BURST
The Burnaby Central Railway will never be considered a rival to Canadian Pacific or Canadian National. But it’s much more popular.
The miniature railway has been bringing a smile to the masses since the mid-1970s, when it started running at Heritage Village in Burnaby. It moved to Confederation Park in Burnaby in 1993, and when it’s busy, can carry about 2,000 people a day on a two-kilometre loop.
But there’s a problem.
The Burnaby Central is run by volunteers from the B.C. Society of Model Engineers, largely seniors in their retirement years. There are 150 members overall, and about 30 regular volunteers.
They’re in need of fresh volunteers.
“We have to replenish our membership with younger people who can learn off of the older ones before they age-out, or we’re not going to exist,” said Marie Rogers, the railway’s director of communications.
The shortage of volunteers isn’t unique to the Burnaby Central.
“People don’t volunteer anywhere near the way they used to,” said Rogers. “It’s not just us, it’s everybody.”
So they’re launching a recruitment drive. Interested parties can go to the “ join-us ” section of the British Columbia Society of Model Engineers website.
The Burnaby Central runs on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays from Easter to Thanksgiving (this year, April 3 to Oct. 13). The cost per ride is $5, and it’s open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
On a misty Tuesday morning this week, volunteers Bruce Wilson, Thomas Pruden and Art Rock were on hand to run the train for a group of kids from the West End who had a special booking.
Wilson is an English immigrant who came to Vancouver “to see the Expo” in 1986 and decided to move here. He’d been involved with miniature railways in England, and joined the Burnaby Central three decades ago.
The Burnaby Central track is 7.5 inches, as opposed to standard or Stephenson gauge, which is four feet, 8 1/2 inches.
“We’re about one-eighth full-size,” explains Wilson, 72.
This also applies to their stable of locomotives, which are one-eighth replicas of full-sized train engines. There are three steam locomotives and five electrics, all painted to resemble the real deal.
The Canadian National engine, for example, is “heritage green and yellow,” with a swooping V around the light that gives it an art deco look. It has a circular red Canadian National logo in front, which is similar to the Burnaby Central logo.
The locomotives tow “ride-astride” bench cars where you plant your feet on either side of the bench. When kids are on board, they limit them to five riders a car, and a conductor sits at the back to enforce the rules: keep your feet on the running boards, keep your hands in, don’t stand up and don’t lean out.
The 75-year-old Pruden also cautions riders to be careful with their cellphones.
“We have four or five phones we’ve never found when you dropped them out there,” he told the kids. “And no screaming through the tunnel. Our ears can’t take it.”
Rock was the engineer on Tuesday, easily identifiable because he was clad in fluorescent orange garb that you could probably see from outer space.
He turns on a sound chip that simulates the sound of a train, presses a button that unleashes a train siren, then slowly leaves the station, to the delight of all the kids. The sound chip even has a “ding ding ding” of a rail-crossing bell.
Naturally there are one-eighth-size rail crossing signs when the train crosses the interior road on the grounds. But while everything is miniature, it’s also the real deal.
“It’s a real railway,” said Wilson. “We’re railroad operators.”
As such, the volunteers multi-task, from driving to rebuilding the engine.
“In a fairly small organization like this, we all do everything,” said Wilson. “Clean the toilets, pick up litter, cut the grass, mend the track, mend the trains. If it needs to be done, we do it.”
But it’s worth it, because it’s great family fun.
“I’ve had four generations sitting on one of those cars,” said Wilson.
