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171-600: In 1939, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited Canada, arriving at Wolfe's Cove , Quebec, on 17 May 1939. This was the first time that a reigning monarch had visited Canada . The King and Queen took a tour of the country by rail. The CPR and the Canadian National Railways (CNR) shared the honours of transporting the royal train across the country, with the CPR undertaking the westbound journey, from Quebec City to Vancouver . The steam locomotive that

342-490: A Royal Commission , the McKenzie Royal Commission, to investigate the railway. Its recommendations were released on August 25, 1978. It recommended that construction not continue on the 240 kilometres (149 mi) of roadbed between Dease Lake and the current end of track, and that trains be terminated at Driftwood (approx. lat 55°42, long 126°15′), 32 kilometres (20 mi) past Lovell . The rest of

513-546: A BCRC subsidiary, BCR Properties Ltd. The rail operations became known as BC Rail. In 1973, the British Columbia government acquired and restored an ex- Canadian Pacific Railway 4-6-4 steam locomotive of the type known as " Royal Hudsons ", a name that King George VI permitted the class to be called after the Canadian Pacific Railway used one on the royal train in 1939. The locomotive that

684-461: A ball, and threw the other end. The Queen Mother stopped and picked these up as though somebody had misplaced them. [Returning them to the students she said,] 'Was this yours? Oh, could you take it?' And it was her sang-froid and her absolute refusal to be shocked by this, which immediately silenced all the students. She knows instinctively what to do on those occasions. She doesn't rise to being heckled at all; she just pretends it must be an oversight on

855-570: A bottle of Australian red over the liner's bow just before it slid out of reach. In 1954, Elizabeth sailed to New York on her namesake. British Columbia Railway The British Columbia Railway Company ( reporting mark BCOL, BCIT ), commonly known as BC Rail , is a railway in the Canadian province of British Columbia . Chartered as a private company in 1912 as the Pacific Great Eastern Railway ( PGE ), it

1026-399: A condition of purchasing BC Rail. However, as of 2010 the line between Dawson Creek and Hythe is still disused. Reporting marks are a system intended to help keep track of rolling stock and financial transactions between railways. The Pacific Great Eastern Railway used the reporting mark PGE. It later adopted the reporting mark PGER in 1971 for freight cars in international service. When

1197-436: A couple of blue and yellow painted coaches, supplied by Via Rail . The first three days of the trip, had the train made up of about 16 coaches. For the last two days of the excursion, the special consisted of just 10 coaches. The trip, however, was plagued with a few problems along the way. On the first day of the trip, 2860 and 6060 led the train to Kamloops. Several hours into the trip, while passing through Chilliwack ,

1368-533: A fall that kept her recuperating at home over Christmas and the New Year. On 1 August 2001, Elizabeth had a blood transfusion for anaemia after suffering from mild heat exhaustion, though she was well enough to make her traditional appearance outside Clarence House three days later to celebrate her 101st birthday. Her final public engagements included planting a cross at the Field of Remembrance on 8 November 2001;

1539-458: A family of British nobility , Elizabeth came to prominence in 1923 when she married Prince Albert, Duke of York , the second son of King George V and Queen Mary . The couple and their daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret , embodied traditional ideas of family and public service. The Duchess undertook a variety of public engagements and became known for her consistently cheerful countenance. In 1936, Elizabeth's husband unexpectedly ascended

1710-681: A fat Scots cook. Claims that Elizabeth remained embittered towards Wallis were denied by her close friends; the Duke of Grafton wrote that she "never said anything nasty about the Duchess of Windsor, except to say she really hadn't got a clue what she was dealing with". In summer 1938, a state visit to France by the King and Queen was postponed for three weeks because of the death of Elizabeth's mother. In two weeks, Norman Hartnell created an all-white trousseau for Elizabeth, who could not wear colours as she

1881-485: A gala, she mounted a staircase lined with guards. Noticing Coward's eyes flicker momentarily across the soldiers, she murmured to him: "I wouldn't if I were you, Noël; they count them before they put them out." After being advised by a Conservative minister in the 1970s not to employ homosexuals, Elizabeth observed that without them, "we'd have to go self-service". On the fate of a gift of a nebuchadnezzar of champagne (20 bottles' worth) even if her family did not come for

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2052-706: A group of owners in Pennsylvania . After a restoration to full working order to full CPR livery (with Southern lettering), the engine was leased to the Southern Railway for their steam excursion program in 1979–1980, but was found that the locomotive was not powerful enough for their excursions. During her brief career with the Southern, 2839 earned the nickname "beer can" due to the Royal Hudson's cylindrical streamlined design. After being returned from

2223-537: A lump was removed from her breast. Her bouts with cancer were never made public during her lifetime. During her widowhood, Elizabeth continued to travel extensively, including on over forty official visits overseas. In 1975, she visited Iran at the invitation of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi . The British ambassador and his wife, Anthony and Sheila Parsons, noted how the Iranians were bemused by her habit of speaking to everyone regardless of status or importance, and hoped

2394-607: A mark of respect, an honour similar to the Vigil of the Princes at the lying in state of King George V. On the day of Elizabeth's funeral, 9 April, the governor-general of Canada , Adrienne Clarkson , issued a proclamation asking Canadians to honour Elizabeth's memory that day. In Australia, Governor-General Peter Hollingworth read the lesson at a memorial service held in St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney . In London, more than

2565-422: A member of a royal family, though the daughter of a peer, was considered a gesture in favour of political modernisation; previously, princes were expected to marry princesses from other royal families. They selected a platinum engagement ring featuring a Kashmir sapphire with two diamonds adorning its sides. The couple married on 26 April 1923, at Westminster Abbey . Unexpectedly, Elizabeth laid her bouquet at

2736-760: A million people filled the area outside Westminster Abbey and along the 23-mile (37 km) route from central London to Elizabeth's final resting place in the King George VI Memorial Chapel beside her husband and younger daughter in St George's Chapel. At her request, after her funeral the wreath that had lain atop her coffin was placed on the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, in a gesture that echoed her wedding-day tribute 79 years before. Known for her personal and public charm, Elizabeth

2907-400: A more powerful Selkirk took over till Revelstoke and another Royal Hudson brought the train over the last 379 miles (610 km) to Vancouver. By 1960, all of the 20 Hudsons and 45 Royal Hudsons had been retired due to having been completely replaced by diesel locomotives . One Royal Hudson, No.  2860, was later used in excursion service. A class H1e Royal Hudson, it was built for

3078-426: A parade on 27 June that involved many of the 300 organisations of which she was a patron. In 1995, she attended events commemorating the end of the war fifty years before, and had two operations: one to remove a cataract in her left eye, and one to replace her right hip. In 1998, her left hip was replaced after it was broken when she slipped and fell during a visit to Sandringham stables. Elizabeth's 100th birthday

3249-401: A person whose indomitable optimism, zest for life, good manners, mischievous sense of humour, and interest in people and subjects of all kinds contributed to her exceptional popularity and to her longevity. Sir Hugh Casson said Elizabeth was like "a wave breaking on a rock, because although she is sweet and pretty and charming, she also has a basic streak of toughness and tenacity. ... when

3420-530: A politician as "the most unconstitutional act by a British sovereign in the present century". However, historians argue that the King only ever followed ministerial advice and acted as he was constitutionally bound to do. In May and June 1939, Elizabeth and her husband toured Canada from coast to coast and back, the first time a reigning monarch had toured Canada. They also visited the United States, spending time with President Franklin D. Roosevelt at

3591-675: A reception at the Guildhall, London, for the reformation of the 600 Squadron, Royal Auxiliary Air Force on 15 November; and attending the re-commissioning of HMS  Ark Royal on 22 November. In December 2001, aged 101, Elizabeth fractured her pelvis in a fall. Even so, she insisted on standing for the national anthem during the memorial service for her husband on 6 February the following year. Just three days later, their second daughter Princess Margaret died. On 13 February 2002, Elizabeth fell and cut her arm in her sitting room at Sandringham House; an ambulance and doctor were called, and

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3762-516: A socialist heaven on earth" as fading and presumably describes those who voted for him as "poor people, so many half-educated and bemused. I do love them." Woodrow Wyatt thought her "much more pro-Conservative" than other members of the royal family, but she later told him, "I like the dear old Labour Party." She also told the Duchess of Grafton , "I love communists." During the 1947 royal tour of South Africa , Elizabeth's serene public behaviour

