Prince Rupert BC, September 1957. My Dad decided to move the family, including the dawg, to Prince Rupert. He had taken the position of Chief Engineer on the M/V Comet for about a year. Since the tug spent her time between trips, towing a rail barge to Ward Cove, Prince Rupert would become our home for the next three years.

The tug and barge were tied up at the Ocean Dock between trips to Alaska. It was a massive dock, some 1,600 feet long, built and added onto during WWII when Prince Rupert was incorporated into the Seattle Port of Embarkation, staging and moving troops and material to the American Theater.
When it was time to load, the Comet moved the barge downstream just over a mile to the Pillsbury Point rail barge loading bridge. There the Canadian National Railway crew would unload and load the barge with up to 24 rail cars carrying supplies up to the mill, returning with kraft bales heading for Rome Georgia and final processing




It was on my second or third trip with my Dad to watch the barge loading, when I ventured off the tug, off the barge and onto the apron to take a photo of the locomotive doing her work.

This began a regular routine of riding the tug with my Dad to the rail loading bridge, and riding with the switch crew back to the yard. It was just a short walk, basically across a street, to meet the tug when she returned to the Ocean Dock.
Railroad Stuff: Canadian National Railway 7536, nee Grand Trunk Pacific 404, built November 1911 at the Montreal Locomotive Works. 51” drivers; 34,666 pounds tractive effort. Serial Number 50280. Scrapped November 1958. One of her cousins, CNR 7470 0-6-0 survives at the Conway Scenic Railroad in North Conway New Hampshire!
Canadian National Railways 7242, built by General Motors Division, London Onatrio as an SW-900, 900 horsepower road class GS-9c, December 1957, serial number A-1194. Renumbered 7942 in 1985, and retired in 1988. [Data: Michael Taylor]
The 7536 was dismantled. The 7242 is gone. The tug Comet burned at the dock in Prince Rupert in October 1966. Declared a constructive loss, and scuttled at Port Hadlock (five miles south of where I live.) Visited occasionally by dive clubs. The Ocean Dock burned down in 1972.

Only the Pillsbury Point rail loading bridge has survived the “Winds of Change.”

See also, "Boxcars Go to See - In the Beginning."
2 Comments - Click here:
That was a really interesting story. Thanks for posting it.
I lived on the hill above (actually above the Alaska Ferry dock) the barge slip from 1954 to 1968. I spent many hours playing on the pilings, ramp and towers of the barge slip. I have great memories of the area. Thanks for the pictures. David McDonald, Pasco WA
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