[Rail] Englewood Railway on northern Vancouver Island
#1
Posted 14 September 2016 - 10:55 AM
Most Victorians, even most Vancouver Islanders, are probably not aware that the E&N Railway is not the only railway on Vancouver Island. Currently only a small section of the E&N in the Nanaimo area has trains operating.
But if you travel north to the town of Woss, 400 kilometres north of Victoria, you'll come upon ...a railroad fan's delight.
This "active" railway crossing sign in Woss is your first clue that you better look left and right before crossing ...railroad tracks?
...and things get zanier from there on in. I had the opportunity to check out the railroad operations and learn about the line last weekend, and here is a video of the Englewood Railway, the last logging railroad in North America.
Video
Englewood Railway
The line runs nearly 100 kilometres from logging operations south of Woss to a large yard in Beaver Cove on the east coast of Vancouver Island. It's actually right next to Telegraph Cove, which when I checked it out was absolutely chock full of tourists. It's a cute and quaint little place that I highly recommend you visit if you get the chance.
There's a passing-off yard north of Woss where a single locomotive pulling full loads from the logging operations meets with two locomotives that deliver empty loads from Beaver Cove and pull full loads north. This is where I observed a lot of the railway action which you'll see in the video and in the photos below.
From the passing-off point the train heads to Beaver Cove where logs are dumped into the ocean and prepared for delivery to shipping ports or over to the Lower Mainland, etc.
A service yard is situated about 15 minutes north of Woss along Nimpkish Lake, the huge north-south lake between Woss and Port McNeill. There crews will service the locomotives and the cars, which total 400.
The operation will delivery some 22,000 car loads of tress annually, although the output can fluctuate. Today two or three train loads are pulled into Beaver Cove on a daily basis.
The line is not connected to the E&N.
Below are photos of two locomotives awaiting delivery of fully loaded cars that they'll take to Beaver Cove. This passing-off yard is located north of Woss.
History
The Englewood Railway started operations in 1917 and will celebrate 100 years of operations next year. Take that, E&N. Originally the line was powered by steam locomotives such as the 2-8-2 you'll see in the video. The train is fully restored and is on display in the town of Woss. Once-upon-a-time the steam locomotive was actually used as a tourist train but that's no longer the case.
Currently four 1950's era former "switcher" locomotives power the line, with three in regular service and one on stand-by. The locomotives were converted to "road" operations, which means they were built up to handle railroad operations as opposed to operations within switching yards.
The line is operated seven days a week.
This 2-8-2 steam locomotive is on display in Woss, where a small train yard along Railway Avenue handles some operations although it appeared unused when I visited the yard.
- Bingo, lanforod and 57WestHills like this
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#2
Posted 14 September 2016 - 11:02 AM
Ironic that you posted this, I'm going up tomorrow to photograph the operations there. Unfortunately though the weather report is calling for rain the 3 days I'll be there.
#3
Posted 14 September 2016 - 11:13 AM
It'll be great even in the rain, I promise
It's such an incredible sight to see right here on the Island. I was dumbfounded when I came upon this operation.
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#4
Posted 14 September 2016 - 12:03 PM
I had been planning on going up there for years and I finally went up in August but the day I went they shut down because of forest fire concerns. I spent a couple days exploring the logging roads and scoping out good photo locations for the next trip. Even though I didn't see anything running I had a great time, the country is absolutely beautiful up there, and driving over the combined road/train bridges is pretty fun. Hoping it doesn't rain too hard.....
#5
Posted 14 September 2016 - 01:09 PM
It is fun to come across those bridges! I hung around one for about an hour thinking I had passed a fully loaded train heading to Beaver Cove. Unless it very, very slowly snakes its way up north it somehow beat me to that bridge. I still can't figure out how that would have happened, unless it stopped somewhere along the tracks.
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#6
Posted 14 September 2016 - 03:40 PM
Great pics! I visit Woss at least once a year to visit a relative, and like Chris says above it's beautiful country. The Englewood railway is pretty cool to see.
If you're heading to Woss make sure you walk past the steam engine on display and check out the logging road bridge over the river (watch out for trucks and traffic!) - very scenic.
Here's another pic of the steam engine:
#7
Posted 14 September 2016 - 06:50 PM
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#9
Posted 14 September 2016 - 08:13 PM
^^^ The Steele Creek bridge is a blast to cross on foot and look down, haven't been on the Noomas bridge.
#10
Posted 15 September 2016 - 11:52 AM
#11
Posted 15 September 2016 - 10:12 PM
It'll be great even in the rain, I promise
It's such an incredible sight to see right here on the Island. I was dumbfounded when I came upon this operation.
Don't let on to VHF as he doesn't like trains...no that's not a fair assessment he doesn't like the E&N...well maybe he does but he says' it will never run again...but then again he has railroading in his blood, or at least he used to.
#12
Posted 19 September 2016 - 06:40 PM
Well I certainly had a challenging trip to the Nimpkish Valley, pretty much a downpour the 3 days we were up there. As luck would have it, the rain eased off and allowed me this shot at East Fork Bridge near Beaver Cove. It would be the last photo I would take before we headed for civilization again. As tough as the weekend was though, I can't wait to go back
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#13
Posted 19 September 2016 - 06:44 PM
Well I certainly had a challenging trip to the Nimpkish Valley, pretty much a downpour the 3 days we were up there. As luck would have it, the rain eased off and allowed me this shot at East Fork Bridge near Beaver Cove. It would be the last photo I would take before we headed for civilization again. As tough as the weekend was though, I can't wait to go back
Thanks Chris. I always look forward to your rail related images.
- Chris City likes this
#14
Posted 20 April 2017 - 10:43 AM
There has been a derailment with maybe 6 injuries. One airlifted to hospital, one going by ambulance.
#15
Posted 20 April 2017 - 01:49 PM
Crap: "The BC Coroners Service confirms it is en-route to Woss."
- http://www.cbc.ca/ne...lment-1.4078059
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#16
Posted 20 April 2017 - 02:10 PM
#17
Posted 20 April 2017 - 02:22 PM
Oh no! That's not good
#18
Posted 20 April 2017 - 02:37 PM
#19
Posted 20 April 2017 - 02:54 PM
Know it all.
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#20
Posted 20 April 2017 - 03:11 PM
^ Well, they said a crew was working the track. That would make sense, as I do not think there would be 6 or more on the logging train.
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