European Railroad Discussion > BR Railbus in Canada 1986

Initially, Expo '86 in Vancouver during the summer of 1986 was intended to be a "Transportation Fair" to celebrate the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway into Vancouver in the winter of 1885.

As time progressed, Expo 86 morphed into a Worlds Fair type exhibition, with a transportation theme. A few participants stayed true to the original concept, and the UK,USSR  and Japan displays were moslty transport related.

A twin unit BR railbus spent part of the summer of 1986 offering public rides on the freight only BC Hydro Railway.  I must admit that I forget which points were served on the BCHydro Rail. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher rode it one day. Later in the summer, it attempted a run from North Vancouver to Whistler with a British trade delegation on board but suffered a mechanical failure en route and didn't reach its destination.

The cars involved were 55590 and 55640 although it was number RB 100 for train identification purposes in Canada.

These images show the railbus being prepared for service at BC Hydro Railway's Trapp Street shop in New Westminster BC.

When the summer was over, the railbus returned to the UK.

eminence_grise Wrote:
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> The cars involved were 55590 and 55640 although it
> was number RB 100 for train identification
> purposes in Canada.

These cars form Pacer set 142 049. I tracked them down while visiting Manchester in 2007. They still had their bus style seating at that time, after many other Pacers had been converted to more modern seating. They didn't carry any plaques or signage to commemorate their unusual service in North America.

eminence_grise Wrote:
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> A twin unit BR railbus spent part of the summer of
> 1986 offering public rides on the freight only BC
> Hydro Railway.  I must admit that I forget which
> points were served on the BCHydro Rail.

It was a non-stop run from New Westminster to Abbotsford with no intermediate stops. Timed at 90 minutes one-way for 38.6 miles, but quite often did the trip in 65 minutes.

The service operated from June 25 to August 10 (except July 11-12), making three round trips.

Expo 86 was indeed a treat for me to be strolling among over 20 operating steam locomotives in the same place.

RailNet802, out

I have posted some photos of my trip  with RB100 on the Canadian board.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?15,3980770,3981207#msg-3981207

Gerry Gaugl
Ottawa ON
Canada
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/09/16 13:01 by moonliter.

Here's 142 049 at Manchester Piccadilly on July 28, 2007, awaiting departure from Platform 10 as the trailing set in the 17:24 to Chester, via Altrincham. The car closest to the camera is 55640.

 

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I wonder how that rode on thirty foot staggered rails. Chris UK.

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55002 Wrote:
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> I wonder how that rode on thirty foot staggered
> rails. Chris UK.

In an article about the New Westminster to Abbotsford service in 1986, the railfan author wrote: "Despite the lack of conventional twin-axle trucks, the ride was very good."

I guess we have to start raising money now to ship these back to British Columbia for their retirement. They would be pretty cool to ride in BC at one of the museums along with their story.

Jim

Interestingly enough there's an article at the BBC website entitled "Pacers: The train that the UK has struggled to get rid of"

Pacers: The train that the UK has struggled to get rid of.

There's a thread over at the newsgroup uk.railway in which it's suggested that a farewell trip be run with everyone buying a raffle ticket. At the end of the trip the winner gets to be the first one to use the cutting torch .....