Railway Museum has a new exhibit for train-disaster fans

The Central BC Railway and Forestry Museum presents its latest exhibition DERAILED: Keeping the Click-Clack On the Tracks until the end of September.

Delving into the behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to fix it when it’s broke, Derailed showcases how auxiliary crews take on catastrophes on the railways.

Trains could be knocked off the tracks by natural disasters like mud or rock slides, collisions between trains and broken rails. That was when crews were called in groups of 15 to 20 workers who would take on the challenge of righting those train cars while clearing and fixing the track as fast as possible.

Within the exhibition at the Railway Museum is the opportunity for some hands-on interaction where visitors can decide how to approach the 1980 Seton Lake derailment where two locomotives went into the lake when they were hit by a rock slide.

Derailment highlights the stories of Joseph Edward Vivier and Eric Prince Stathers; who were auxiliary crew workers of the British Columbia Railway and the Pacific Great Eastern respectively.

Guests at the museum can watch the video footage of the salvage operation at Seton Lake and check out the model diorama to get all the details.

Visitors can also meet Hana the dispatcher for clean-up calls to the auxiliary crew. There are colouring sheets of equipment and people can make their own train accident report to share with others or take home.

For more information visit https://www.pgrfm.bc.ca.