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The Miniature Railway is intended to be the transportation system within the Park. When
completed it will circle the entire Park and you will be able to get on and off the trains to
visit the various Park Zones.
The Railway opened in July, 1996 and has been an instant success. The first locomotive
is a 1/8 scale replica of PGE No. 561 and when posed together "Mother and Daughter"
make quite a sight. The locomotive and cars became part of the Christmas scene at
Canada Place in Vancouver each year. More than
230,000 people have ridden these trains during the past four Christmas
seasons!.
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Presently there is over 4,000 feet of 7 1/2" gauge track in service,
offering Heritage Park guests a 15 minute ride around the Park. Starting
from Wilkie station, the trains head north to Sweet Apple station where
the locomotive is wyed. The train then reverses direction, passing by
Wilkie station and out into the woods past St. Paul's Chapel, through
Rhodes Junction and out the new Phase Two area to Eagle View, then Main
Street, Twin Cedars and back to Wilkie station.
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| SRY GP9 #124 To Join The Mini Rail Fleet |
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The West Coast Railway Heritage Park mini rail fleet has a new locomotive thanks to Southern Railway of British
Columbia’s sponsorship. A Carr’s Locomotives model of SRY’s GP9 #124 is now testing and will enter service along
with a fleet of six SRY painted cars following an inaugural run event planned for late October. This trainset
will be our primary train at our offsite events such as Christmas at Canada Place, and will operate at the Heritage
Park as well at other times. She is a real beauty as seen in the Shane Carr photo here.
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The unit has some lovely features—the sound system, horn and bell are great—and the lights are also excellent and should make this unit very good in night events such as Halloween and Christmas. As we go to press, some minor finishing work is underway and the construction of the control car is being finished. She also seems to pull very well—as witness this test run at BCSME with Paul Roy at the throttle.
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| SRY GP9 #124 Formally Inaugurated |
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The Southern Railway of BC mini rail GP9 #124 was formally inaugurated at the West Coast Railway Heritage Park on Wednesday,
October 20. on hand was SRY's Vice President Marketing and Sales Ken Doiron. The new locomotive will make its official service
debut at Christmas at Canada Place on December 12, then come to the Heritage park after Christmas for service on our own West
Coast Mini Rail tracks.
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Click on the photos for larger images
The official handshake - in photo l - r, Percy Fairhurst (long time volunteer),
Don Evans, Ken Doiron and Paul Roy
The WCRA crew poses for a shot
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