3933-565: A steep gravelly slope; two of the three crew members were killed. In late March 2020, CN announced that it planned on abolishing through freight on the Lillooet Subdivision, between Williams Lake and Lillooet; as well as on the Squamish Sub, between Lillooet and Squamish. With some mills already curtailing operations and a further slowdown expected due to the emerging COVID-19 pandemic, on-line traffic did not warrant use of

4104-686: A successful royal visit to Northern Ireland in July 1924, the Labour government agreed that Albert and Elizabeth could tour East Africa from December 1924 to April 1925. The Labour government was defeated by the Conservatives in a general election in November (which Elizabeth described as "marvellous" to her mother) and the Governor-General of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan , Sir Lee Stack ,

4275-515: A wave breaks on a rock, it showers and sparkles with a brilliant play of foam and droplets in the sun, yet beneath is really hard, tough rock, fused, in her case, from strong principles, physical courage and a sense of duty." Sir Peter Ustinov described her during a student demonstration at the University of Dundee in 1968: As we arrived in a solemn procession the students pelted us with toilet rolls. They kept hold of one end, like streamers at

4446-630: A wheelchair (which she hated being seen in) could be taken—she insisted that she be shielded from the press —she travelled to the service in a people carrier with blacked-out windows, which had been previously used by Margaret. On 5 March 2002, Elizabeth was present at the luncheon of the annual lawn party of the Eton Beagles, and watched the Cheltenham Races on television; however, her health began to deteriorate precipitously during her last weeks, after retreating to Royal Lodge for

4617-602: Is said to have called her "the most dangerous woman in Europe" because he viewed her popularity as a threat to German interests. However, before the war both she and her husband, like most of Parliament and the British public, had supported appeasement and Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, believing after the experience of the First World War that war had to be avoided at all costs. After the resignation of Chamberlain,

4788-462: Is steamed up regularly for publicity and to salute passing passenger trains. On December 9, 2010, the 2860 and the Royal Hudson train-set were scheduled to depart North Vancouver for Squamish at 12:30 pm on the last of its scheduled excursion trips in 2010. The 2860's certification expired in January 2011 and the cost of the necessary work was estimated at over CA$ 1 million . The December 9 trip

4959-541: Is sufficient demand. The Seton Lake Indian Band manages ticket sales, marketing, and customer service for the Kaoham Shuttle service. The railway's best-known excursion service was its Royal Hudson excursion service, which was the only regularly scheduled steam excursion service on mainline trackage in North America. Excursion service started on June 20, 1974, running between North Vancouver and Squamish. By

5130-614: The Royal Hudson services, as well as the premier of British Columbia's private train. It was designated a Class II Railway until 2004. In 2004, the freight operations (including a vast amount of land, buildings, and all rolling stock) of BC Rail were leased to Canadian National Railway (CN) for an initial period of 60 years, with the exception of the Deltaport Spur, for the price of $ 550 million. BC Rail remains an operating Crown corporation today. It retains ownership of

5301-604: The Western Grain Transportation Act in 1985 that included the railway in the act, it became economical for the railway to transport grain, and it also carried grain from Northern Alberta bound for Prince Rupert, interchanging with CN at Dawson Creek and Prince George. From the 1920s to the 1960s, the railway also carried gold concentrate and bullion from the Bridge River goldfield towns of Bralorne and Pioneer Mine , which were trucked out of

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5472-626: The East and in the Central Provinces. The class H1e (Nos. 2860 through 2864) Royal Hudsons were all built as oil-burners for the service between Vancouver and Revelstoke where they worked until they were displaced by diesels. At the end of 1952 the H1c and H1d were assigned to the sheds in Montreal (10), Toronto (7), Fort William (4), Winnipeg (17) and Calgary (2) – the brackets showing

5643-528: The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland with Princess Margaret. She laid the foundation stone of the University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland—the current University of Zimbabwe . Upon her return to the region in 1957, Elizabeth was inaugurated as the college's president, and attended other events that were deliberately designed to be multi-racial. During her daughter's extensive tour of

5814-508: The Gas Car, once a vital lifeline for the communities of the upper Bridge River basin before the completion of a road from there to Lillooet. The railway received its first diesel locomotive in June 1948, a General Electric 65-ton locomotive. Over the next two years the railway acquired six GE 70-ton locomotives. In the 1950s, the railway bought RS-3 , RS-10 , and RS-18 locomotives from

5985-612: The Montreal Locomotive Works (MLW). The railway had fully dieselized by 1956, and by the end of the decade had nearly 40 diesel locomotives. The railway would purchase new locomotives exclusively from MLW until 1980. During the 1970s, the railway also purchased several used locomotives, mostly American Locomotive Company (Alco) models from American railways. In the 1980s, the railway acquired new SD40-2 locomotives made by General Motors Diesel , and used SD40–2s made by General Motors Electro-Motive Division (EMD). In

6156-601: The Oxford Local Examination with distinction at age thirteen. On Elizabeth's fourteenth birthday, Britain declared war on Germany . Four of her brothers served in the army. Her elder brother Fergus , an officer in the Black Watch Regiment , was killed in action at the Battle of Loos in 1915. Another brother, Michael , was reported missing in action on 28 April 1917. Three weeks later,

6327-582: The Second World War , the royal couple became symbols of the fight against fascism. Shortly after the declaration of war, The Queen's Book of the Red Cross was conceived. Fifty authors and artists contributed to the book, which was fronted by Cecil Beaton 's portrait of Elizabeth and was sold in aid of the Red Cross . She also broadcast to the nation in an attempt to comfort families during

6498-514: The Whistler Northwind , a luxury excursion train that ran between May and October, northbound from North Vancouver to Prince George or southbound from Prince George to Whistler. The train used several dome cars built by Colorado Railcar . Both services were discontinued at the end of the 2002 season along with BC Rail's passenger service. Historically, and discontinued in the 1960s, the railway operated open-top observation cars all

6669-521: The White House and his Hudson Valley estate . First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt said that Elizabeth was "perfect as a Queen, gracious, informed, saying the right thing & kind but a little self-consciously regal". The tour was designed to bolster trans-Atlantic support in the event of war, and to affirm Canada's status as an independent kingdom sharing with Britain the same person as monarch . According to an often-told story, during one of

6840-675: The Wilton Scenic Railroad in New Hampshire and the West Coast Railway Association in Squamish . Service between Seton Portage and Lillooet was replaced by a railbus . As well, around this time BC Rail ended its intermodal service. On May 13, 2003, BC Premier Gordon Campbell announced that the government would sell the operations of the railway (including all assets other than

7011-535: The evacuation of children and the mobilisation of fighting-age men. Elizabeth publicly refused to leave London or send the children to Canada, even during the Blitz , when the British Cabinet advised her to do so. She declared, "The children won't go without me. I won't leave the King. And the King will never leave." Elizabeth visited troops, hospitals, factories, and parts of Britain that were targeted by

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7182-404: The "Great Canadian Steam Excursion" special featured 2860 and 6060 pulling the train from North Vancouver to Kamloops and Jasper. On the first day, 2860 was on the point of the train. On the second day, 6060 was on the point from Kamloops to Jasper. For the third day of the excursion, the 6060 developed a problem with a crosshead bearing and could not be used on the run to Prince George. Since Jasper

7353-403: The "Queen Mother" or the "Queen Mum". She was devastated by her husband's death and retired to Scotland. However, after a meeting with Prime Minister Winston Churchill, she broke her retirement and resumed her public duties. Eventually, she became just as busy as queen mother as she had been as queen consort. In July 1953, she undertook her first overseas visit since the funeral when she visited

7524-411: The 1990s and early 2000s, a number of locomotives were purchased from General Electric. Purchased new from GE were 26 (4601-4626) C40-8Ms , 4 C44-9WLs and 10 C44-9Ws . Older, secondhand GE locomotives in the form of B36-7s , C36-7MEs , and B39-8Es were also purchased. In 1970, the railway started using remote controlled mid-train locomotives, allowing longer and heavier trains to be operated through

7695-417: The 2-8-0's auxiliary tank/water car. This was done while following standardized railroad practice, the small 2-8-0 was the pilot engine, followed by the biggest locomotive 2860. The rest of the excursion was on BC Rail trackage for the remaining 466 miles back to Vancouver. The consist for the steam special was made up of several Tuscan red and maroon painted coaches from the 2860 group and BC Rail, as well as

