In an incredible coincidence, the two interurban cars coupled together for the last revenue ride run in Vancouver back in 1958 are the same ones now used by the Downtown Historic Railway (DHR).
Car #1207 and Car #1231 ran together on the last day of interurban service on February 28th, 1958. After that they were purchased by two people living in two different locations in Washington State. While #1207 had ended up in Snoqualmie Falls, #1231 was kept in a location south of Olympia. In 1975, the Provincial Museum staff in Victoria brought back three former Vancouver interurban cars from Olympia: the #1220, #1235, and #1231. Car #1220 was partially restored and now sits unused in Steveston Park, while #1235 was shipped to Ottawa.
In June 1990 Stu Hodgson, then CEO of BC Transit, invited Norm Smith and a group of volunteers to work on the restoration of one of the interurban cars. As Smith relates, “Mr. Hodgson had been impressed by the quality of work that we had done on the little Brill four wheel car No. 30 that he asked if we could tackle an interurban. We confidently said ‘O.K.’”. As fate would have it, Car #1231 happened to be the one chosen to be shipped to Victoria to begin restoration work. Bill Bailey was the project coordinator for the work, working with volunteers Smith, Gordon Hatch, Doug Parker, and electrician Gordon Ells.
Victoria furniture maker Karen Trickett was hired as lead carpenter, and completed the work with four paid professional carpenters (John Doughty, Dave Carter, Doug White, and Dave Collis) by the fall of the same year. The electric motors on the interurban car were refurbished by Emery Electric and the machine work by Harjim Machine Works. Rattan seats were added by Stan Thompson Auto Upholstery. The work continued until the spring of 1992, when funding from BC Transit was withdrawn. It was not until five years later that the City of Vancouver offered to fund the completion of the restoration. The same group of volunteers, along with the original electrician Gordon Ells, came back to finish the work by September of 1997.
The next month Car #1231 was shipped to Vancouver stored for another two years in a warehouse at False Creek until additional funding became available for the extension to Science World, with City staff completing the remaining electrical and mechanical work. In August 1999, for the first time in almost 50 years, #1231 went back into service. The story of #1231 was covered by Canadian Rails magazine in their September-October 1997 edition, and the work was given a special award by the Canadian Railroad Historical Association. “We are all very proud of the completed car”, says Smith.
Next time: How the Downtown Historic Railway operates
Many thanks to Norm Smith for telling his story about Car #1231 and to Dale Laird of TRAMS for his invaluable help with this series of articles. Check out the Transit Museum Society website for more information on the Society.
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John Calimente is the president of Rail Integrated Developments. He supports great mass transit, cycling, walking, transit integrated developments, and non-automobile urban life. Click here to follow TheTransitFan on Twitter.
