A visit to the Railway Museum (CPR Station) in Castlegar, BC, Canada

On my third trip to the Kootenays, the previous ones being in Nelson and Trail, I found myself in the city of Castlegar. 

Castlegar is the second largest city in the Kootenays with a population of around 8000 people. An interesting feature of this city is that there is a large population of Doukhobors here. Doukhobors are a Christian religious group originally from Russia. Since they rejected the Russian Orthodox Church and faced persecution they emigrated from Russia in large numbers during the 20th century. Many of them settled down in British Columbia and in other places in Canada. 

Like my previous trips in the Kootenays I was scheduled to be in Castlegar for 3 days and 2 nights but this time I had only one evening for an exploration of the city. I found out there was a railway museum here and it automatically became a must visit for me. So, on the second evening after the day's work was complete I immediately made my way to the CPR Station Museum as its called.  Now, I have a fascination with railways, be it from any part of the world, and ever since I read a book about the history of the Transcontinental Railway route I became a fan of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). Having done the Toronto to Vancouver rail journey abroad the iconic train 'The Canadian' my love for the history of the Canadian passenger railway increased.

I couldn't wait to check out this museum which is a housed in a 100 year old actual station and is believed to be one of the best preserved ones in the province. The station is made up of two floors. The upper floor used to be the station agent's residence and the entire floor is recreated the way it used to be in the 1900s. It was fascinating to see the different equipment in the home and the type of home furniture and accessories. But for me the ground floor was much more interesting. It housed a number of exhibits and a lot of books on railways in Canada. I could have spent a couple of hours easily just browsing through the books. But I was pressed for time and could only manage a cursory glance at the titles. There were also a huge archive of newspapers. Again I could only take a casual look at the newspapers. Some of the other interesting exhibits include a 1929 Harley Davidson, a 1924 Brown Radio and most interestingly for me a 1923 time table of the Canadian Pacific Railway which included the Transcontinental Railway.  Having done that trip just last year it was fascinating to look at. 

Outside the station is a Caboose parked on the railway track. I checked out the inside and it was standard caboose with no interesting features. The railway museum I visited in Prince George had far more models including some locomotives. Going back inside the station I met the caretaker there and chatted with her for a while. A spirited lady, she regaled me with stories about the station she had heard from the long time residents of Castlegar. One anecdote that quite stuck in my head was about an old lady who used to work at the station as a telegraph operator. She used to transmit all the status of the trains to the neighboring stations. After that wonderful conversation with her I bid her adieu and left for one more stop for the day, the Zuckerberg bridge where I just casually strolled for a while before heading back to the hotel. It was a satisfying evening overall.