7866-409: The 2860 was re-railed. On the fourth day, 3716 suffered a mechanical lubricator failure during the midway portion of the journey to 100 Mile House, B.C. However, a crew member of the locomotive cautiously stood on the running board of 3716 and lubricated by hand for the journey to 100 Mile House. On the final day of the trip, 3716’s lubricator was successfully repaired. Despite the setbacks, the rest of

8037-831: The 436 km (271 mi) section of railway, which runs through treacherous and maintenance-intensive territory. On April 7, the last regularly scheduled freight train arrived at the yard in Squamish. The remaining traffic in Williams Lake and points north now moves to the Greater Vancouver area via Prince George and the CN mainline. On the Squamish Subdivision, CN reportedly provided service to Continental Log homes in Mount Currie, and continues to use

8208-595: The BC Rail line not included in the sale was the Port Subdivision from Roberts Bank connecting to the main CN, CPR and BNSF lines. Originally the operation of this line was to be sold separately. However, irregularities came up during the sale process including a government employee, David Basi, being accused of accepting a bribe from a lobbyist, Erik Bornmann , working on behalf of OmniTRAX, who turned Crown witness in exchange for conditional amnesty, which enabled

8379-497: The Bridge River townsite (where there was a first-class hotel serving mining and hydro executives and their guests), Shalalth, Retaskit and at Craig Lodge near Lillooet. The last-named was a swank tennis resort, its attraction being the arid, sunny climate and the waters of Seton Lake. While BC Rail no longer operates excursion services, it did lease out its line to Rocky Mountaineer Vacations to use, operating two services over

8550-479: The British Columbia government acquired the locomotive from Joe. W. Hussey, who had purchased it three years earlier. It was restored by Robert Swanson and then leased to the British Columbia Railway, who used it in excursion service between 1973 and 2000. It was out of service during the 2001 tourist season, needing extensive repairs. The backup for No. 2860 was Canadian Pacific Railway No. 3716,

8721-544: The British Columbia government agreed to provide subsidies for passenger operations. The previous level of service was restored on May 4, 1981. Passenger service ended on October 31, 2002. BC Rail replaced the service between Lillooet and nearby Seton Portage and D'Arcy with a pair of railbuses , called "track units" by the railway. The railbus on the Kaoham Shuttle makes at least one round trip between Seton Portage and Lillooet daily, and also serves D'Arcy if there

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8892-615: The British Columbia government. The locomotive was restored by Robert E. Swanson's Railway Appliance Research Ltd. team and the staff of the CPR's Drake Street Roundhouse shops beginning on November 25, 1973, and then operated by the British Columbia Department of Travel Industry with the cooperation of the British Columbia Railway . The BCR commenced a Royal Hudson steam excursion service between North Vancouver and Squamish on June 20, 1974. By

9063-444: The British royal family at the time of her death. Her surviving sister-in-law, Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester , exceeded that, dying at the age of 102 on 29 October 2004. She was one of the longest-lived members of any royal family. Elizabeth grew camellias in each of her gardens, and before her flag-draped coffin was taken from Windsor to lie in state at Westminster Hall , an arrangement of camellias from her own gardens

9234-481: The Budd-RDC operated Cariboo Prospector and Whistler Northwind (Pacific starlight dinner train) trains, ended October 31, 2002. The service was unprofitable, allegedly owing to BC Rail's heavy dependence on their fleet of aging Budd Rail Diesel Cars (RDC), which were becoming increasingly expensive to keep in service. The RDCs have since been sold to various museums and operators around North America , such as

9405-422: The CPR by MLW in June 1940. It was the first locomotive of five to be built new as Royal Hudson and delivered with painted cast-brass crowns affixed to its skirts. Between 1940 and 1956, it hauled transcontinental passenger trains between Revelstoke and Vancouver. It was damaged in a derailment outside Vancouver in 1956, but by 1957, it had been refurbished and was transferred to Winnipeg for prairie service. It

9576-400: The CPR used to pull the train was numbered 2850, a 4-6-4 built by Montreal Locomotive Works. Specially painted in silver and blue, the locomotive ran 3,224 mi (5,189 km) across Canada, through 25 changes of crew, without engine failure. The King, being a railfan , rode in the cab when possible. The King was so impressed with the performance of 2850 and its class, that after the tour,

9747-640: The Cheakamus River , killing most of its fish. Moran is a railway point on the BC Rail line north of Pavilion, British Columbia . The location, which is high on the side of the stretch of the Fraser Canyon known as Moran Canyon, is notable as the site of the proposed Moran Dam . At Moran, on June 29, 2006, a diesel locomotive hauling one flatcar of lumber down the steep Pavilion grade 29 km (18 mi) north of Lillooet had its air brakes fail. The train gathered speed until it derailed over

9918-660: The Commonwealth over 1953–54, Elizabeth acted as a counsellor of state and looked after her grandchildren, Charles and Anne . In February 1959, she visited Kenya and Uganda. Elizabeth oversaw the restoration of the remote Castle of Mey , on the north coast of Scotland, which she used to "get away from everything" for three weeks in August and ten days in October each year. She developed her interest in horse racing, particularly steeplechasing , which had been inspired by

10089-529: The Duke of Edinburgh were in Kenya on a Commonwealth tour, and with George's death his daughter immediately became Queen Elizabeth II. Shortly after George VI's death, Elizabeth began to be styled as Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother because the normal style for the widow of a king, "Queen Elizabeth", would have been too similar to the style of her elder daughter, Queen Elizabeth II. Popularly, she became

10260-682: The German Luftwaffe , in particular the East End near London's docks . Her visits initially provoked hostility; rubbish was thrown at her and the crowds jeered, in part because she wore expensive clothes that served to alienate her from people suffering the deprivations of war. She explained that if the public came to see her they would wear their best clothes, so she should reciprocate in kind; Norman Hartnell dressed her in gentle colours and avoided black to represent "the rainbow of hope". When Buckingham Palace itself took several hits during

10431-515: The King asked Winston Churchill to form a government. Although the King was initially suspicious of Churchill's character and motives, in due course the royal couple came to respect and admire him. In the 1945 British general election , Churchill's Conservative Party was soundly defeated by the Labour Party of Clement Attlee . Elizabeth's political views were rarely disclosed, but a letter she wrote in 1947 described Attlee's "high hopes of

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10602-905: The King gave the CPR permission to use the term "Royal Hudson" for the semi-streamlined locomotives of the class (numbered 2820–2859, 2860-2864 were built one year later as Royal Hudsons) and to display royal crowns on the running board skirts. This was the only time a locomotive outside of the United Kingdom was given royal status by the reigning monarch. The CPR owned a total of 65 class H1 Hudsons built by MLW . Classes H1a and H1b, numbered 2800–2819, were not semi-streamlined and were not "Royal" Hudsons. The Canadian Pacific Railway owned 30 class H1c Royal Hudsons, numbered 2820–2849, built in 1937, 10 class H1d Royal Hudsons, numbered 2850–2859, built in 1938, and five class H1e Royal Hudsons, numbered 2860–2864, built in 1940. The class H1c and class H1d Royal Hudsons were used in passenger and freight service in

10773-575: The King's decision to marry the American divorcée Wallis Simpson caused a constitutional crisis that resulted in his abdication . Albert reluctantly became king of the United Kingdom and emperor of India on 11 December 1936 under the regnal name of George VI. Elizabeth became queen and empress. Their coronation took place in Westminster Abbey on 12 May 1937, the date previously scheduled for Edward VIII's coronation . Elizabeth's crown

10944-403: The King's public engagements in his place. In September, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. After a lung resection, he appeared to recover, but the delayed trip to Australia and New Zealand was altered so that Princess Elizabeth and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh , went in the King and Queen's place in January 1952. George VI died in his sleep on 6 February 1952 while Princess Elizabeth and

11115-671: The Mission Pass. Between 1928 and 1952, the PGE interchanges were difficult—at Squamish there was a barge connection to North Vancouver and the rest of the North American railroads; after 1952 the PGE could connect with CN at Prince George. Connections were made to other railways when the railway completed its Howe Sound link in 1956. The main connection to the North American rail network was in North Vancouver, where there

11286-413: The PGE had reached north from Prince George to Fort St. John and to Dawson Creek where it met the Northern Alberta Railways . In 1958, Premier of British Columbia W.A.C. Bennett boasted that he would extend the railway to the Yukon and Alaska , and further extension of the railway was undertaken in the 1960s. A 37-kilometre (23 mi) spur was constructed to Mackenzie in 1966. A third line

