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Post by Low Light Mike on Mar 8, 2020 7:40:17 GMT -8
My favourite wooden railway trestle on Vancouver Island is the long & tall one above Cameron Lake.
I visited it last weekend, and made a video of it.
The trestle is 441 feet long and 100 feet tall, and is located at Mile 14.6 of the Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway's Port Alberni Subdivision.
No trains have run there since 2001. The railway lost its major freight customer (a mill in Port Alberni) in late 2000, and this caused the end of train service on that subdivision.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Apr 20, 2020 7:00:42 GMT -8
Three years ago today, three workers on the Englewood Logging Railway were killed, near Woss, on northern Vancouver Island. That day would turn out to be the last day of operation of any logging railway in North America. It's a sad remembrance for those who miss the railway, but today my focus is on the people of Woss. DSC09128 Woss by Mike Bonkowski, on Flickr
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Post by Low Light Mike on Jul 9, 2020 17:51:52 GMT -8
The Englewood Logging Railway on northern Vancouver Island was the last operating logging railway in North America. Daily trains took logs from the interior of the north island to a log-sort at the north end of the railway, at the ocean at Beaver Cove, near Port McNeill. The south end of the railway was at Vernon Lake, which is located between Gold River and Woss (right in the middle of the north island, far away from any highways). The railway operated 4 re-load sites, where logs would be brought to the railcars by truck. So trucks fed the train at these points, and then the assembled train was taken on the long haul up to the log sort at Beaver Cove. A very efficient use of power and labour. The fatal accident at Woss on April 20, 2017 was the final day of operations, for a railway owner (Western Forest Products - WFP) that didn't necessarily want to be in the railway business in the first place. The railway had come to WFP as part of an overall purchase from Canfor. In November 2017, the owner announced that the railway's temporary post-accident closure would be permanent. In early 2019, they announced their plan to remove the railway. Rails and ties would be removed, any single-use railway bridges would be converted to truck use (some bridges were already dual rail/truck use), and the corridor would likely be used for their trucks. Railcars (log cars, ballast cars, cabooses, etc) would be scrapped at "Camp-A" which is between Woss and the south end of Nimpkish Lake. The 3 operational locomotives would be sold to the scrapper, who would have to move them out by truck (in pieces, presumably). The long WFP strike of 2019 delayed most of the decommissioning project until 2020. The rail removal work re-started in Spring 2020 and is now going full-speed and is likely to be completed by end of July. I made a point of visiting the area on July 4th 2020, to walk the remaining rails in two locations, and to see a few locations where the scrapping was done or in-progress. The latter locations had a definite "Industrial Morgue" feeling, and my hobby work was essentially post-mortem photography for the final moments of that long lived industry. If anyone is interested in reading about this operation, there is a fine book produced by 2 island historians, Mr. Sandy Macham and Mr. Maynard Atkinson. The book is tough to find, because it's mainly sold from the Campbell River Museum's gift-shop, and there are no online sales. I love the book. Museum ShopUsed book link hereI will include my trip-blog and some photo and video links in the posts to follow.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Jul 9, 2020 17:56:47 GMT -8
Here is my trip blog report for the sites of the Englewood Logging Railway that I visited on July 4, 2020:
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I live in Nanaimo, and took a day trip to northern Vancouver Island on Saturday to see parts of the Englewood Logging Railway that still had rails, and to see some freshly un-railed parts. My goals were to see things for myself, and to hopefully make some good videos and photographs for the sake of preserving that view of history.
I left home at 4:00am and returned at 9:00pm. A long, but fun day. I ended up visiting 5 sites. Each had it's own draw for me, and I had differing results.
Site 1 was an 10.2km return hike along the railway from Kokish logging road crossing near Beaver Cove (Mile 1.1) to the Tsultan River bridge at Mile 4.3. A 90 minute walk each way, and the pretty scenes (including East Fork bridge) were pleasant sights along the way. Windfalls that I'd seen there in December 2019 have been recently removed, in preparation for the rail removal crew. But there was "Height of the growing season" abundance of grass, flowers, weeds and saplings along the tracks in many places. I arrived at Tsultan River bridge at 8:49am, and the sun was already causing me problems with its harshness, making most photography angles difficult. But I found a nice side view from north-west corner (railway direction south end), where the sun was thankfully behind some trees.
