A By-Gone Train Station

 Hullo! The other day (week/month)... I went to Duncan...

We went to a farmer's market here a few weeks ago but I wanted to come back and check out some more of the town.

Well... actually... just this part of town! They have a legit CNR (Canadian National Railways) caboose here!!!

I saw one years (and years) ago in Winnipeg! But this one is much closer to home.

Duncan is famous for its totem poles. They have a LOT!

And some of them even have bears!

You can learn something about each totem here. They even have a walking tour of downtown that will lead you to all of them (yellow footprints painted on the sidewalk).

That's the Pole of Wealth... see the creature on the bottom...

It's a bear!

And one more picture of the caboose... cause I know some bears who are train fiends...

And... the old train station is still here too!

Those would have been the days...

Back in the day, it was the E&N Railway (Esquimalt and Nanaimo)... and then for a while, it was run by the CPR (they bought the tracks in 1905).

This is what the train station looked like in 1911. Beary cool!

And then for a while, ViaRail ran passenger trains on the tracks. In amongst all the freight trains.

But that was a beary long time ago. The Duncan train station closed in 1980. The last trains stopped running in 2011. There has long been talk of resurrecting train service from Courtenay down to Victoria but... the rail line is in seriously bad shape.

So it's unlikely to happen. But at least the train station has a second life.

Ooh... you see the weather vane on the roof!?

It's a train!!!

Isn't that cool?? Whoops... still on super-zoom... let's back out a bit.

That's better. Nothing like a zoomed-in bear gaze to give humans a guilty conscience! But... wait a minute? Why is a CNR caboose sitting at a CPR railway station???

That is a beary good question... and a bit of a mystery... so Sherlock Sandy did some digging...

We always knew about the E&N Railway line that ran from Victoria, up the east side of the Island, all the way to Courtenay, with a side line to Port Alberni. But... there was a completely separate line, the CNR (well, initially the Canadian Northern Pacific Line - that got rolled into the CNR), which ran from Victoria through the Cowichan Valley and then up to Port Alberni. We didn't know that!!! And when the CNR line closed, the city of Duncan bought the caboose! Beary smart! It's a piece of history!

Well, that's cool! We learned something new today! And... we actually hiked a bit of the old CNR line when we visited the Kinsol Trestle, the largest wooden trestle in the Commonwealth!

Let's check out the other side of the train station, the street side.

Oooh.. more totem poles!

Beary cool.

The inside of the train station is now a museum!

That's a great use of the space!

This totem is a perfect size for a little bear.

The museum covers the history of the area...

Did you know Cowichan sweaters come from here? Yes they do!

There's a mock-up of a general store... no honey for little bears though.

They had a mining display too...

There was a copper mine on Mount Sicker (which is near Duncan)... way back in the olden days!

We went to another copper mine a few months ago - Britannia Mines on the mainland!

Like so many mines, they started strong and then fizzled. This one shipped its ore to the smelter in Crofton.

That's the Crofton smelter in the olden days...

That's where Britannia shipped its ore too, for a while!

Kind of a cool story. There was a little town up on Mt. Sicker, with a hotel and everything. But once it fizzled, it all became a ghost town and eventually the buildings were destroyed or torn down.

Some cool stuff here.

Now, though. Another company is looking at "mining" all of the old mine tailings from Mt. Sicker because it's actually got some good ore quality! Go figure. We had thought we would poke around Mt. Sicker at one point... then we saw the following video...

And decided... nope... No desire to fall into a 200 ft vertical shaft with no barriers!!!

Would you go poking around an old mining area where there were deep vertical shafts?

Little Fox Reveals All

 Hullo! Little Fox here... I am heading over to Vancouver to pick up Sandy and his surprise package...

Are there snacks in here? Cause you know... your last sekrebeary evaluation was not great...

Apples and almonds! Excellent... and some cheese. Perfect.

Hah... my ticket says "Bear" for this sailing!

Yes, it is dark out... we are catching the first sailing of the day which means...

Some breakfast onboard! Eggs, bacon (yum) and hasbrowns... Sandy's sekrebeary is definitely pulling up her bootstraps after that scathing evaluation.

It's a bit nippy out here...

But the lights of Vancouver are showing up.

And...  now we are on the bus! The sekrebeary says it's convenient having a smaller stuffie who can fit in a jacket pocket (with a zipper)...

We met up with Paddington Bear too!

Sandy and the mystery package don't arrive until tomorrow... so I get to go on a Grand Adventure in Vancouver!! First up... the old Canadian Pacific Railway station!!

It's pretty snazzy in here... even if it is only small shops and a transit hub (seabus and skytrain).

The station opened in 1914 and the last passenger train left here in 1979.

A bit further along the waterfront is Canada Place... where the cruise ships dock.

The bear is a neat touch.

And then... I saw it... peeping out from between some buildings...

Do you see?? In amongst all that steel and glass...

O.M.G. It's the Marine Building!!!

Are we going to the Marine Building?? Art deco heaven???

Yes we are! 

Look at the detail...

Except... the main doors are...

... closed...

But we found another way into the lobby...

Ooooh ahhh....

The elevators...

The inside of the elevators is... to die for...

We went up to the second floor and got a birds eye view of the lobby...

And there was an architectural plan of the building here...

Sooo much to see!

That was amazing!! But wait... we are not done??

Nope... we are going to the Vancouver Christmas Market! 

Lots of German themed food and decorations...

That's the 2010 Olympic torch thingie!

Now that you mention it... I am a bit peckish...

I got directions from the nutcracker...

And found a neat card...

Is that not cute?? Get it?

Lots of cool stuff here...

Even a honey stall...

And nuts...

Still looking for food though... (P.S. nutcrackers know nothing about directions!)

Ah-hah!!! Here we are... schnitzel? or pork hocks or...

Sausages!

Which got eaten beary fast... and washed down with a nice dark beer.

To be followed up with a piping hot, nice and soft, salted pretzel. YUM!

Well, that was epic! (Can you spot me in the pic?)

Finished off with... dinner... I have to say... Sandy's sekrebeary is treating me beary well...

Nachos!

And then the next morning... we are here at Starbucks waiting for Sandy's train to arrive...

Yes, that says 25 km/h... like 15 mph... they go superslow sometimes because they have to wait for freight trains...

But they were only 30 minutes late. Here he comes!!

Ahhhh HAH!.... It's the MICE!!! Sandy went to Jasper to pick up Cocoa and Navy Beanie! Bet you didn't expect that, eh?

We got all caught up on the bus... and the ferry... they have had an epic cheese tasting crawl through BC (kind of like a pub crawl... but a cheese crawl). But ran out of funds in Jasper... These mice know how to live it up!