11457-652: The PGE reached Prince George and North Vancouver, daily service was extended to these cities. Service between Lillooet and Prince George was cut back to three times weekly in the 1960s. In 1978, the McKenzie Royal Commission recommended that the BCR eliminate its passenger services, which were losing over $ 1 million per year, unless it received government funding for them, but the BCR did not do so. However, facing large losses and an ageing fleet of Budd Rail Diesel Cars , it reduced passenger operations to three trains weekly to Lillooet and once weekly to Prince George on February 16, 1981. This service reduction led to public outrage, and

11628-432: The Quintette mine closed, and the portion of the Tumbler Ridge Subdivision between Teck and Quintette, British Columbia , was abandoned. The last electric locomotives ran along the line on September 29, 2000, after which the line was worked by diesel locomotives . The Bullmoose mine closed on April 10, 2003, after which the remaining 112.0 kilometres (69.6 mi) of the Tumbler Ridge Subdivision between Teck and Wakely

11799-402: The RCMP to charge Basi. Another irregularity was that CPR withdrew their bid because CN had access to secret government information, including confidential information on their own corporate operations. The sale of the spur line was cancelled, and the remnants of BC Rail Company continues to operate and maintain this line. The lease contract did not include the sale of BC Rail's assets, including

11970-419: The Royal Hudson No. 2860 to service during 2006. Until the late 1940s, most motive power on the PGE was provided by steam locomotives . The majority of the railway's locomotives were of the 2-6-2 , 2-8-0 and 2-8-2 ( Whyte notation ) wheel configurations. In addition, the railway also used a handful of gasoline cars, notably on a flatcar automobile ferry between Shalalth and Lillooet known simply as

12141-401: The Royal Hudson Steam Train was the only regularly scheduled, mainline steam operation on a Class 1 railroad in North America. In the 1960s, a new line had been projected to run northwest from Fort St. James to Dease Lake , 663 kilometres (412 mi) away. On October 15, 1973, the first 201 kilometres (125 mi) of the extension to Lovell (lat 55°33′, long 126°2′) were opened. The cost of

12312-402: The Royal Hudson excursion train was Canadian Pacific Railway No. 2860, a class H1 4-6-4 Royal Hudson. Made by MLW for the Canadian Pacific Railway in June 1940, it was the first locomotive built as a Royal Hudson. A sister locomotive, No. 2850, pulled King George VI 's and Queen Elizabeth 's royal train in 1939. After the tour, the King gave the CPR permission to use the term "Royal Hudson" for

12483-602: The Royal Hudson excursion. The Royal Hudson excursion used other locomotives during the 2000 and 2001 seasons, such as back up locomotive No. 3716 (an ex-Canadian Pacific 2-8-0 which is also provincially owned and as of 2024 operates on the Kettle Valley Steam Railway in Summerland ). On September 28, 2006, the Royal Hudson steamed into the WCRA Squamish station under its own power for

12654-567: The Shah's entourage would learn from the visit to pay more attention to ordinary people. Between 1976 and 1984, she made annual summer visits to France, which were among 22 private trips to continental Europe between 1963 and 1992. In 1982, Elizabeth was rushed to hospital when a fish bone became stuck in her throat, and had an operation to remove it. Being a keen angler , she calmly joked afterwards, "The salmon have got their own back." Similar incidents occurred at Balmoral in August 1986, when she

12825-618: The Southern, the engine was stored on the Blue Mountain and Reading Railroad (BM&R) before being stored near Allentown, Pennsylvania . The BM&R attempted to restore and run her on excursions, but ultimately 2839 was sold. After a series of owners, the engine was shipped on a flat car from Pennsylvania to the Nethercutt Collection in Sylmar, California , where it was cosmetically restored and put on display outside

12996-608: The Suez Canal, Malta and Gibraltar, their transport, HMS  Renown , caught fire and they prepared to abandon ship before the fire was brought under control. The couple's second daughter, Princess Margaret , was born at Glamis Castle in 1930. The couple initially lived at White Lodge, Richmond Park , before moving to 145 Piccadilly . On 20 January 1936, George V died and his eldest son, Edward, Prince of Wales, became King Edward VIII . Elizabeth's husband, Albert, became heir presumptive . Just months into Edward's reign,

13167-535: The Tomb of the Unknown Warrior on her way into the abbey, in memory of her brother Fergus. Elizabeth became styled Her Royal Highness The Duchess of York . Following a wedding breakfast at Buckingham Palace prepared by chef Gabriel Tschumi , Elizabeth and Albert honeymooned at Polesden Lacey , a manor house in Surrey owned by the wealthy socialite and friend Margaret Greville . They then went to Scotland, where she caught "unromantic" whooping cough . After

13338-546: The abandonment of the Fort Nelson line, and discontinuation of uneconomic operations such as passenger services, were not followed. In the early 1980s the railway built a new line and acquired another. The Tumbler Ridge Subdivision, a 132-kilometre (82 mi) electrified branch line, opened in 1983 to the Quintette and Bullmoose mines, two coal mines northeast of Prince George that produced coal for Japan . It has

13509-515: The advent of armed conflict, the British prime minister Neville Chamberlain was invited onto the balcony of Buckingham Palace with the King and Queen to receive acclamation from a crowd of well-wishers. While broadly popular among the general public, Chamberlain's policy towards Hitler was the subject of some opposition in the House of Commons , which led historian John Grigg to describe George VI's behaviour in associating himself so prominently with

13680-586: The age of 101, seven weeks after the death of her younger daughter, Princess Margaret. Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon was the youngest daughter and the ninth of ten children of Claude Bowes-Lyon , Lord Glamis (later the 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne in the Peerage of Scotland ), and his wife, Cecilia Cavendish-Bentinck . Her mother was descended from British prime minister William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland , and Governor-General of India Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley , who

13851-471: The amateur jockey Lord Mildmay of Flete in 1949. She owned the winners of approximately 500 races. Although (contrary to rumour) she never placed bets, she did have the racing commentaries piped direct to her London residence, Clarence House , so she could follow the races. As an art collector, she purchased works by Claude Monet , Augustus John and Peter Carl Fabergé , among others. In February 1964, Elizabeth had an emergency appendectomy, which led to

14022-433: The assigned number of locomotives. All five H1e were assigned to Vancouver. The Royal Hudsons were used on all main lines of the CPR except Montreal– Saint John due to bridge weight restrictions. They worked almost all transcontinental passenger trains. The Dominion was hauled by a Royal Hudson 811 miles (1,305 km) from Toronto to Fort William and by another one 1,250 miles (2,010 km) further on to Calgary. There,

14193-509: The bid was "rigged". In 2010, two BC Liberal Party ministerial aides pleaded guilty to charges of breach of trust and receiving a benefit for leaking information about the BC Rail leasing process, with both being sentenced to two years less a day of house arrest and 150 hours of community service. On August 5, 2005, a 144-car CN train heading inland from Brackendale , derailed spilling eight empty lumber flat cars and one tank car of sodium hydroxide . The tank car spilled sodium hydroxide into

14364-434: The borrowed tailing truck with one that was being used at a mine, which had salvaged the truck from a Royal Hudson due for scrap. The truck turned out to have been taken off of 2860 when it was sitting on the scrap line in the 1960s. The association plans to operate 2860 on excursion runs and at special events. Due to the strict "no steam" policy that CPKC and CN have, the excursions are restricted to special occasions only. 2860

14535-631: The class of locomotives. Between 1940 and 1956 it hauled transcontinental passenger trains between Revelstoke and Vancouver. Damaged in a derailment in 1956, it was refurbished and transferred to Winnipeg in 1957 for service on the prairies . It was withdrawn from service in May 1959, replaced by diesel locomotives. It was sold to the Vancouver Railway Museum Association in 1964 and was stored in Vancouver until 1973, when

14706-688: The couple had their first child, Princess Elizabeth—"Lilibet" to the family—who would later become Queen Elizabeth II . Albert and Elizabeth, without their child, travelled to Australia to open Parliament House in Canberra in 1927. She was, in her own words, "very miserable at leaving the baby". Their journey by sea took them via Jamaica, the Panama Canal and the Pacific; Elizabeth fretted constantly over her baby back in Britain, but their journey

