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Mo in the cab of the Royal Hudson steam
locomotive, now preserved at the West Coast Railway Association's
Heritage Park, in Squamish, BC |
Hogger Mo hanging out of the Royal Hudson's
cab (it was only after seeing these pictures that we noticed the "do
not open windows" sign!) |
The park has a nice display of restored
railroad equipment, including this Railway Post Office car |
Halloween decorations were being put up
around the park |
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Royal Hudson #2860 |
Mo shows off the Operation Lifesaver poster |
We found a plaque honoring Roy Crowston,
the BCRail conductor we met on our charter trip to Fort Nelson.
Other Crowston family members are also noted. |
The Railway Wall of Fame is one of the
park's exhibits |
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Mo waits for a call on the Canadian
National Telegraph set |
Sweet Apple Station, built on the park for
the filming of a "Bye Bye Birdie" remake |
The Budd car silhouette is an unmistakable
part of BCRail's history in the area |
We stopped at Brandywine Falls, which Mo
had previously seen only from the train as it passes the back side |
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The view up Blackcomb from our Whistler
Village hotel |
Mo found a Teddy Bear store, or two, in the
village |
Our deluxe room in the Whistler Delta Inn |
No instructions were provided. I can
only relate that while we were getting ready for dinner, I decided to
experiment (fully clothed) and ended up with water all over my jacket. |
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A 2.5km walk takes us to Nairn falls,
between Whistler and Pemberton. I calculated that we had plenty of
time to take this walk and return to a highway view point to catch the
Cariboo Prospector making its way into Lillooet.... |
As we returned to the parking lot at the
falls we heard a locomotive in the distance, which I assumed to be
the Prospector. Thinking we had missed it at the viewpoint, we raced
into Pemberton to catch it....only to find it was this freight train
hauling a load of empties. |
So we raced back down the road to a
viewpoint above Nairn falls, and caught this nice view of the Prospector
working its way along the canyon. |
Highway 99 from Pemberton to Lillooet is a
beautiful fall trip. Lightly traveled, with plenty of curves, and
great scenery like this. |
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Mo was pressed into service as our trip
videographer. |
After a spectacular canyon descent, we pass
this Seton Lake overlook just outside of Lillooet. |
You can follow the route of the Prospector
carved into the rock right on the edge of the lake. |
We knew it was getting close to train time
when the track inspection truck came down the lake. |
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And right on time, here come four Budd
cars. Click here to see a
view from the train taken at about this spot. |
Heading from Seton Lake into Lillooet.
While I was disappointed we weren't able to take one more ride on the
Prospector, it was a lot of fun following and photographing it. |
The four RDCs arrive at Lillooet station,
where the train will be split into two sections: two cars will head to
Prince George, and the other two will return to North Vancouver. |
The Prince George section heads out of
Lillooet along the banks of the Fraser River. |
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The Prospector crosses high above the
Fraser River just outside of Lillooet. |
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