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Promotional image showing a Class 142 railbus somewhere in the Fraser Valley (British Rail)

The theme of Expo 86 was transportation and many, many countries took advantage of the show to demonstrate their developments in this field. Of course, the star of the show was Canada’s SkyTrain, but Japan showed its maglev train, America its cars, and the United Kingdom showed its conventional rail.

Said railbus being transported to Vancouver (Colin Arnot/RRPicturesArchives.NET)

British Rail, the then government corporation behind operation and development of rail transportation in the United Kingdom decided to send one of its Class 142 train sets (aka “Pacer”) diesel trains (dubbed as “railbus”) to tour Metro Vancouver.

They regularly ran service from a temporary station in Abbotsford to New Westminster during the summer months of 1986 along the railway once referred to as the Fraser Valley Line during the BC Electric Railway days.

Railbus parked at the railyards in Strathcona (City of Vancouver Archives)

It did make an appearance near the Expo grounds at Pacific Central and was given a largely lukewarm reception by locals and government officials. The common critique of the train was the one shared by those back in the UK: it was an uncomfortable ride.

Railbus parked in New Westminster (J.W. Booth)

The reasons behind the uncomfortable ride are known: unlike most trains, this was based on a bus made by British Leyland. A rail chassis was fixed to the bus body and then some slight modifications were made to the cab to make it “rail-ready”. Unlike a typical train, the wheels were fixed in place which made them noisy. To add to this, there were only two axels per car unlike the typical four you’d see on other trains including all of the ones used by SkyTrain today, which resulted in a rougher ride.

Railbus parked somewhere in the Fraser Valley (City of Vancouver Archives)

After the summer, the train set was sent back to the UK where it operated on various different services until all Pacers were retired at the end of 2020.

Waking up and seeing this mountain each morning while camping was just excellent.

(Taken just north of Pemberton, British Columbia)

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BC Electric train at New Westminster Station during the Duke of Connaught visit (City of New Westminster)

New Westminster Station today

For those who use New Westminster Station on the regular, it’s a place you either pass through, you get off to see a movie, or you catch a bus from to go up the steep hills of the city is named for. However, it has a long history of being a terminus going back to the early 20th Century.

The original station building was located adjacent to the present-day station and is now a thrift store and office. It was opened in 1891 and sat directly next to the Canadian Pacific Railway’s station.

Interurban as seen from the entrance of New Westminster Station (City of Vancouver Archives)

It was a terminus for the Burnaby Lake and Central Park BC Electric Railway (BCER) interurban lines plus provided through service for the Vancouver to Chilliwack service as well. Add on top the street cars that littered New Westminster and a connection to Richmond (Lulu Island) and also to Vancouver via the Marpole line, you find yourself with a major hub for railway services in the region.

New Westminster Station’s current location as seen in the early 1980s (City of New Westminster)

With the dissolution of passenger service provided by the BCER, New Westminster being a transportation hub in what was then Greater Vancouver came to an end. It became an area dominated by the car especially after the City of New Westminster opted to build a giant parkade on its waterfront in order to “revitalise” the area.

New Westminster Station as seen in 1986 (City of Vancouver Archives)

In 1985, New Westminster returned to being a transportation focal point with the opening of SkyTrain service and once again it became a terminus station. To facilitate it being a terminus station, half of the tracks were covered over with a temporary platform. This was because there was a planned extension to another station in the downtown area and then off to Surrey.

New Westminster Station as seen in the 1990s

This station became important to New Westminster’s efforts to revitalise its downtown core and in the 2000s, it became a focal point for densification. The former grounds of a car dealership, a parking lot, and a retail complex were all to be used as part of turning the station into a hub for residences and shopping.

New Westminster Station is now part of a shopping centre

Today, New Westminster station is not only a hub for connections elsewhere in the city and beyond, but you can go there to get your groceries, eat a meal, and watch a movie. It even acts as an intermodal as a brief walk can take you to a ferry which connects downtown New Westminster with Queensborough.

Perhaps in the future it will be a connection to Vancouver via the old Marpole line?

This was originally posted to cohost.org/VancouverTransit.

Exterior of the inhaler

Partially taken apart

Interior mechanicals

Metalic strip removed

I found myself rather dismayed at how much plastic is required to make this medical device work for me each morning. To alleviate this, I wanted to know how it worked and maybe see if I can recycle any or part of it so over the weekend I took it apart.

The device has two rollers as it permits two different doses. As you take the blue handle down towards the right, it strips a specific portion of the metallic strip that was once housed and places powder into the chamber. I then inhale from the chamber mouthpiece and it enters my lungs, allowing me to get through my day without having an attack. This also moves a dial (which started at 30) to then report how many doses are left.

Fairly basic and I can see why it is constructed like this.

For the record, this medicine is far better than my previous one. I have not had to touch my secondary inhaler in almost a month.

Hello from Whistler.