14877-620: The course of the five-day trip, the train travelled through some of Canada's most spectacular scenery, from the rocky canyons and wide valleys, to the lush forests and rolling rivers. This special excursion run was also historic, because this was the 'homecoming trip' for CN 6060, which had been staying Vancouver since her visit to Steam Expo 86, and her long-time stay at the BC Rail steam shops in Squamish, having been used on roundtrip excursions between North Vancouver and Squamish. During 6060's stay, she often doubleheaded with 2860 and 3716 on excursion trains on rare occasions. The first two days of

15048-667: The crowds resulted in spontaneous applause. The display site for Steam Expo was at the CN railyard on Terminal Avenue, located adjacent to the East Gate of Expo 86. In October of 1988, the Royal Hudson Steam Society, along with the Rocky Mountain Rail Society, operated the longest steam-powered double-headed excursion train ever attempted in North America. The excursion service on BC Rail between Squamish and North Vancouver has ended for

15219-590: The earliest of the royal couple's repeated encounters with the crowds, a Boer War veteran asked Elizabeth, "Are you Scots or are you English?" She replied, "I am a Canadian!" Their reception by the Canadian and U.S. public was extremely enthusiastic, and largely dissipated any residual feeling that they were a lesser substitute for Edward VIII. Elizabeth told Canadian prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King , "that tour made us", and she returned to Canada frequently both on official tours and privately. During

15390-719: The election, the Conservatives, who had won 40 of 42 seats in the legislature in the 1912 election , lost to the Liberals. The Liberals then took Foley, Welch and Stewart to court to recover $ 5 million of allegedly unaccounted funds. In early 1918, the railway's backers agreed to pay the government $ 1.1 million and turn the railway over to the government. When the government took over the railway, two separate sections of trackage had been completed: A small 32-kilometre (20 mi) section between North Vancouver and Horseshoe Bay , and one between Squamish and Clinton . By 1921,

15561-784: The electrified Tumbler Ridge Subdivision from 1983 until electrification was removed in 2000. In 2004, the Paul D. Roy family purchased engine 6001 and they donated it to the British Columbia Railway & Forest Industry Museum in Prince George; the remaining six were scrapped. For passenger service, the PGE purchased seven Budd Rail Diesel Cars in 1956. Starting in the 1970s, the BCR started to purchase some used RDCs. The RDCs were retired in 2002, when BC Rail ended its passenger services. The BCR also used some historic locomotives for its Royal Hudson excursion service. The primary steam locomotive for

15732-597: The end of the 1974 tourist season, 47,295 passengers had been carried and the excursion was deemed successful. It was the only regularly scheduled steam excursion over mainline trackage in North America. The excursion operated between May and October, from Wednesday through Saturday. The 2860 also travelled North America in the late 1970s as a promotion for BC tourism. She quickly became one of British Columbia's main tourist attractions and an icon of Canadian steam power. In 1986, from May 2 to October 13, Vancouver held its Expo 86 World Exposition. Transportation/communication were

15903-563: The end of the first season 47,295 passengers had been carried. The Royal Hudson became one of British Columbia's primary tourist attractions. It operated between May and October. It was cancelled at the end of the 2001 tourist season. Two other excursion services were introduced by BC Rail in 1997 and 2001. In 1997, BC Rail introduced the Pacific Starlight dinner train, which ran in evenings between May and October between North Vancouver and Porteau Cove . In 2001, BC Rail introduced

16074-495: The entire rail bed stretching from Prince George to North Vancouver , as well as ownership of all assets leased to CN. BC Rail retains significant real estate investments throughout BC, and a 40 km (25 mi) stretch of track from Roberts Bank Superport in Delta to Langley . The planned sale of this 40 km (25 mi) stretch was cancelled after the initial BC Rail scandal . The Pacific Great Eastern Railway (PGE)

16245-409: The extension. It had cost $ 168 million to that point, well over twice the initial estimate. The trackbed can be seen on Google Earth all the way to Dease Lake, via the small towns of Leo Creek (lat 55°3′, long 125°33′) and Takla Landing (lat 55°29′, long 125°58′). The management and operation of the railway had been called into question, and on February 7, 1977, the provincial government appointed

16416-422: The family discovered he had been captured after being wounded. He remained in a prisoner of war camp for the rest of the war. Glamis was turned into a convalescent home for wounded soldiers, which Elizabeth helped to run. She was particularly instrumental in organising the rescue of the castle's contents during a serious fire on 16 September 1916. One of the soldiers she treated wrote in her autograph book that she

16587-477: The final time. On 30 March 2002, at 15:15 GMT , Elizabeth died at the Royal Lodge, Windsor, at the age of 101. Her surviving daughter, Queen Elizabeth II, was by her side. The Queen Mother had been suffering from a chest cold since Christmas 2001. At 101 years and 238 days old she was the first member of the British royal family to live past the age of 100 . She was the longest-living member of

16758-405: The first time since October 1999. The restoration took just over one year with a cost of over $ 250,000. Money for the restoration was provided wholly by donations. The WCRA also had difficulty locating missing parts. Some of the major components, such as the trailing truck , were borrowed from sister engine 2850. The borrowed parts had to be returned when 2850 was put on public display. WCRA replaced

16929-539: The former BC Rail route. The Whistler Sea to Sky Climb operated (until spring 2016 ) between Vancouver and Whistler, which featured an observation car similar to the historical open-top car. The Rainforest to Gold Rush train operates north from Vancouver via Whistler and Quesnel to Jasper . Rocky Mountaineer services are exclusively tourist-oriented and do not make local stops nor accept local-area travellers. The fares are significantly higher than former BCR passenger service rates. The West Coast Railway Association returned

17100-669: The girl who had stolen her son's heart. She became convinced that Elizabeth was "the one girl who could make Bertie happy", but refused to interfere. At the same time, Elizabeth was courted by James Stuart , Albert's equerry , until he left the prince's service for a better-paid job in the American oil business. In February 1922, Elizabeth was a bridesmaid at the wedding of Albert's sister, Princess Mary , to Viscount Lascelles . The following month, Albert proposed again, but she refused him once more. Eventually in January 1923, Elizabeth agreed to marry Albert, despite her misgivings about royal life. Albert's freedom in choosing Elizabeth, not

17271-473: The goldfield area over the 1,100-metre-high (3,500 ft) Mission Pass to the railway at Shalalth . The main freight company operating out of Shalalth was Evans Transportation Co., which grew to be one of the biggest transportation companies in the province. In addition to gold concentrate and ore, Evans and other companies based in Shalalth carried passengers, heavy equipment, and supplies of all kinds over

17442-428: The government acquired, numbered 2860, was built in 1940 and was the first one built as a Royal Hudson. The government then leased it, along with ex-Canadian Pacific 2-8-0 #3716 to the British Columbia Railway, which started excursion service with the locomotive between North Vancouver and Squamish on June 20, 1974. The train ran between June and September on Wednesdays through Sundays from 1974 to 2001. During this time,

17613-473: The height of the bombing, Elizabeth said, "I'm glad we've been bombed. It makes me feel I can look the East End in the face." Though the King and Queen spent the working day at Buckingham Palace, partly for security and family reasons they stayed at night at Windsor Castle about 20 miles (32 km) west of central London with their daughters. The palace had lost much of its staff to the army , and most of

17784-488: The holidays, she said, "I'll polish it off myself." Emine Saner of The Guardian suggests that with a gin and Dubonnet at noon, red wine with lunch, a port and martini at 6 pm and two glasses of champagne at dinner, "a conservative estimate puts the number of alcohol units she drank at 70 a week". Her lifestyle amused journalists, particularly when it was revealed she had a multi-million pound overdraft with Coutts Bank. Elizabeth's habits were parodied by

17955-427: The land and rights-of-way. As well, passenger rights were not included. The contract requires CN to yield trackage to any private operator who requests it for the purposes of carrying passengers on commercially reasonable terms. As per the terms of the lease, CN holds the sole right to renew the contract for up to 999 years through a series of options. The lease also allows for BC Rail to give CN title to any and all of

18126-548: The line for railcar storage. The Rocky Mountaineer luxury railtour sightseeing train still operates during the summer, as the only remaining through train on the line. The railway transported a wide variety of products, from resource traffic to intermodal freight. Forest products were one of the main products transported by the railway. Before the lease of operations to CN, the railway transported over 120,000 carloads of lumber , pulp, woodchips, and other forest products per year. The railway served several lumber and pulp mills in

