4th of July, 1961. Part 4

Pacific Great Eastern Railway. Horseshoe Bay, BC, Mile Post 11.0, July 4, 1961. Fourth of July weekend, 1961. El Purington and I headed north of Seattle, and spent two days chasing down Pacific Great Eastern, Canadian National Railways and Canadian Pacific Railway power, snagging a few extras along the way!

So here we capture southbound Fourth Class Freight #28, PGE 591 leading PGE 583, passing us at Horseshoe Bay, on the final 10 miles to North Vancouver. Those ALCo 251’s sounded neat working at mid throttle - second only to EMD’s, of course.


Pacific Great Eastern strikes north of North Vancouver, and immediately enters a magnificent stretch of trackage along Howe Sound, beginning at Horseshoe Bay, running a 728.4 mile rollercoaster up the middle of British Columbia, terminating in the Peace River Country at Fort St. John.

It wasn’t always that way. Oddly enough, the railroad began at Squamish, BC, with car float connection to North Vancouver!

If you’d like to learn more about this fascinating railroad, check out this site, with many historic photos of the Pacific Great Eastern.

See also:
4th of July Part 1
4th of July Part 2
4th of July Part 3

Railroad Stuff: PGE 591 built Montreal Locomotive Works as RS-18, 1960, sn 83274, 1972, became BC Rail 605.

PGE 583, built Montreal Locomotive Works as RS-10, 1956, sn 81541, 1973 became BC Rail 601, rebuilt to 2,000hp.