1959 cross-province train trip starts and ends in Vernon

A recently posted video on YouTube by Reel Life / Canada Motorsport reveals a more pristine British Columbia interior in a video of a train and steamship journey across British Columbia in 1959.

The video is a 37-minute time capsule, filmed by Vernon photographer Richard Heggs when he made the cross-province trip as a 20-year-old. It's a 3,000-km Triangle Tour of interior B.C. from Vernon to Prince Rupert to Vancouver and back.

The video starts with a departure on the Canadian National continental train from the station in Vernon – what does that street look like today? – as filming continues through the Okanagan and Thompson countryside to an overnight stay in Kamloops.

Check out Hegg’s shots of Kamloops’s neon-lit downtown.

Video of rugged B.C. countryside are interspersed with stops at the Birch Island, Blue River and Jasper train stations before heading west to Prince Rupert, across what appears to be a largely empty countryside.

Hegg takes a vehicle tour in Prince George and captures a bustling, growing city with a new neighbourhood under construction, the building of the Prince George Hospital and a number of sawmills that seem to dominate the industrial scene.

Heggs’ train ride terminates in Prince Rupert, where he boards the SS Canadian Pacific to Vancouver before catching the continental back to Vernon.

The film is one in a series produced by Reel Life / Canada MotorSport, featuring vintage film footage and contemporary video of all varieties.

%%Embed1%%


To contact a reporter for this story, email Steve Arstad or call 250-488-3065 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to tips@infonews.ca and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above.

Steve Arstad

I have been looking for news in the South Okanagan - SImilkameen for 20 years, having turned a part time lifelong interest into a full time profession. After five years publishing a local newsletter, several years working as a correspondent / stringer for several local newspapers and seven years as editor of a Similkameen weekly newspaper, I joined iNFOnews.ca in 2014. My goal in the news industry has always been to deliver accurate and interesting articles about local people and places. My interest in the profession is life long - from my earliest memories of grade school, I have enjoyed writing.
As an airborne geophysical surveyor I travelled extensively around the globe, conducting helicopter borne mineral surveys.
I also spent several years at an Okanagan Falls based lumber mill, producing glued-wood laminated products.
As a member of the Kaleden community, I have been involved in the Kaleden Volunteer Fire Department for 22 years, and also serve as a trustee on the Kaleden Irrigation District board.
I am currently married to my wife Judy, of 26 years. We are empty-nesters who enjoy living in Kaleden with our Welsh Terrier, Angus, and cat, Tibbs.
Our two daughters, Meagan and Hayley, reside in Richmond and Victoria, respectively.

Steve Arstad's Stories

More Articles