CN 6060 BLASTING OUT OF TUNNEL

The video is digitized from an 8mm magnetic tape.

Some may find the waiting a bit drawn out, but, in the end, it’s only 5 minutes. I thought long and hard about shortening the wait but we would be missing how events actually unfolded, as there are several whistle blasts; which, much too close together, would spoil the effect.

The result is worth, as ex-CNR 6060 blasts out of a tunnel at speed, leading BCR 3716 and 15 cars, at Mile 32, BCR (now CN) Squamish Sub, northbound on the Royal Hudson excursion trip from North Vancouver, replacing BCR Royal Hudson 2860 on May 21, 1988 (30 years ago). It’s all uphill to Squamish, still about 10 minutes away and there’s enough smoke after the locomotives leave the tunnel, to actually taste it.

“Bullet Nose Betty” really belonged to the Rocky Mountain Rail Society (RMRS) in Central Alberta and she had been participating in the “Grand Parade of Steam” at Expo 86, but stayed around; double-heading with the 2860 on some excursions, before returning to Jasper, during “The Great Steam Circle Tour”, mid October 1988 along with the 2860; which then returned to Vancouver, while 6060 stayed in Jasper and then, found her way home near Stettler, AB, occasionally leading Alberta Prairie Railway excursions.

BCR 3716 is now operating in southwest British Columbia on the Kettle Valley Steam Railway (KVSR), as the “Spirit of Summerland”, while ex-BCR 2860 now resides with the West Coast Railway Association (WCRA) in Squamish.