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Penny station

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Not to be confused with Penn Station.
Penny
General information
LocationPenny, BC
Canada
Coordinates53°50′33.6″N 121°17′22.7″W / 53.842667°N 121.289639°W / 53.842667; -121.289639[1]
Platforms1
Construction
Structure typeSign post
History
Opened1914
Rebuilt1947
Previous namesGrand Trunk Pacific Railway
Services
Preceding station Via Rail Following station
Longworth
toward Prince Rupert
 Jasper–Prince Rupert Bend
toward Jasper
Former services
Preceding station Canadian National Railway Following station
Lindup
toward Prince Rupert
 Prince Rupert – Jasper Guilford
toward Jasper
Location
Penny is located in British Columbia
Penny
Penny
Location within British Columbia
Penny is located in Canada
Penny
Penny
Penny (Canada)
Map

Penny station is a railway station in Penny, British Columbia. It is on the Canadian National Railway mainline and serves as a flag stop for Via Rail's Jasper–Prince Rupert train.[2][3]

The station was built by the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway in 1914. The original building burned down in a 1947 fire and the station building from Lindup, British Columbia was moved to this location. The station building was again moved in 1988 to the Prince George Railway Museum.[1]

History

[edit]

Penny lies at mile 69.5, Fraser Subdivision.[4] Previously designated as Mile 159 during the line's construction, it was the area headquarters for Foley, Welch and Stewart, the prime contractor.[5][6][7] The Siems-Carey headquarters,[8] and a work camp existed at Mile 160.[5] Mr. Flannigan, a contractor at this camp, who considered all the camps maintained exceptional sanitary conditions, complained of IWW agitators seeking better wages and camp conditions.[9] The government sanitary inspector, who described camp conditions as fair, destroyed 20,000 lbs. of beef at about Mile 160, and bacon unfit for human consumption at other camps. He advised contractors to stop dumping garbage into the Fraser River.[10] Soon after, typhoid and diphtheria cases filled the medical outpost. In one 10-day period, the facility treated five victims of dump-car accidents, and the latest patient from Camp 162 had been cut in two.[11] The Miles 160 and 162 camps were both large, and a hospital was mentioned at Mile 160.[5][12] The true location of the hospital was likely Mile 73 (formerly around Mile 162.5).[13]

Not a planned station on the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (the Canadian National Railway after nationalization), Penny remained absent from the 1916 timetable.[14] Exclusion from the 1919[15] and 1921[16] Official Guides probably reflects that only the employee timetables initially listed it as a footnote. Mention in the 1918 BC towns directory,[17] and on a c.1919 map,[18] suggest a 1917 or 1918 opening date for the station.

The settlement developed between Lindup to its northwest, and Guilford to its southeast. The name, a surname that emerged by the beginning of the 13th century,[19] was selected for unknown reasons.[20] Commonly claimed as an English place name on the list prepared by Josiah Wedgwood (submitted at the request of William P. Hinton, the railway's general manager),[21] no such location existed in the United Kingdom. Furthermore, the name Penny, in use by 1914, predated the station by at least three years. Formerly it was known just as the Engineers' Camp.[7]

Trains sometimes struck straying livestock,[22] but slowed to a crawl if sighted in time.[23] A passenger shelter likely existed prior to replacement in 1927 by a converted section tool house from Miworth. In 1947, the latter burned to the ground.[24] Transported the 5.5 miles (8.9 km) by railway flatcar,[25] Lindup exchanged its standard-design Plan 100-152 (Bohi's Type E)[26][27] station building for Penny's Plan 110-101 converted sectionmen's bunkhouse.[28] The CNR appointed the first station agent at this time.[29]

A burned out journal box on a freight car immobilized a train at Penny for seven hours in 1955.[30] During the 1960s, 18 cars derailed from an eastbound 98-car freight train in the vicinity, which delayed the westbound passenger train for three hours.[31] In another incident, a head-on collision with a bull moose, just outside Penny, derailed 23 cars of a westbound 50-car freight train.[32]

In 1970, CNR closed its section shop.[33] Isolated communities, like Penny, suffered when the Prince George–McBride way freight ceased operations in 1977.[34] The next year, Penny was one of the 11 communities between Prince Rupert and the Alberta border, where the CNR replaced its agent-operator position[35] with a resident serving as CN Express agent.[36]

The deep snow of the 1981/82 winter near Penny caused hundreds of collisions between moose and trains.[37] By this time, the station was boarded up apart from a small waiting room.[38] In 1988, an ice bridge was built across the Fraser River to carry the station by flatbed truck to its new home, the Prince George Railway & Forestry Museum.[39] Using a raft 18 months earlier, volunteers transported a heritage railway speeder shed and tool shed from Penny to that site.[40]

The remaining passenger shelter was removed in 1996.[41]

