We had not seen a train north of Parksville for almost two years. I am not sure how we knew that the girders were being moved that day, but we did. I got together with friends Harold Poole, Don Forseth and Bill Surgenoo (Bill’s grandfather worked for Hastings Timber Mills as a locomotive engineer, and his dad for Comox Logging also as an engineer).

We headed south from Courtenay with two vehicles, checking crossings south of Tsable River for signs of the train, and decided that it had not made it north of the Mud Bay crossing at Fanny Bay as yet.

While finding that perfect spot to get a picture, up drove a large maroon Pontiac. I had seen this car a few years earlier while chasing the Royal Hudson. (it had been the third or fourth day that the Hudson had run in 1974); I had positioned north of Horseshoe Bay with the railway 50 to 75 feet below the highway. I did not think it the best spot to get the picture, but decided it would have to do. Anyways, I am sitting there waiting for the train when the maroon Pontiac came flying into my spot, the driver jumps out, runs to the embankment, looks down to the tracks, and yells back to his wife that it’s too tight, jumps back into the car a roars off as fast as he arrived!

I was kind of baffled, what was he doing and why? I kind of figured it out when I got my picture back, not a bad picture of the top of the train, but that’s likely why no one else stopped at my spot!

Over the next few years I got a little more into it, bought myself a 35 mm camera so I could be more like the other people chasing trains. I started to meet some of the fellows from Victoria, and learned that sometimes to get the right picture it was necessary to do things like climb trees, use ladders, scale embankments, even climb on a car! I was told that someone named Dave Wilkie owned a large maroon Pontiac and would stand on the roof of it with a tripod to get a great shot. His wife had to sit in the car absolutely still so as not to ruin a picture. I had always been impressed with Dave’s photos, but had never met him (or so I thought!)

Back to Mud Bay crossing, up drives this large maroon Pontiac, and out jumps this tall white haired gentleman, walks over to my vehicle and asks, “have you seen a train?” I blurted out, “You’re Dave Wilkie, aren’t you”? I think I kind of took him by surprise, he quietly said yes, and we shook hands. I hope he realized what a thrill it was for me to meet him. I think I had a smile from ear to ear—I had just met Dave Wilkie!

Soon, the train arrived with its load of girders. The engine ran around the train at the siding, then pushed the carloads of girders to the bridge site. The south end of the bridge was complete. The mid section was always steel, and there was temporary bridge work on the north end with rails so that the new girders could be moved into position. Dave noted that these came from the second crossing over the Columbia at Revelstoke.

After the train had arrived at Mud Bay, crossing, Dave got his photos and disappeared. We did not see him again that day, although a photo appeared in Pacific News showing 8669 and its train, crossing an open area with Denman Island in the background. He would have taken the photo from high up a farmer’s field over looking the tracks.

It had been a great day—meeting Dave Wilkie, actually seeing a train on the Parksville—Courtenay section of the E & N. Somewhere in the David Wilkie Collection will be photos taken that day of Extra 8669 moving girders to rebuild the Tsable River bridge.