18297-614: The line had been constructed in 1969, it had been leased to the CPR, Burlington Northern Railroad , and Canadian National Railway in succession. In the early 1990s, the provincial government reduced subsidies to BC Rail. As a result, BC Rail, burdened with several money-losing services that it was required to operate, saw its debtload grow more than sixfold between 1991 and 2001. In the 1990s, BC Rail branched out into shipping operations, acquiring terminal operator Vancouver Wharves in 1993 and Canadian Stevedoring and its subsidiary, Casco Terminals , in 1998. In 1999 these operations became

18468-537: The line was opened from Squamish 283 kilometres (176 mi) north to Chasm . The railway was starting to run out of money, however. In 1915 it failed to make an interest payment on its bonds, obliging the provincial government to make good on its bond guarantee. In the 1916 provincial election campaign, the Liberal Party alleged that some of the money advanced to the railway for bond guarantee payments had instead gone into Conservative Party campaign funds. In

18639-449: The line was significantly greater than what was estimated, however. Contractors working on the remainder of the line alleged that the railway had misled them regarding the amount of work required so that it could obtain low bids, and took the railway to court. The Dease Lake line was starting to appear increasingly uneconomical. There was a world decline in the demand for asbestos and copper , two main commodities that would be hauled over

18810-533: The line. As well, the Cassiar Highway that already served Dease Lake had recently been upgraded. Combined with the increasing construction costs, the Dease Lake line could no longer be justified. Construction stopped on April 5, 1977. Track had been laid to Jackson Creek (lat 56°50, long 128°12′), 423 kilometres (263 mi) past Fort St. James, and clearing and grading were in progress on the rest of

18981-662: The lowest crossing of the Rocky Mountains by a railway, at 1,163 metres (3,815 ft). There are two large tunnels under the mountains: The Table Tunnel, 9.0 kilometres (5.6 mi) long, and the Wolverine Tunnel, 6.0 kilometres (3.7 mi) long. Electrified owing to the long tunnels and close proximity to the W. A. C. Bennett Dam and transmission lines, it was one of the few electrified freight lines in North America . Although initially profitable,

19152-577: The museum with a Pullman car . Royal Hudson locomotive 2839 appeared in the 1980 Academy Award -winning movie Coal Miner's Daughter . The train is in Southern Railway guise and can be seen in operation in two scenes. However the Southern never owned any 4-6-4 Hudson locomotives. Four Royal Hudsons have been preserved (Hudson No.  2816 is not streamlined and thus is not "Royal"). Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002)

19323-517: The opening of the line was overshadowed by the inaugural train derailing south of Williams Lake , south of Prince George. The railway underwent two changes of name during this time period. In 1972, the railway's name was changed to the British Columbia Railway (BCR). In 1984, the BCR was restructured. Under the new organization, BC Rail Ltd. was formed, owned jointly by the British Columbia Railway Company (BCRC) and by

19494-422: The part of the people doing it. The way she reacted not only showed her presence of mind, but was so charming and so disarming, even to the most rabid element, that she brought peace to troubled waters. Elizabeth was well known for her dry witticisms. On hearing that Edwina Mountbatten was buried at sea, she said: "Dear Edwina, she always liked to make a splash." Accompanied by the gay writer Sir Noël Coward at

19665-405: The postponement of a planned tour of Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji until 1966. She recuperated during a Caribbean cruise aboard the royal yacht, Britannia . In December 1966, she underwent an operation to remove a tumour, after she was diagnosed with colon cancer . Contrary to rumours which subsequently spread, she did not have a colostomy . She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1984 and

19836-564: The province. Between 1983 and 2003, the railway hauled coal in unit trains from the Teck and Quintette mines near Tumbler Ridge to Prince George, from where CN would haul the trains to Prince Rupert for shipment to Japan. The Quintette mine, the larger-producing of the two, closed in 2000 and the Teck mine closed in 2003. Starting in the 1960s, the PGE operated an intermodal service that transported truck trailers between North Vancouver and Prince George, and to places further north. Unlike most of

20007-433: The provincial government had extended the railway to a point 24 kilometres (15 mi) north of Quesnel , still 130 kilometres (80 mi) south of a connection to Prince George, but it was not extended further. The track north of Quesnel was later removed. Construction of the line between Horseshoe Bay and Squamish was given a low priority because there was already a barge in operation between Squamish and Vancouver , and

20178-489: The rail right-of-way). During the previous election, he had promised not to sell the railway, and said that he was keeping this promise by retaining ownership of the right-of-way and only leasing the land to the operator. On November 25, Canadian National 's (CN) bid of $ 1 billion was accepted over those of several other companies, including the Canadian Pacific Railway, the BNSF Railway , and OmniTRAX . The transaction

20349-536: The railway for the nominal price of $ 1. The lease was the subject of the biggest political scandal in BC history resulting in the BC Legislature Raids . The BC Liberal government was accused of lying about the state of BC Rail's debts and viability in order to justify the deal with CN, claiming the railway was in disarray. Canadian Pacific, a rival bidder, privately stated in since-released communications that

20520-558: The railway to reach Prince George, but the resources to do so were not available, especially during the Great Depression and World War II . The unfortunate state of the railway caused it to be given nicknames such as "Province's Great Expense", "Prince George Eventually", "Past God's Endurance", "Please Go Easy", and "Puff, Grunt and Expire". Starting in 1949, the Pacific Great Eastern began to expand. Track

20691-488: The railway wanted to discontinue operations on the North Vancouver-Horseshoe Bay line. However, the railway had an agreement with the municipality of West Vancouver to provide passenger service that it was unable to get out of until 1928, when they paid the city $ 140,000 in support of its road-building programme. The last trains on the line ran on November 29, 1928, and the line fell into disuse, but

20862-630: The railway was renamed to the British Columbia Railway, it adopted the reporting mark BCOL. Initially, there was a distinction made between cars intended for local usage only (BCOL = BC On Line) and cars intended to be interchanged with other railways (BCIT = BC Interchange Traffic). Some cars, intended for use on the Northeast Coal connection were given BCNE. Since the line opened, the PGE had provided passenger service between Squamish and Quesnel (as well as between North Vancouver and Horseshoe Bay until operations were discontinued there in 1928). When

21033-509: The railway's other traffic, most of the intermodal traffic was northbound. In April 1982, the railway combined its piggyback and less-than-carload (LCL) services to form a new Intermodal Services Department. BC Rail halted its intermodal services in 2002. Starting in 1958, the railway started to haul grain from the Peace River District, serving grain elevators at Dawson Creek, Buick, Fort St. John, and Taylor. With an amendment to

21204-662: The rationed food served in the Palace and the limited bathwater that was permitted. Claims that Elizabeth used racist slurs to refer to black people were strongly denied by Major Colin Burgess, the husband of Elizabeth Burgess, a mixed-race secretary who accused members of Prince Charles's household of racial abuse. Elizabeth made no public comments on race, but according to Robert Rhodes James , in private she "abhorred racial discrimination" and decried apartheid as "dreadful". Woodrow Wyatt records in his diary that when he expressed

21375-490: The rear wheel-set on the last passenger car of the train, picked a switch and derailed. No one was hurt. The steam special was delayed for about four hours, before the derailed coach was re-railed. The following morning, at the Kamloops Rail Yard, 2860's front and leading driving wheels came off the tracks, while being turned on the wye. This resulted in the excursion train being delayed again for several hours until

21546-466: The rooms were shut. The windows were shattered by bomb blasts, and had to be boarded up. During the " Phoney War " the Queen was given revolver training because of fears of imminent invasion. French prime minister Édouard Daladier characterised Elizabeth as "an excessively ambitious young woman who would be ready to sacrifice every other country in the world so that she may remain Queen." Adolf Hitler

21717-954: The satirical 1980s television programme Spitting Image . This was the first satirical depiction on television; the makers initially demurred from featuring her, fearing that it would be considered off-limits by most of the viewing public. In the end, she was portrayed as a perpetually tipsy Beryl Reid soundalike. She was portrayed by Juliet Aubrey in Bertie and Elizabeth , Sylvia Syms in The Queen , Natalie Dormer in W.E. , Olivia Colman in Hyde Park on Hudson , Victoria Hamilton (Seasons 1 and 2), Marion Bailey (Seasons 3 and 4) and Marcia Warren (Season 5 and 6) in The Crown and in The King's Speech by Helena Bonham Carter , who

