Canadian Railroads > CN 105 at Wire Cache BC.

Wire Cache is a former siding site on the CN Clearwater Subdivision between Blue River and Kamloops BC.  Late in the evening of April 29th,2015, CN westbound intermodal freight 105 is being lead by SD60F 5522, an SD60 model unique to CN.

A "Cache" is a location where early explorers set up stores of provisions as way stations along the pioneer trails . The BC and Alberta Rockies and inter mountain regions had several such places whose names remain, as in Grande Cache AB., Tete Jaune Cache BC, and Cache Creek BC.

Wire Cache BC has a different origin.  In 1860. G.Marconi, the inventor of the telegraph and his company set out to build a telegraph line from the USA, though Canada and Alaska and across the Bering Straits to Siberia and east of Europe. Construction started on this great project which branched off the US telegraph network at Spokane WA. and headed north.

At about the same time, the Anglo-American Telegraph Company led by Cyrus Field was successful in laying a Trans-Atlantic cable under the Atlantic Ocean.

The Marconi overland cable was abandoned, but only after construction had started to take place along various parts of the route.

In the case of Wire Cache BC, along the North Thompson River, the forest slash line had taken place and materiel was being shipped in with great difficulty to build the telegraph line.  A "cache" of wire and insulators was placed at Wire Cache , however the project was abandoned and the line never built.

Many have sought to locate this cache of copper wire and ancient insulators without success over the past 155 years.

Guglielmo Marconi was born in 1874 and invented wireless telegraphy c1895. The Canadian Marconi Company was founded in 1903.

Ray

[Edit] I think this is the project you were referring to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian–American_Telegraph

p.s. You'll have to copy/paste the full link.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/03/15 05:30 by Ray_Murphy.

I thought the dates on the history plaque at the highway rest area were a bit early.  Still, the telegraph line would have been built a good twenty five years before the railway.

I have a book called "Continental Dash - The Russian American Telegraph"  by Rosemary Neering.  This project was started by the Western Union Telegraph company.  It started
around 1865,  and was partially built.  Abandoned in 1877 when the TransAtlantic cable was successful.  The line ran Fraser Canyon, Cariboo, veered west to Endako, Ft.Fraser, Bulkleyriver then turned straight north towards Telegraph Creek.  It actually operated into the Bulkley country.   It has always puzzled me that there would have been a cache
established so far East from where the line actually ran.  Would have been much better to have it somewhere near Quesnel.   This line started when now Alaska was owned by
the Russians.  I think the plaque needs some correcting.

And there is a train connection, sort of.  In 1871 when BC became a province, the Federal govt took over the line..In 1954,Canadian National bought the line from the Feds.
In 1978, CNCPTelecomms inherited it. I guess they still do, what's left of it.

                 Sid.

Charles Bulkley, who was in charge of the construction, was my first cousin eight times removed.  He named the Bulkley River, which flows through the Bulkley Valley, after himself.  As a result, Smithers, B.C., and the area around it are the only place in the world where people know how to pronounce my name (most people say "Buckley," which is Irish, not English).

I used to actively collect insulators and subscribe to the magazine Crown Jewels which had an excellent article about this line. I have no idea where that issue is however. There are a number of insulators that have been found from this project, I have one of them. Front is embossed McMICKING and rear is embossed VICTORIA B.C. 75 which I think was for 1875. It is odd that ten years after the process for putting the threads in insulators that they went with a threadless design for such a remote area. It is also interesting how much smaller these insulators are compared with normal insulators, even from that era.

Jim

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That is indeed a rare insulator.  I have never seen anything like it.
I made a slight mistake in my post, I said  Western Union quit in 1877,  should be 1867.
I also noticed that several sources said that Wire Cache was for the Canadian Northern,
which would date it as around 1910 when they started building westward from Edmonton.
               Sid.