out there, but this would help the keepers of those photos narrow their searches. Thanks!
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Post by fivethej on Jul 18, 2017 17:04:06 GMT -8
Does anyone on here have a picture of B.C. Ferries Ticket Booth at terminals when they had that electronic big red arrow thing? Back in 90's. Can't seem to find anything. Could you be a bit more specific in your request? - Possible locations where we would find these "red arrows" (several locations come to mind with a variety of different types) - A bit more clarification on what constitutes a "red arrow" in your mind There are photos floating around out there, but this would help the keepers of those photos narrow their searches. Thanks! I saw them at Swartz Bay, Departure Bay, Tsawassen Bay, Horseshoe Bay during the 90's. It must have been the same at all the terminals. "Red Arrow" was on top roof of ticket booths. It was the color red back then. Ticket Booths nowadays still use arrow but much smaller and totally different looking.
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Post by fivethej on Jul 18, 2017 17:10:36 GMT -8
I'm also looking for inside picture of when Ferries had the old dogwood carpet. Only been able to find this: Looking for a picture in color.
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Post by fivethej on Jul 18, 2017 17:15:03 GMT -8
While were at it looking for any pictures of Arcade Games on ferries too. Preferably from 90's. All i've found is this picture of 1st Arcade Games from 70's:
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John H
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Admin Emeritus
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Post by John H on Jul 26, 2017 22:10:51 GMT -8
This question isn't specific to one ferry, and is based on something I saw on Monday morning on the QUEEN OF ALBERNI.
This past Monday, I was on the 5:15 AM ferry from Tsawwassen to Duke Point. I think it's the first time I've done that; maybe the last. I got to the terminal at 4:30, and there was a mile long lineup before the toll booths. Amazing how many people get up that early! It took 30 minutes to get to the toll booths, so I paid 15 minutes before sailing time. How do they deal with reservations in those circumstances? You're required to be there at least 30 minutes before sailing time, but if the lineup before the toll booth is 30 minutes long, you'd need to get there by 4:15 in the morning. I don't think there were that many reserves, except for the overheights. Anyways, that's not my question.
On the QUEEN OF ALBERNI, they loaded an old style decommissioned ambulance van onto the upper deck and it was parked in the large open-air part of the deck at the stern because the car deck was pretty full. About 10 or 15 minutes after we sailed, I noticed some crew members measuring the height of the van, and it was pretty clear that the van would not be able to fit under the "ceiling" to unload once we got to Duke Point. As I drove off, I noticed the van doing a U-turn to face the other way.
My question is, what would BC Ferries do in this circumstance? It's pretty much their fault the van got there. Would they load the ferry, then turn it around to let that one car off before heading back to Tsawwassen? Or would they take them all the way back and re-load them at Tsawwassen, wasting half their day? I wasn't able to stick around and watch, and didn't have access to a computer to see if there were any delays that day, but I'm wondering if anyone on here knows what kind of procedure they'd follow in this kind of circumstance.
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Post by Starsteward on Jul 27, 2017 5:46:31 GMT -8
I'm also looking for inside picture of when Ferries had the old dogwood carpet. Only been able to find this: Looking for a picture in color. I'm sure there's someone with some dogwood carpet pictures. The man sitting on the middle seat sure looks like Premier Bennett?
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Post by WettCoast on Jul 27, 2017 6:28:41 GMT -8
The man sitting on the middle seat sure looks like Premier Bennett? That is the former Premier, WAC himself. He is shown here in 1969 aboard the first of the stretched ferries, the Q of Esquimalt.
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Post by yak on Jul 27, 2017 9:48:30 GMT -8
This question isn't specific to one ferry, and is based on something I saw on Monday morning on the QUEEN OF ALBERNI. This past Monday, I was on the 5:15 AM ferry from Tsawwassen to Duke Point. I think it's the first time I've done that; maybe the last. I got to the terminal at 4:30, and there was a mile long lineup before the toll booths. Amazing how many people get up that early! It took 30 minutes to get to the toll booths, so I paid 15 minutes before sailing time. How do they deal with reservations in those circumstances? You're required to be there at least 30 minutes before sailing time, but if the lineup before the toll booth is 30 minutes long, you'd need to get there by 4:15 in the morning. I don't think there were that many reserves, except for the overheights. Anyways, that's not my question. On the QUEEN OF ALBERNI, they loaded an old style decommissioned ambulance van onto the upper deck and it was parked in the large open-air part of the deck at the stern because the car deck was pretty full. About 10 or 15 minutes after we sailed, I noticed some crew members measuring the height of the van, and it was pretty clear that the van would not be able to fit under the "ceiling" to unload once we got to Duke Point. As I drove off, I noticed the van doing a U-turn to face the other way. My question is, what would BC Ferries do in this circumstance? It's pretty much their fault the van got there. Would they load the ferry, then turn it around to let that one car off before heading back to Tsawwassen? Or would they take them all the way back and re-load them at Tsawwassen, wasting half their day? I wasn't able to stick around and watch, and didn't have access to a computer to see if there were any delays that day, but I'm wondering if anyone on here knows what kind of procedure they'd follow in this kind of circumstance. Sounds like they probably sent them back to Tsawwassen, but it could be a case by case basis sort of thing. The crew would weigh potential delays for all of their passengers against fixing the issue with the single vehicle even if the fault lay with the ferries. On smaller double enders like the Mayne Queen in the gulf islands I have seen them load commercials that are too tall to fit under the accommodation and they can just pull the ship out of the dock and rotate end to end before heading back in when discharging. Probably not that easy on something like the Alberni in Duke Point, though I have seen a Coastal do it in Tsawwassen when a sailing needed to be cancelled after they'd loaded the car deck. Mates rely pretty heavily on the terminal to give them accurate information when loading vehicles but for a variety of reasons mistakes happen. For one thing, the terminal is working with a cookie cutter "AEQ" and max height when they sort vehicles. I know from experience that what they qualify as an "underheight" doesn't always fit in places on board that are designated for underheights. A notable example on the Queen of Nanaimo would be the ramp deck where a vehicle may technically be short enough but if it is close to the limit and has a long overhang past the back axle (like cargo vans or some trucks with canopies) it will contact the ceiling when it comes down the ramps, resulting in tears and paperwork for the Chief Mate. Generally by the time a vehicle that doesn't fit makes its way down to the ship it is quite difficult to deal with. It is hard to say why the vehicle in this case got as far as it did or whether there were options while the ship was still in Tsawwassen.