Site 2 was an early afternoon walk along the rails from Noomas Creek bridge (Mile 14.2) south to Graham Spur (Mile 14.85). Just a quick 2km return hike, where I wanted to see some rock cuts with views to the highway below. I realize that the best rock-cut area is Halfway Island Creek diversion (Mile 12.6), but I didn't have time or energy for another long hike, after my 10km earlier in the morning. I got some nice views of the highway/railway in same photograph, but no lake views from that location. Graham Spur is a short nondescript spur likely used to spot maintenance-of-way cars.
Site 3 was a mid-afternoon visit to Camp-A, which is where the 4 locomotives and some (or most) of the cabooses are, along with some railway maintenance machines, and lots of other rolling-stock. This scene is where it hit me that I was looking at a "railway morgue," with all the dormant but not yet disposed items just sitting and waiting. I tried to capture the mood with my photographs. Lighting was moody-cloudy, so that helped.
Site 4 was a visit to Siding #4 (south of Camp-A, on west side of the highway). My draw was a sighting of a caboose and some tank-cars at the siding, seen from the highway on my morning drive north. So I made a mental note to stop by on my way south. The rails and ties had been removed from the mainline and sidings at the site, except for the rails underneath those remaining cars (caboose #4103, 3 tank cars and a flat-deck car). The rails only extended a few metres from each end of the consist.
Site 5 was a late afternoon visit to Woss, focused on the Englewood Drive mainline crossing and the first bit of the Woss Reload spur. Rails and ties have been removed from both, and it felt like I was walking on a wide recreational trail. But the feeling turned somber as I walked up the start of the Woss Reload spur, and saw the peoples' memorial at the April 20, 2017 accident site. It is sacred ground. Similar in spirit to how people leave art supplies at Emily Carr's grave, this Woss memorial site has an ample display of unopened cans of Lucky Lager.
I realized that I was experiencing two types of sadness during my day. One was the sadness for the loss of an industry and an historical railway. I was sad and mad that the rails are being removed. The other sadness is for the loss of the people from that horrible accident, and the impacts on the families and friends and community.
And now my purpose is to present images and videos that convey the history and those feelings.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Jul 9, 2020 18:03:46 GMT -8
Similar to how my most-viewed ferry videos would be the simple "sounding the ship's whistle" videos for that niche audience, my most-viewed railway photos and videos are of locomotives. Meanwhile, I'm more interested in the old routes, rock cuts, trestles and sidings. Even in specialized hobbies, I'm still an oddball.... Here's my photo album of the remaining locomotives of the Englewood Logging Railway. - #303 is the yellow one which never got repainted into the new colours, and wasn't operational for a number of years before the closure. It's a still-life time capsule. Locomotive Album HereAnd here's Siding 4, which has its rails already removed, except for a small section where old cars are waiting for their fate. Siding 4 Album HereAnd for the thing that I really love to do, here's my Vlog of my walk to see two bridges, at the north end of the line. - I love to walk and talk on an old railway. ------------------- PS: this post has been triple-checked to remove any possible smart-ass items.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Jul 17, 2020 19:33:03 GMT -8
I visited northern Vancouver Island for the second time this month, to again see the Englewood Railway. This closed-down logging railway is having its rails & ties removed in 2020, with that project expected to complete in August. (or at least have most of the rails gone by then).
So on Monday July 13th, I visited a few more sites, with a mix of rails-in, rails-out and rails-being-removed.
Here's is a video of my hike into a rails-in viewpoint above the highway along Nimpkish Lake. I'm in my "Happy Place."
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Post by paulvanb on Jul 18, 2020 5:53:55 GMT -8
I visited northern Vancouver Island for the second time this month, to again see the Englewood Railway. This closed-down logging railway is having its rails & ties removed in 2020, with that project expected to complete in August. (or at least have most of the rails gone by then). So on Monday July 13th, I visited a few more sites, with a mix of rails-in, rails-out and rails-being-removed. Here's is a video of my hike into a rails-in viewpoint above the highway along Nimpkish Lake. I'm in my "Happy Place." Thanks, Mike. Now you've given me something else to see when I head up island!
