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VOLUME THIRTY-ONE
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NUMBER THREE 2001
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Railway Film Fest
Ken Smith - Correspondent
Grey Fox: Bill Miner spent
33 years
in a US jail for robbing stagecoaches,
before going on to rob trains north
of the
border.
Toronto - Railway subject matter found its way
into the Toronto International Film Festival 6-15 Sep 2001.
This year's film festival honoured a Canadian film that takes a railway turn of a different sort, "The Grey
Fox".
The Grey Fox had won a Genie Award for Best Picture in 1983.
It deals with the life of Bill Miner who spent 33 years in a US jail for robbing stagecoaches, before going on to
rob trains north of the border.
Miner stole $7,000 Cdn in British Columbia's first train holdup near Mission in 1904.
For two years, Miner lived quietly near Princeton, well liked by all but, in 1906, he stopped the wrong CPR train
at mileage 114.5 of the Shuswap Sub and found only $15.
After an 80-kilometre horse chase, he was caught, convicted, and sentenced to the B.C. penitentiary for
life. He escaped to the US in 1907.
The Grey Fox will be shown again across Canada in 2002 to coincide with the film's 20th
anniversary.
This Canadian Pacific Railway
News article is copyright 2001 by the Canadian Pacific Railway and is reprinted here with
their permission. All photographs, logos, and trademarks are the property of the Canadian Pacific Railway
Company.
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