3 May 2009
Royal Hudson Steams Into Royal City
2860 at New Westminster, British
Columbia.
New Westminster British Columbia - Royal visitors
used to ride elegantly appointed trains while traveling across the country to meet their subjects. Saturday, a royal visitor to New
Westminster was a train.
The Royal Hudson steamed along the waterfront just after 9:30 for a brief reception at the Fraser River Discovery Centre en route to
Cloverdale. And Trevor Mills was going to make sure he didn't miss it.
The lifelong train buff who helped restore the historic locomotive back to working order after it had been pulled from service in
1999, drove down from Squamish to join a handful of other steam enthusiasts encamped on the 3rd Avenue overpass for a bird's eye view
as the big black, silver, and maroon engine chugged through the rail yard in front of the Kruger paper plant, paused while a switch
was changed, then roared beneath their feet billowing a cloud of white steam.
"It's one of the biggest steam engines running in Canada, and to get a good picture of it actually out running is quite rare
these days," said Mills, clutching his digital camera and GPS-enabled cell phone to help guide his chase of the
train for further photo ops.
The Royal Hudson number 2860 was one of the last steam locomotives built for the Canadian Pacific Railway. It spent most of its
operating life, from 1940-56, running the main line between Revelstoke and Vancouver.
For Mills, the train is as much a link to his own past as to the country's.
"I think of my dad traveling on the train across Canada and the hundreds of thousands of people who traveled on the train to get
back and forth," said Mills. "In its day, it was the only way to get long distances and to recreate that little bit of
history in a modern century is quite an awesome thing to do."
The stop in New Westminster, which was repeated on Sunday, was part of the city's 150th anniversary celebrations, as well as to
commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Interurban rail service that linked communities in the Lower Mainland to the Fraser
Valley.
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