21888-523: The sisters as dead, apparently because their mother, Fenella (Elizabeth's sister-in-law), "was 'extremely vague' when it came to filling in forms and might not have completed the paperwork for the family entry correctly". When Nerissa died in 1986, her grave was originally marked with a plastic tag and a serial number. Elizabeth said that the news of their institutionalisation came as a surprise to her. In her later years, Elizabeth became known for her longevity. Her 90th birthday—4 August 1990—was celebrated by

22059-464: The steep grades of the Coast Mountains. It initially used separate remote control cars to control the mid-train locomotives, but in 1975 it received eight M-420B locomotives from MLW. These locomotives were specially designed for mid-train operation. They contained remote control stations, and were cableless. The railway also leased seven GF6C electric locomotives made by GMD for use on

22230-465: The themes for the fair and every form of transport was represented. One of the greatest and most memorable events during Expo 86 was Steam Expo. This was known as "the largest gathering of operating steam locomotives in the world, since the 1948 Worlds Fair in Chicago ". Steam Expo saw over 20 operating steam locomotives from all over the United States, as well as Canada. From May 23 to June 1, steam power

22401-409: The three operating divisions of a new entity, BCR Marine. BCR Group became the parent company of both BCR Marine and BC Rail. In early 2003, attempting to reduce the railway's large debt, BCR Group sold its BCR Marine assets except for Vancouver Wharves (which was also not included in the subsequent sale of BC Rail to Canadian National, and remains a provincial Crown corporation ). On August 19, 2000,

22572-446: The throne as George VI when his older brother, Edward VIII , abdicated in order to marry American divorcée Wallis Simpson . Elizabeth then became queen consort . She accompanied her husband on diplomatic tours to France and North America before the start of the Second World War . During the war, her seemingly indomitable spirit provided moral support to the British public. After the war, her husband's health deteriorated, and she

22743-419: The track would be left in place but not used. In 1983, after logging operations ceased at Driftwood and traffic declined sharply, the Dease Lake line was closed. However, it was reopened in 1991 and, as of 2005, extends to a point called Minaret Creek, British Columbia (lat 56°20′, long 127°17′), still over 282 kilometres (175 mi) south of Dease Lake. Many of the commission's other recommendations, including

22914-583: The traffic on the line was never as high as initially predicted, and by the 1990s was under one train per day. The railway had incurred much debt building the branch line, and the expensive, unprofitable operations on the branch line could not help to repay that debt. In 1984, BC Rail acquired the British Columbia Harbours Board Railway, a 37-kilometre (23 mi) line that connects three class I railways with Roberts Bank , an ocean terminal that handles coal shipments. Since

23085-510: The trip for the remainder of the two days that followed were uneventful. The steam excursion was a successful event for the crew members of the 2860, 6060, 3716 and BC Rail. While the engine was being prepared for the Christmas trains at the end of the 1999 tourist season, 2860 was found to have serious leaks from the superheater elements. The superheaters and the arch tubes were known to be life expired and some other fairly major boiler work

23256-547: The view that non-white countries have nothing in common with "us", she told him, "I am very keen on the Commonwealth . They're all like us." However, she did distrust Germans; she told Wyatt, "Never trust them, never trust them." While she may have held such views, it has been argued that they were normal for British people of her generation and upbringing, who had experienced two vicious wars with Germany. In his official biography, William Shawcross portrays Elizabeth as

23427-484: The way from North Vancouver to Lillooet and sometimes beyond. A series of lodges of varying quality grew up along the railway, drawing on weekend tourist excursions from Vancouver via the MV ; Britannia steamer service to Squamish. The most famous of these was Rainbow Lodge at Whistler , then called Alta Lake , but others were at Birken Lake, Whispering Falls, D'Arcy, Ponderosa, McGillivray Falls, Seton Portage,

23598-554: The wound was dressed. She was still determined to attend Margaret's funeral at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle , two days later on the Friday of that week, even though the Queen and the rest of the royal family were concerned about the journey the Queen Mother would face to get from Norfolk to Windsor; she was also rumoured to be hardly eating. Nevertheless, she flew to Windsor by helicopter, and so that no photographs of her in

23769-581: The year of 1988, making it possible for the 3716 and the 2860 to be used on the trip. The 2860 operated on the "Great Canadian Steam Excursion" special on a five-day, 2,030 km (1,260 mi) roundtrip tour, that featured the locomotive doubleheading the train, along with Canadian National 4-8-2 No. 6060 and Canadian Pacific 2-8-0 No. 3716. The excursion operated from October 21 to 25 on Canadian National, Canadian Pacific and BC Rail trackage from North Vancouver to Kamloops , Jasper , Prince George , 100 Mile House and return to North Vancouver. Over

23940-628: Was Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 to 6 February 1952 as the wife of King George VI . She was also the last Empress of India from 1936 until the British Raj was dissolved on 15 August 1947. After her husband died , she was officially known as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother , to avoid confusion with her daughter Queen Elizabeth II . Born into

24111-650: Was a connection to CN. There was also a rail connection to deep-sea terminal operator Vancouver Wharves, and some interchange occurred with the Union Pacific Railroad through the Seaspan railbarge link between North Vancouver and Seattle , Washington. The railway also interchanged with CN at Prince George, and with Northern Alberta Railways (acquired by CN in 1981) at Dawson Creek. CN's line between Dawson Creek, British Columbia , and Hythe, Alberta , fell into disuse in 1998, but CN agreed to reopen it as

24282-520: Was a public relations success. She charmed the public in Fiji when, as she was shaking hands with a long line of official guests, a stray dog walked in on the ceremony; she shook its paw as well. In New Zealand she fell ill with a cold and missed some engagements, but enjoyed the local fishing in the Bay of Islands accompanied by Australian sports fisherman Harry Andreas . On the return journey, via Mauritius,

24453-545: Was abandoned, although the track is still in place. The electric locomotives were shipped south to Tacoma , Washington , where they are being dismantled by CEECO Rail Services . One of the locomotives (6001) was purchased by the Paul D. Roy family and they donated it to the Prince George Railway and Forestry Museum in Prince George where it is being preserved. Several other services were also discontinued around this time. The Royal Hudson steam train excursion

24624-520: Was acquired by the provincial government in 1918. In 1972 it was renamed to the British Columbia Railway , and in 1984 it took on the BC Rail branding. From 1978 to 2000, BC Rail was highly profitable, posting profits in every year throughout that period. Until 2004 it operated as the third-largest railway in Canada, providing freight , passenger , and excursion rail services throughout BC on 2,320 km (1,440 mi) of mainline track . It also ran

24795-480: Was among the leading railway contractors in North America . Upon incorporation, the PGE took over the Howe Sound and Northern Railway, which at that point had built 14 kilometres (9 mi) of track north of Squamish . The British Columbia government gave the railway a guarantee of principal and 4% interest (later increased to 4.5% to make the bonds saleable) on the construction bonds of the railway. By 1915,

24966-426: Was assassinated three weeks later. Despite this, the tour went ahead, and they visited Aden , Kenya , Uganda , and Sudan, but Egypt was avoided because of political tensions. Albert had a stammer, which affected his ability to deliver speeches, and after October 1925, Elizabeth assisted in helping him through the therapy devised by Lionel Logue , an episode portrayed in the 2010 film The King's Speech . In 1926,

25137-402: Was broken, exceptionally, when she rose from the royal car to strike an admirer with her umbrella because she had mistaken his enthusiasm for hostility. The 1948 royal tour of Australia and New Zealand was postponed because of the King's declining health. In March 1949, he had a successful operation to improve the circulation in his right leg. In summer 1951, Elizabeth and her daughters fulfilled

25308-702: Was celebrated in a number of ways: a parade that celebrated the highlights of her life included contributions from Sir Norman Wisdom and Sir John Mills ; her image appeared on a special commemorative £20 note issued by the Royal Bank of Scotland ; and she attended a lunch at the Guildhall, London , at which George Carey , the Archbishop of Canterbury , accidentally attempted to drink her glass of wine. Her quick admonition of "That's mine!" caused widespread amusement. In November 2000, she broke her collarbone in

25479-518: Was closed on July 15, 2004. The lease of the rail right-of-way is for 60 years with a 30-year option to renew. At the renewal date, the BC government will have the option of buying back all the assets from CN. Conversely, as of July 15, 2009, the fifth anniversary of the contract, CN has the right to decommission any part of the line, but upon doing so the land reverts to the Crown, though the Crown can sell it back to CN for one dollar. The one portion of