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Neil
Voyager
Posts: 7,150
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Post by Neil on Jul 18, 2020 20:24:24 GMT -8
I visited northern Vancouver Island for the second time this month, to again see the Englewood Railway. This closed-down logging railway is having its rails & ties removed in 2020, with that project expected to complete in August. (or at least have most of the rails gone by then). So on Monday July 13th, I visited a few more sites, with a mix of rails-in, rails-out and rails-being-removed. Here's is a video of my hike into a rails-in viewpoint above the highway along Nimpkish Lake. I'm in my "Happy Place." I absolutely get your comment about a 'happy place'... there are places that resonate, depending on who we are. Places where, when you're there, you feel fully present. There's also something about an abandoned railroad. It's sad, but oddly peaceful to know that a train will never again pass by, and you see nature reclaiming the roadbed. In a sometimes jaded world, it's nice to watch someone really enjoying a spot they feel at peace in, so, thanks for the video. I'm curious as to why they're pulling up the tracks. Is it a legal requirement? As we know with the difficulty in selling old ferries, it's not as if the value in recycled steel is there. They're removing the ties as well? Would be nice if the abandoned rail network on Vancouver Island could become a pathway.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Jul 18, 2020 22:14:44 GMT -8
I'm curious as to why they're pulling up the tracks. Is it a legal requirement? As we know with the difficulty in selling old ferries, it's not as if the value in recycled steel is there. They're removing the ties as well? Would be nice if the abandoned rail network on Vancouver Island could become a pathway. Thanks Neil. This railway is unique in that it was just an industrial railway on private land, so there was never any legal agreement with any government to keep it running for the public good (as is the case with railways that were created in part to give passenger service, and who have to beg to close-down). So the owner (Western Forest Products) decided in late 2017 to permanently close it. Then in 2019, they announced the rails & ties removal plan, which is happening now. I think the difference with scrapping ferries versus scrapping a railway is the lack of asbestos in the railway. It's just dismantle and then remove and sell the scrap. No hazmat or other dangers, other than bears and mosquitoes on-site. Some of the railway's bridges were already dual use (truck and rail) and the other bridges will be be converted to truck use (a flat planked deck). I suspect that some of the railway route will be used for a narrow logging road, and the parts that are too narrow (such as in rock-cuts or filled-in gullies) will simply be abandoned to nature. Keep in mind that the owner (WFP) had an employee strike for much of 2019. It's not a popular company on the north island. The railway heritage and history belong to the families who worked in the area, and the people who love that history are doing their best to preserve the memories. The current owner company doesn't seem interested in the railway history that it purchased from Canfor in 2006.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Jul 20, 2020 11:49:17 GMT -8
Dismantling a railway is similar to building a railway, in reverse.
I've read enough history of the building of the CPR in the 1880s to learn about concepts of track-laying gangs and machines, and the ever-moving "End of Track" location.
I observed the opposite process on July 13, 2020 on northern Vancouver Island at two sites of the Englewood Railway.
Siding 3 was the current end-of-track when I visited.
Camp-A was the log-car dismantling site.
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Post by paulvanb on Jul 29, 2020 19:43:24 GMT -8
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Post by Low Light Mike on Jul 29, 2020 20:13:10 GMT -8
A shout out to Low Light Mike for guiding me to the bench on the railway being dismantled at the north end of Vancouver Island. His stories piqued my curiosity, and had to visit! Thank you for all of your guidance. I'll have more when I get home. I'm so glad that you were able to see a variety of rails and rail-less grade, in this weird transition year. The "Mile 14 to 12" area that you went to has some great scenery, and you had some blue skies. Thanks for the preview photos here. I look forward to seeing your other photos later.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Aug 2, 2020 7:44:47 GMT -8
On Friday, I did some train videography in Nanaimo, for the short run of propane cars from the Wellcox railyard at Nanaimo's harbour to Superior Propane in mid-Nanaimo. This train runs 3 to 5 times a week, depending on the time of year (it has to do with consumer propane demand).
I picked a few locations, and set myself up for recording video. I've edited two videos of this: A full detail video of the 4 locations, and a sped-up version of 2 locations, just for fun.
