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. 

Evenings in Trail, BC, Canada

Continuing from my previous trip to Nelson, BC, within a few days I found myself once again in the Kootenays, this time in the city of Trail, BC. 

Trail is a curious name for a city and lot of people who hear it for the first time get confused. It is actually named after the Dewdney Trail which passed through the town. Apart from the curious name, Trail has a very interesting history. It is the site of the World's largest Zinc and Lead smelter in the world! The existing plant has its origins in 1896 when the a person names Fritz Augustus Heinze opened the British Columbia Smelting and Refining Company smelter here. It kept on expanding and went through multiple ownerships including Canadian Pacific Railway(CPR) at one point. Nowadays the company is owned by Teck Resources. Most interesting of all, this plant had a part to play in the Manhattan Project. There used to be a heavy water plant here which supplied heavy water to the Manhattan Project's P-9 project. 

I was going to spend 3 days and 2 nights here in the city. Since I would be working in the day time I had 2 evenings to explore the place. On the first day I simply went on an exploratory stroll through the streets with no set target. Much of the city scape is dominated by the smelter. It is visible from all directions. In many ways it reminded me of the town of my first job back in India. Raigarh, in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh too is dominated by the presence of a steel company. Trail is similar. I was in this city before during a field trip during my Master's program from UBC. I went to some of the places we visited last time including to the banks of the River Columbia. Trail's downtown is set on a plain but much of the residential area is set in the a hilly terrain. To avoid the long winding roads Trail has these series of stairs all over the place. Made the walks all the more fun. 

The next evening, I had two goals. One was to visit the Museum I saw the day before. So immediately after the day's work I made my way to the Museum. This was a combined visitor center and museum. The museum was spread over two floors. The bottom floor was mostly about the sports team of Trail. Having not much interest in sports I just walked briskly through the exhibits just casually taking a look. On the second floor, the display was arranged very systematically detailing the history of the place right from the indigenous people here then through the settlement and to the present. There were lots of cool exhibits like an underwater suit that divers wore while exploring the Columbia river and there were posters from the world war era, detailing what to do in case of an air attack. I spent a couple of hours here taking a good look here. My second goal was to get a good shot of the city with the plant in the background. I was trying to get to higher ground to get that shot and for this I had to use many of the stairs that I mentioned before. This was super fun. I always like to go to the 'normal' area of any new place I visit to get a feel for the place. Finally after getting some nice pics I made my way back to my Hotel room. The next day after work we departed from Trail and thus ended a nice short trip. 

The Museum 

The Stairs

A walk in Myra Canyon, BC, Canada

Ever since I moved to Kelowna, I have been hearing about Myra Canyon a lot. Its a very popular weekend spot for the people of Kelowna. One fine weekend just in time before the onset of the heat wave in British Columbia, me and my friends decided to check it out. 

Myra Canyon is a part of the Myra-Bellevue Provincial Park in the Okanagan east of Kelowna. The main attraction of this place is the railway trestles that transverse this canyon. Back in the 1915 to 1960s there used to be a railway line running through this canyon. Called the Kettle Valley Railway, a subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway, this railway ran from Midway to Hope. During it's construction the builders faced a big hurdle when they hit the Myra Canyon section but they more than met this challenge. Now a National Historic Site of Canada, the plaque there reads that it was a Canadian engineering achievement and the completion of this section of the railway provided a vital link between the east coast of Canada and the southern interior BC. There are a total of 18 trestles and 2 tunnels here. 

Places which mix history and natural beauty are always a delight for me. So I had to visit this place. So a weekend Thivya, Divya and myself finally made a plan to go. We took a Taxi and went to the Ruth Station Taxi lot which is one end of the Myra Trail. The other end is called the Myra Station. Below is a helpful map of the trail from the Myratrestles website.

There are remnants of the Ruth railway station here beside which the trail runs. The trail is actually where the tracks used to run. They have been removed and a walkable and cyclable route has been built. We walked on this path just talking and enjoying the sunshine. We finally hit the first trestle after maybe an hour and a half of walking. We took pics here and just enjoyed the views around. We continued walking and covered till the 8th trestle where we finally decided to head back. Sadly we couldn't go till the first tunnel as we were getting tired and since we had no means of transportation and were relying on calling a taxi we did not want to take a chance. We were back at the Ruth Station Parking Lot by 2pm and thankfully we got a taxi to go back home.

Overall, Myra Canyon is a good place to do some leisurely strolling and biking. This was more like a test visit for us and we plan to bike the entire way next time.