25650-476: Was discontinued at the end of the 2001 excursion season. The 2860 was out of service in 2000, needing extensive repairs. The backup steam locomotive, a 2-8-0 locomotive built for the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1912, broke down in May 2001, and for the rest of the season BC Rail used a former Canadian Pacific Railway FP7A diesel locomotive #4069 that it had leased from the West Coast Railway Association in Squamish . Passenger train service, which consisted of

25821-510: Was educated at home by a governess until the age of eight, and was fond of field sports, ponies and dogs. When she started school in London, she astonished her teachers by precociously beginning an essay with two Greek words from Xenophon 's Anabasis . Her best subjects were literature and scripture. After returning to private education under a German Jewish governess, Käthe Kübler, she passed

25992-482: Was extended west from the mainline (somewhat north of Prince George) to Fort St. James . It was completed on August 1, 1968. The largest construction undertaken in the 1960s was to extend the mainline from Fort St. John 400 kilometres (250 mi) north to Fort Nelson , less than 160 kilometres (100 mi) away from the Yukon. The Fort Nelson Subdivision was opened by Premier Bennett on September 10, 1971. Unfortunately,

26163-571: Was hospitalised at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary overnight but no operation was needed, and in May 1993, when she was admitted to the Infirmary for surgery under general anaesthetic . In 1987, Elizabeth was criticised when it emerged that two of her nieces, Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon , had been committed to a psychiatric hospital in Redhill, Surrey , in 1941 because they had severe learning disabilities. However, Burke's Peerage had listed

26334-714: Was incorporated on February 27, 1912, to build a line from Vancouver north to a connection with the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (GTP) at Prince George . Although independent from the GTP, the PGE had agreed that the GTP, whose western terminus was at the remote northern port of Prince Rupert , could use their line to gain access to Vancouver. The railway was given its name due to a loose association with England 's Great Eastern Railway . Its financial backers were Timothy Foley , Patrick Welch , and John Stewart , whose construction firm of Foley, Welch and Stewart

26505-547: Was laid north of Quesnel to a junction with the Canadian National Railway at Prince George. That line opened on November 1, 1952. Between 1953 and 1956 the PGE constructed a line between Squamish and North Vancouver. The PGE used their former right-of-way between North Vancouver and Horseshoe Bay, to the dismay of some residents of West Vancouver who, mistakenly believing the line was abandoned, had encroached on it. The line opened on August 27, 1956. By 1958

26676-570: Was likely its last for a long time. As of 2010, 2860 is still owned by the British Columbia government, but is on permanent loan to the West Coast Railway Association (WCRA) and housed at the West Coast Railway Heritage Park in Squamish. It had been seen on the CNR line from Squamish to North Vancouver in late April 2009. Royal Hudson No. 2839 was once destined for a museum in eastern Canada and wound up being sold to

26847-476: Was made of platinum and was set with the Koh-i-Noor diamond. Edward married Wallis Simpson, and they became the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, but while Edward was a Royal Highness, George VI withheld the style from Wallis, a decision that Elizabeth supported. Elizabeth was later quoted as referring to Wallis as "that woman", and Wallis referred to Elizabeth as "Cookie", because of her supposed resemblance to

27018-489: Was never formally abandoned. For the next 20 years the railway would run from "nowhere to nowhere". It did not connect with any other railway, and there were no large urban centres on its route. It existed mainly to connect logging and mining operations in the British Columbia Interior with the coastal town of Squamish, where resources could then be transported by sea. The government still intended for

27189-496: Was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and won a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her portrayal. The Cunard White Star Line's RMS  Queen Elizabeth was named after her. She launched the ship on 27 September 1938 in Clydebank , Scotland. Supposedly, the liner started to slide into the water before Elizabeth could officially launch her, and acting sharply, she managed to smash

27360-497: Was one of the most popular members of the royal family , and helped to stabilise the popularity of the monarchy as a whole. Elizabeth's critics included Kitty Kelley , who falsely alleged that she did not abide by the rationing regulations during the Second World War. This, however, was contradicted by the official records, and Eleanor Roosevelt during her wartime stay at Buckingham Palace reported expressly on

27531-585: Was placed on top. An estimated 200,000 people over three days filed past as she lay in state in Westminster Hall at the Palace of Westminster . Members of the Household Cavalry and other branches of the armed forces stood guard at the four corners of the catafalque . At one point, her four grandsons–Prince Charles, Prince Andrew , Prince Edward and Viscount Linley –mounted the guard as

27702-575: Was registered at Hitchin , Hertfordshire, near the Strathmores' English country house , St Paul's Walden Bury , which was also given as her birthplace in the 1901 and 1911 censuses. She was christened there on 23 September 1900, in the local parish church, All Saints. Elizabeth spent much of her childhood at St Paul's Walden and at Glamis Castle , the Earl's ancestral home in Scotland . She

27873-462: Was represented, from operating replicas of the earliest steam locomotives, such as: the John Bull , Stephensons Rocket and Tom Thumb to the modern steamers of the 1920s to the 1950s, including: the 2860, Canadian National Railway 4-6-0 No. 1392 , Union Pacific Railroad 0-6-0 No. 4466 , CN 4-8-2, U-1-f No. 6060, Great Western Railroad 2-8-0 No. 51 and Canadian Pacific Railroad, G5a 4-6-2 No. 1201 . The highlight of Steam Expo

28044-429: Was required. A variety of factors prevented BC Rail from carrying out the repairs immediately, including the fact that Canadian Pacific 2816 was in the BCR shop being rebuilt under contract, and that all BC Rail passenger services were under threat in the lead-up to the eventual privatization of BC Rail. After the election of the BC Liberal government in 2001 all passenger services were gradually phased out starting with

28215-415: Was still in mourning . The visit was designed to bolster Anglo-French solidarity in the face of aggression from Nazi Germany . The French press praised the demeanour and charm of the royal couple during the delayed but successful visit, augmented by Hartnell's wardrobe. Nevertheless, Nazi aggression continued, and the government prepared for war. After the Munich Agreement of 1938 appeared to forestall

28386-428: Was the Grand Parade of Steam, which featured all 20 invited steam engines making their way along the Vancouver waterfront , right next to the Canada Pavilion. During the Grand Parade of Steam, each of the locomotives "whistled, chugged and puffed" gingerly behind each other, as they made their way, passing throngs of thousands of people that lined the tracks of the parade route, and as each steamer puffed by, response from

28557-448: Was the elder brother of another prime minister, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington . The location of Elizabeth's birth remains uncertain, but reputedly she was born either in her parents' Westminster home at Belgrave Mansions , Grosvenor Gardens , or in a horse-drawn ambulance on the way to a hospital. Other possible locations include Forbes House in Ham, London , the home of her maternal grandmother, Louisa Scott . Her birth

28728-422: Was the home base for 6060 and the Rocky Mountain Rail Society, 2860 led the excursion train, solo to Prince George. This portion of the excursion took the train through the scenic Yellowhead Pass , on the Canadian National's transcontinental mainline, just west of Jasper National Park . The remainder of the trip from Prince George to 100 Mile House and North Vancouver; featured the 3716 on the point with 2860 behind

28899-601: Was to be "Hung, drawn, & quartered ... Hung in diamonds, drawn in a coach and four, and quartered in the best house in the land." On 5 November 1916, she was confirmed at St John's Scottish Episcopal Church in Forfar . Prince Albert, Duke of York —"Bertie" to the family—was the second son of King George V and Queen Mary . He initially proposed to Elizabeth in 1921, but she turned him down, being "afraid never, never again to be free to think, speak and act as I feel I really ought to". When he declared he would marry no other, Queen Mary visited Glamis to see for herself

29070-433: Was widowed at the age of 51. Her elder daughter, aged 25, became the new queen . After the death of Queen Mary in 1953, Elizabeth was viewed as the matriarch of the British royal family . In her later years, she was a consistently popular member of the family, even at times when other royals were suffering from low levels of public approval. She continued an active public life until just a few months before her death at

29241-442: Was withdrawn from service in May 1959, and sat on the scrap line for five years. She was sold to the Vancouver Railway Museum Association in 1964. However, the association was unable to find a place to display the locomotive, and it remained in storage at the Drake Street shops in Vancouver. Once again, the locomotive faced the risk of being scrapped, but she then was sold to Joe W. Hussey in 1970. In 1973, Hussey sold No. 2860 to

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