I find switching/shunting/running-around of railway cars and locomotives fascinating. It's a real chess game of needing to plan out all the moves in advance, because you can't just lift a few cars and move them to another track or spot in the train like you would lift up a coffee cup and move it to a different coaster. (how's that for an analogy?)
I think this has similarities to my fascination with ferries. I'm not so much interested in the mechanics, but I sure like to wonder why a vessel takes a certain route, uses a certain berth, etc. How a single-ended ferry plans out its arrival approach is similar to how a railway plans out its railcar switching.
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Post by paulvanb on Aug 6, 2020 15:54:08 GMT -8
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Post by Low Light Mike on Aug 6, 2020 17:31:00 GMT -8
Photos from my visit to the bench! Hope Low Light Mike approves! I love the drone view in the first photograph. Thanks for this perspective, as well as the other photos.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Aug 7, 2020 7:59:53 GMT -8
Here's my walk on July 13, 2020 through the Halfway Island Creek rock-cut on the closed-down Englewood Railway. I saw it with rails. A few weeks later, paulvanb saw it without rails. The de-railing project is moving quickly.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Sept 12, 2020 10:55:52 GMT -8
Here is my video of a September 5, 2020 visit to see the rolling stock being stored at Camp A on the closed-down and almost fully decommissioned Englewood Railway. This former logging railway operated on northern Vancouver Island until April 2017. Permanent closure was announced in Autumn 2017 by the owner, Western Forest Products. The decommissioning project has been underway in 2020 to fully remove the railway, and it is expected to be completed by the end of September 2020. The final fate of the rolling stock stored at Camp A, and seen in this video, is unknown. This video includes my comments on what I've heard might be the outcome for the items, but no one will know for sure until it happens. The rolling stock might remain in that line of track for another year or more. There are a few other rolling stock items stored in a few other locations on the railway, but all the rails between these locations have been removed. ============= Here are a couple of photo albums from the same visit: HEREMORE HERE
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Post by Low Light Mike on Sept 25, 2020 19:53:32 GMT -8
I like to go full-depth with the detail on my photo and video projects. Here's an example of this, with my latest video (recorded last Saturday and just finished editing now):
I've got a thing for old wooden railway trestles, and the E&N Railway between Parksville and Port Alberni has a lot of these structures that I enjoy visiting.
This video is of 4 trestles in a section that has been isolated from any railway contact, because of geography (steep slope, and behind a lake), vegetation overgrowth, rock & tree fall, problem trestles at either end and a lack of any road access to the grade.
This is the 3rd time that I've visited this quartet of structures, and it had been 11 months since my previous visit. I wanted to see the change in condition, that another year of neglect and nature had.
You'll notice that I appear to have a connection with the structures, similar to how people feel a connection to a particular ship.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Oct 8, 2020 10:14:54 GMT -8
Here's another railway video, this one from last weekend at Cameron Lake on Vancouver Island.
This is a combination of old wooden trestles and "broom porn." I'm sure there's a weed-walking niche or fetish community somewhere, but I just like to see the old railway and so I try to cope with all the broom weeds.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Nov 7, 2020 9:08:28 GMT -8
I'm still doing railway hiking on Vancouver Island. I especially enjoy the E&N Railway's Port Alberni Subdivision, which runs from Parksville to Port Alberni.
The last freight train on that subdivision was in early 2002, so it has seen some aging since then. I've got a fondness for the many wooden trestles and the isolated parts where only hikers, ATVers, bears, cougars and me seem to go.
I also have a fondness for lots of detail, and I love how I can decide how much detail to show in my videos, for the style that me and a few other humans might enjoy.
This video is my annual check-up hike on the Beaufort Slope section of the Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway's Port Alberni Subdivision. This out-and-back hike starts at the Smith Road level crossing (Mile 33.3) north of Port Alberni, and my turnaround is at Mile 28 which is roughly above the Cherry Creek neighbourhood.
This was from a week ago, on October 31, 2020.
PS: During the video, I mention looking for evidence of an old water-tower site. What I was looking for were the concrete foundations, which I've seen in other old water tower sites along the E&N (Cameron Lake and Bowser).
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Post by Low Light Mike on Dec 12, 2020 9:38:31 GMT -8
I have continued doing autumn hikes to some of my favourite railway trestle locations on Vancouver Island.
