OERHS
Equipment Roster
British
Columbia Electric Interurban
#1304 |
Built
in 1911 by Westminster Shops
Rebuilt 1946
1304 is a crown jewel of the
OERHS Collection. It is typically the highlight of our carbarn tours. There are
many stories to tell about this historic car.
It was built and named
the "Duke of Connaught" in honor of the Duke visiting Canada in 1911. It was
a private elegant car. Soon after the Duke's visit, economics called for it
to be converted into more typical commuter passenger car in 1912.
1304 ran on the
Fraser Valley line between Vancouver and Chilliwack. It served the city streets
of Vancouver and open country to the farming communities along the way
to Chilliwack. It could obtain a top speed of
80mph! The car's motors can output 400 horsepower and it is able to Multiple-unit or MU
with up to four cars.
Disaster struck in 1944.
As the story goes, 1304 was the last car of a 3-car train. When the train pulled into a station
along the line, someone yelled to the motorman that their "flat car" was on
fire. The "flat car" was 1304, or what was left of it. The car was insured
by Lloyds of London. The insurance carrier paid BCE to rebuild the car. It was re-built in 1946 in the New Westminster Shops. Thus giving it the title of
the last wooden interurban built in North America.
The car is built with two passenger sections, a
smoking and non-smoking section. The smoking section is the smaller of the
two. There are brass "strike" plates mounted between the windows. During its
time, men were typically the only people in the smoking section making it sort
of a men's club. Families typically sat in the non-smoking section. This was
definitely a different time!
BCE slowly started abandoning the
interurban service in 1950, the last interurban line was closed in 1958.
Much of this RoW that
1304 used is gone, however, a good portion of Vancouver's Skytrain Expo line
follows the original alignment of the BCE route. It shows that once a
transit corridor, always a transit corridor.
1304
was sold for $1 and moved to Oregon in the mid-1950's. It has operated at our original museum
in Glenwood, and has been part of revenue trains at our current museum in
Brooks, and is stored inside our carbarn. It remains a grand car!
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