This is part three of a three-part series about a local resident who offers day trips by train to small communities in the outlying areas of Prince George.
The Train Lady, Linda Campbell, organizes trips by rail that sees passengers embark on the train at the Prince George station and most often travels the East Line that spans about 160km to McBride.
These day trips take participants to small communities that once were mostly accessible only by railway or ice bridge across the Fraser River.
Organizing these trips takes a bit of finagling because landing in a community that is used to having only its 40+ residents present takes some advance planning. The Train Lady and her bunch of rapscallions visited Dome Creek a few weeks ago and the town opened its Community Hall doors, little coffee shop and the Recreation Centre, formerly the school, to about 27 people.
We left Prince George just after 8 a.m. and most of us enjoyed the journey in the Dome Car, watching the world go by, swaying along to the rhythm of the train.
Historian Ray Olson was on board with head set and microphone ready to share some of his vast knowledge about the East Line, drawing attention to points of interest along the way like old churches, still existing hamlets and ghost towns long abandoned.
If we’re lucky, there are times in our lives where we just don’t want the good parts to end. That was the feeling expressed by many as the trained stopped to drop us off at Dome Creek.
“The trips are really historical as Ray will often come along and talk along the trip and then he will speak at the community hall in the places we visit and because he lived out there for so many years he’s always got a story to tell,” Campbell said.
“So it works out really well and the views people see along the way are not what most people see because the tracks usually go right along the rivers and lakes where the roads don’t.”
Campbell arranged for the shuttle operator, Cory Atrim and another driver with a second shuttle to accommodate the big group, meet the train at the tracks at the Dome Creek stop to drive the bunch of us into the heart of Dome Creek.
After everyone enjoyed a bit of a break with coffee and cookies at the coffee shop, we all made our way to the Community Hall with the roaring heater providing warmth to hear Olson share a few snippets of the history of the area including this personal account from when he spent his early years on the East Line.
“Primarily the ice bridges were put in to facilitate logging so that the logging trucks could cross the river to deliver the logs to the mills and the community would use the ice to drive on with their vehicles and that happened in all the communities along the Fraser River,” Olson said.
When Northwood Pulp & Timber Ltd. came to this part of the country in 1961 all their management was from Vancouver and Toronto, he added.
“And they didn’t really understand what it’s like in the North. My father, Art, operated a road grader for Northwood and they wanted him to grade the surface of the Fraser River’s ice with the road grader – and no, no, you don’t do that,” Olson said with a smile and a disbelieving shake of his head.
“They kept after him about it and he finally relented, provided they had people upstream and downstream to check the ice to make sure it was safe but as he went across the grader broke through the ice and the front wheel was hung up on the ice and the back of the grader was bobbing in the current like a cork.”
That was in the mid-60s when Olson still lived at home at Sinclair Mills.
They decided they needed to get the brand-new Caterpillar to pull the grader off the ice, Olson continued.
“And then that Cat went through the ice and they had to use dynamite to break up the ice and pull the Cat that was in the river with another one on the shore,” Olson said, shaking his head.
To a captive audience, John Broderick then shared some of his recollections about his family settling on the East Line.
Once the talks were concluded the group enjoyed an ordered-in-advance homemade chili and buns lunch. Then we all hopped, skipped and jumped on over to the rec centre where we took full advantage of the residents’ talents who were selling a variety of baked goods, crusty sour-dough bread included, artisan crafts, like the Domegnome’s felted faeries and other fantastical creatures and many other products of interest.
The warm welcome and friendly atmosphere were all so appreciated by the visitors from Prince George.
“I find the whole experience very fulfilling and it always makes me happy to meet new people,” organizer Campbell said.
“I feel when we go on these trips and visit these communities that we are part of something very meaningful. With Ray’s strong interest in sharing the history of the area and as long as he continues to be available I think we can keep doing these trips. It’s just so wonderful to have him here.”
At the end of the visit the shuttles picked up the visitors at the rec centre and carried us all back home to Prince George.
Campbell said as a senior she likes to keep busy and that’s what inspired her organizing trips like this one.
“Finding my journey in seniorhood it’s good to provide things for other seniors to do and to meet new people and so this is nice for me as well," Campbell said.
“I find being retired is a process and the more I do the more I want to do and now more people are finding out about the trips so there’s more interest.”
Campbell grew up around trains as her father was the telegraph officer in Prince George.
“We lived right by the tracks, so that was our neighbourhood, our life - the clickety clack, the toots and honks - so I’ve always been interested in trains,” Campbell said.
As a child she went across Canada with her mom because they had free passes and that is a memory Campbell has carried with her during her life.
“And then my interest in trains kind of drifted away but when I had grandchildren I thought wouldn’t it be fun to do a train trip and our first trip was to Sinclair Mills and my husband picked us up out there to drive us back to Prince George.”
When Campbell mentioned the trip to others they said they’d like to do something like that and that inspired her to take action.
“Being raised in Prince George this was an area I didn’t know much about and once you head out this way, it takes over a bit because it’s so quiet, then meeting Ray and hearing more about the area’s history and catching the train that goes out to these areas, it all just comes together in a really nice way.”
Visit the Train Lady at www.facebook.com/TrainLady.
