The Revelstoke Railway Museum is offering a special tour for rail enthusiasts on Saturday, Aug. 13 as part of the annual Railway Days festival.
This tour will allow participants to get up close and personal with an abandoned railway trestle bridge in the Galena Bay area that was built in 1906.
All that remains of the spur line that was extended into the bush by the Arrow Lakes Logging Company is the outline of a railbed and the remains of the bridge built tall and wide over Canyon Creek. The logging company used the line to access white pine in the area for shipbuilding, but pulled out after a devastating forest fire in 1910. An amazing feat of engineering, the hand-hewn logs are now held up by decades of new tree growth as well as the original structural framework.
Local railfans, Greg Brule and Jordy Hunter, have done extensive research into the bridge and the spur line and will be the guides on this unique excursion. artifact They will be sharing their own experiences searching for the bridge’s location and will have information about the logging company, its equipment, and historical material they have unearthed related to the little known story of this brief but permanent part of the area’s railway and logging history.
The full day tour begins at the Railway Museum and participants will travel by bus to the Galena Bay ferry where, after crossing the lake and a brief ride, the 20 minute hike into the bush will begin. “Good hiking shoes, lots of bug spray, and a camera are on the list of what to bring,” recommends Jennifer Dunkerson, Executive Director of the Railway Museum, “It is an energetic walk on an old rail bed with a reward at the end that will make it well worth it!”
Anyone interested should contact the museum as soon as possible as the group size is limited and pre-registration is required. A fee of $25 per person secures a seat on the bus, a box lunch and lots of information and discussion with the attending guides. By next summer the trestle may be gone so this may be the last opportunity to see it! For more information please contact the museum at 250-837-6060, or visit www.railwaydays.com.
~Story contributed