On a recent visit to Squamish enroute to our favourite watering hole there – the Howe Sound Brewpub – we took a wrong turn and ended up at the West Coast Railway Heritage Park and Conference Centre. With time to spare, we wandered that idyllic spot for a couple of hours. This large outdoor museum of trains and gracefully restored buildings takes full advantage of its location in the Squamish valley, overlooked by towering peaks. It’s a great outing, especially for families, and a ride on the 3-km mini-train completes the experience.
The large indoor CN Roundhouse and Conference Centre is a vast conference space on the ground floor. An obligatory gift shop and stairs up to meeting rooms and an outdoor sitting area that takes in sweeping views of the site and the mountains completes the main building. On a nice day, it’s the 12-acre outside park/railway yard that is the star attraction. If you love old trains, you can wander among and into these old beauties including passenger coaches like the Canadian Northern Pullman, the CN Marjatta, cabooses and even the fun Kids Caboose. It’s the largest railway collection in Western Canada, so a true train buff will need more than the two hours we spent. Well-signed, including information about how the railcars were restored, there are diesel and steam locomotives to explore. Some will remember the CP steam locomotive, Engine 374, that was on display at the Expo 86 Roundhouse.
One of my favourites is the lavish British Columbia business car, built in 1890. I pictured old-time politicians making their speeches from the rear balcony at all the stops along the way. My husband was quite taken by the vintage mail car with dozens of cubby-holes for the many towns the train travelled through delivering and picking up mail. Trains would slow down enough that mail bags could be plucked from hooks to be sorted on board.
The day we visited, the spectacular Royal Hudson steam locomotive was inside the main building. If you go, check the schedule to see if it’s on view. Part of a class of locomotives designed for transporting the royals when visiting Canada, engine 2860 was built in 1940 but went out of service when diesel replaced steam. It was restored and began life again in 1974 as an excursion train between North Vancouver and Squamish, a popular attraction. With the privatization of BC Rail in 2001, the Royal Hudson was terminated.
The heritage park boasts some beautifully restored buildings – the Mac Norris station was being set up for high tea on the day we were there, but as we were working up an appetite for the Howe Sound Brewpub, we didn’t stay. There are two smaller wayside stations onsite and a 1937 period house with furnishings, formerly lived in by conductor Harry Brightbill and family. A well-tended vegetable garden grows beside the house and there’s a Beanery across the street.
After working up a thirst, we finally made it to the Howe Sound Brewpub – one of many good eateries and pubs in bustling Squamish. Designed by Jim Mitchell in 1996, also its first brewmaster, one of our favourite brews is the Nut Brown Rail Ale. Considered the grandfather of the craft-brewing industry in North America, Mitchell had recently passed away and a tribute to him was on display. He began Canada’s first craft brewery at Horseshoe Bay in 1982 and two years later, along with two partners, established the first brewpub in Canada – Spinnakers – in Victoria.
If you’re looking for a mini staycation, Squamish and the West Coast Railway Heritage Park may be just the ticket. See more at www.wcra.org