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Neil
Voyager
Posts: 7,151
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Post by Neil on Jul 27, 2017 21:02:12 GMT -8
This question isn't specific to one ferry, and is based on something I saw on Monday morning on the QUEEN OF ALBERNI. This past Monday, I was on the 5:15 AM ferry from Tsawwassen to Duke Point. I think it's the first time I've done that; maybe the last. I got to the terminal at 4:30, and there was a mile long lineup before the toll booths. Amazing how many people get up that early! It took 30 minutes to get to the toll booths, so I paid 15 minutes before sailing time. How do they deal with reservations in those circumstances? You're required to be there at least 30 minutes before sailing time, but if the lineup before the toll booth is 30 minutes long, you'd need to get there by 4:15 in the morning. I don't think there were that many reserves, except for the overheights. Anyways, that's not my question. On the QUEEN OF ALBERNI, they loaded an old style decommissioned ambulance van onto the upper deck and it was parked in the large open-air part of the deck at the stern because the car deck was pretty full. About 10 or 15 minutes after we sailed, I noticed some crew members measuring the height of the van, and it was pretty clear that the van would not be able to fit under the "ceiling" to unload once we got to Duke Point. As I drove off, I noticed the van doing a U-turn to face the other way. My question is, what would BC Ferries do in this circumstance? It's pretty much their fault the van got there. Would they load the ferry, then turn it around to let that one car off before heading back to Tsawwassen? Or would they take them all the way back and re-load them at Tsawwassen, wasting half their day? I wasn't able to stick around and watch, and didn't have access to a computer to see if there were any delays that day, but I'm wondering if anyone on here knows what kind of procedure they'd follow in this kind of circumstance. Sounds like they probably sent them back to Tsawwassen, but it could be a case by case basis sort of thing. The crew would weigh potential delays for all of their passengers against fixing the issue with the single vehicle even if the fault lay with the ferries. On smaller double enders like the Mayne Queen in the gulf islands I have seen them load commercials that are too tall to fit under the accommodation and they can just pull the ship out of the dock and rotate end to end before heading back in when discharging. Probably not that easy on something like the Alberni in Duke Point, though I have seen a Coastal do it in Tsawwassen when a sailing needed to be cancelled after they'd loaded the car deck. Mates rely pretty heavily on the terminal to give them accurate information when loading vehicles but for a variety of reasons mistakes happen. For one thing, the terminal is working with a cookie cutter "AEQ" and max height when they sort vehicles. I know from experience that what they qualify as an "underheight" doesn't always fit in places on board that are designated for underheights. A notable example on the Queen of Nanaimo would be the ramp deck where a vehicle may technically be short enough but if it is close to the limit and has a long overhang past the back axle (like cargo vans or some trucks with canopies) it will contact the ceiling when it comes down the ramps, resulting in tears and paperwork for the Chief Mate. Generally by the time a vehicle that doesn't fit makes its way down to the ship it is quite difficult to deal with. It is hard to say why the vehicle in this case got as far as it did or whether there were options while the ship was still in Tsawwassen. I think it would be astonishing if BC Ferries- through their own incompetence in measuring vehicle height- sent anyone back to Tsawwassen, and caused a five hour plus delay in the passengers' journey. I posted a while back about seeing people turned back at Duke Point when mistakenly loaded onto the upper deck. They have to fix this, if it indeed is happening on any sort of regular basis. It's hard to understand, particularly on route 30 where there are only two vessels, how a simple system of measuring the height of vehicles couldn't be implemented to keep mistakes from ever happening. Yes, I think they should have turned the vessel around to unload the one vehicle, and been chastened by the mistake. This is not rocket science, and BC Ferries should have this solved.
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Post by Queen of Nanaimo Teen on Jul 27, 2017 23:02:26 GMT -8
Those photos were on photobucket, posted by FerryfanYVR. I actually downloaded all of his historical BC Ferry photos to my computer (only for me with no intention of ever sharing), as I feared something like this may happen one day. Looking through the downloaded photos I have, he had some photos of the Queen of New Westminster with this carpet, in the rear upper deck lounge. Perhaps we can ask him to post his photos again?
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