Last Saturday, I visited an old wooden trestle near Port Alberni, on the E&N Railway subdivision that ran from Parksville to Port Alberni.
I have done plenty of "walk across the top" trestle visits, but this time I wanted to explore underneath. It was fun, on a foggy day.
This is a detailed look at the Mile 25 trestle on the Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway's Port Alberni Subdivision. This trestle is located near Port Alberni, below the Alberni Lookout and near Lacy Lake Road. It's on the mountainside above the Coombs Country Candy store, near the east entrance to Port Alberni.
No trains have run here since 2002, and this trestle would need to be completely rebuilt before trains could use it again. The trestle is 346 feet long and 47 feet tall.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Dec 23, 2020 19:15:28 GMT -8
Here is my video of a detailed underneath look at the "Big Trestle" above Cameron Lake, at Mile-Post 14.6 on the Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway's Port Alberni Subdivision. This trestle is located across the lake from Highway 4, on the railway line that connects Parksville to Port Alberni. No trains have run here since 2002, and this trestle would need to be completely rebuilt before trains could use it again. The trestle is 441 feet long and 100 feet tall. Seen by me on December 20, 2020 on Vancouver Island, on a windy day. This is the kind of exploration hike that I love to do
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Post by Low Light Mike on Jan 2, 2021 9:51:55 GMT -8
Here is my video of "E&N Railway - Niagara & Arbutus Creeks, past and present grades."
This is a railway hike on December 28, 2020, on the Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway's Victoria Subdivision from Mile 13.5 (south of Niagara Creek) to Mile 14.9 (Arbutus Creek). This is north and west of Goldstream Provincial Park, on southern Vancouver Island.
The highlights of this video are explorations of the original 1885 grades that led to the original wooden trestles at Arbutus Creek and Niagara Creek. Both of the original trestles were replaced by steel structures in the 1910s, but the old grade approaches remain and can be seen if you know where to look.
I also did clean walks across the Niagara Creek bridge and the Arbutus Creek trestle, and I have presented these as sped-up video.
This video is part of a longer overall hike that started and ended at Humpback Road near Langford.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Jan 16, 2021 7:53:39 GMT -8
Here's my latest video on the closed-down Englewood Railway, which was the last operating logging railway in North America.
This is from my January 4, 2021 visit to Camp A on the closed-down and fully decommissioned Englewood Railway.
This former logging railway operated on northern Vancouver Island until April 2017. Permanent closure was announced in Autumn 2017 by the owner, Western Forest Products. The decommissioning project was done in 2020 to fully remove the railway.
The final fate of the rolling stock stored at Camp A and seen in this video is unknown to me. The future of the various items will likely be a combination of items sold, donated, and scrapped. Any future movements will be done by road on a truck low-bed trailer or in a scrap box trailer.
The video's first section gives some visual background to the location of the railway, the locations of the 4 re-loads (transfer areas from truck to train), and the recent locations of the remaining locomotives. The video's second section is my walkaround at Camp-A on that January morning.
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Visiting a closed-down railway and its rolling stock is similar to seeing a retired ship, and wondering if this is the last time you'll see her, and if the scrap-yard is the next location for her. So you keep on visiting and noting the changes from time, weather and vandals, just as you would with an old ship. You see the current condition and imagine the scene in its full operational splendor of years ago.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Aug 16, 2021 15:02:04 GMT -8
I love doing filmmaking, which for me is the process of envisioning an audio/visual result, doing the preparation and planning for locations timing and vantage points, doing the recording (multiple cameras in various locations), and then sorting / weeding / editing and then compiling into an overall movie for presentation. And all the while, I need to be considering the point-of-view of the expected and unexpected viewers who will need context and background information in order to enjoy the end result.
So here is a comprehensive video view of a visitors train trip on the Cowichan Valley Railway, on the grounds of the BC Forest Discovery Centre (formerly BC Forest Museum).
This is located in North Cowichan, just north of Duncan on Vancouver Island. I visited on August 9, 2021 and recorded the train during multiple trips onboard and from various locations on the ground along the route during the day.
The 3 car visitors train was pulled by the #26 Plymouth locomotive model T12 "Green Hornet" which was built in 1928 for the British Columbia Electric Railway Company, where it worked until 1970. It is powered by a Buick V-8 gasoline engine.
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