Service c.1917–c.1919 c.1920–c.1921 c.1921–c.1924 c.1924–1931 1932–1942 1943–1977 1977–c.1989 c.1990–present
[17][42] [43] [44][45] [46] [47][48][49][50][51] [52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61]
[62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70]		 [4][71][72] [73][74][75][76][77]
Passenger Flag stop probably Flag stop Flag stop Regular stop Regular stop Regular stop Flag stop
Way freight Flag stop probably Flag stop probably Regular stop Regular stop Regular stop Regular stop
Siding Mile No. 1922 1933 1943 1960 1965–72 1977–92
(Capacity Length) Cars [44] Cars [49] Cars [52] Cars [59] Cars [64][67][69] Feet [4][73][74]
Penny 69.2 54
Penny 69.4 53
Penny 69.5 46 52 54 2,530
Other Tracks Mile No. 1920 1922 1933 1943 1960 1965 1968
(Capacity Length) Cars [43] Cars [44] Cars [49] Cars [52] Cars [59] Cars [64] Cars [67]
Unknown 68.4 Unknown
Red Mountain Lumber 68.9 Unknown Unknown
Penny Lumber 69.2 Unknown
Penny 69.5 20 20
Red Mountain Lumber 69.9 21
Penny Sawmills 69.9 19
Penny Spruce Sales 69.9 41
Penny Forest Products 69.9 42
Eagle Lake Sawmills 69.9 42

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b "Penny". BC Geographical Names.
  2. ^ VIA Rail. "Penny train station".
  3. ^ VIA Rail. "Jasper-Prince Rupert train - Schedules".
  4. ^ a b c "1977 Timetable" (PDF). www.cwrailway.ca. p. 79.
  5. ^ a b c Fort George Herald, 17 May 1913
  6. ^ "Engineer's camps c.1913". www.gent.ca.
  7. ^ a b Diary of Ada Adelia Sykes
  8. ^ Fort George Herald, 21 Jun 1913
  9. ^ Fort George Herald, 12 Apr 1913
  10. ^ Fort George Herald, 31 May 1913
  11. ^ Fort George Herald, 7 Jun 1913
  12. ^ PRC 1995, p. 2.
  13. ^ Clarence & Olga Boudreau recollections, Dec 2019
  14. ^ Waghorn's Guide. The Guide Co. Ltd. 1916. p. 74.
  15. ^ The Official Guide. The National Railway Publication Company. 1919. p. 875.
  16. ^ "The Official Guide" (PDF). www.cprr.org. 1921. p. 950.
  17. ^ a b "1918 BC Directory". www.bccd.vpl.ca.
  18. ^ "Map of the Central Section of British Columbia / Shewing the Country Served by the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway". www.utoronto.ca.
  19. ^ "Last name: Penny". www.surnamedb.com.
  20. ^ Prince George Citizen, 27 Jan 1984 (44)
  21. ^ Prince George Citizen, 27 May 1957
  22. ^ Prince George Citizen, 15 Jun 1944
  23. ^ Prince George Citizen, 25 Apr 2000
  24. ^ PRC 1995, p. 38.
  25. ^ Prince George Citizen: 4 Sep 1947, 16 Oct 1947 & 8 Jul 1989
  26. ^ "Type "E" Mythology". www.oil-electric.com. Archived from the original on January 1, 2009.
  27. ^ "Vanishing BC GTP Railway stations". www.michaelkluckner.com.
  28. ^ Bohi, Charles W.; Kozma, Leslie S. (2002). Canadian National's Western Stations. Fitzhenry & Whiteside. pp. 121, 136 & 141. ISBN 1550416324.
  29. ^ PRC 1995, p. 37.
  30. ^ Prince George Citizen, 1 Sep 1955
  31. ^ Prince George Citizen: 14 & 15 Dec 1961
  32. ^ Prince George Citizen, 17 Jan 1967
  33. ^ Prince George Citizen, 24 Jun 1970
  34. ^ Prince George Citizen, 25 Jul 1977
  35. ^ Prince George Citizen: 2 & 8 Aug 1978
  36. ^ Prince George Citizen: 3 Oct 1978 & 13 Mar 1980
  37. ^ Prince George Citizen: 15 & 17 Sep 1982
  38. ^ Prince George Citizen, 23 Jan 1985
  39. ^ Prince George Citizen: 11 & 12 Feb 1988
  40. ^ Prince George Citizen: 19 & 21 Jul 1986
  41. ^ Prince George Free Press, 21 Jan 1996
  42. ^ "1919 BC Directory". www.bccd.vpl.ca.
  43. ^ a b 1920 Timetable. Bulkley Valley Museum. p. 8.
  44. ^ a b c 1922 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. p. 8.
  45. ^ 1923 Timetable. p. 70.
  46. ^ 1925 Timetable. p. 105.
  47. ^ Prince George Citizen: 12 & 19 Nov 1931
  48. ^ 1932 Timetable. p. 58.
  49. ^ a b c 1933 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. p. 8.
  50. ^ 1935 Timetable. p. 60.
  51. ^ 1942 Timetable. p. 58.
  52. ^ a b c 1943 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. p. 9.
  53. ^ 1945 Timetable. p. 61.
  54. ^ "1946 Timetable". www.scribd.com. p. 59.
  55. ^ 1949 Timetable. p. 59.
  56. ^ "1950 Timetable". www.scribd.com. p. 59.
  57. ^ "1956 Timetable" (PDF). www.streamlinermemories.info. p. 53.
  58. ^ "1957 Timetable". www.traingeek.ca. p. 53.
  59. ^ a b c 1960 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. pp. 21–22
  60. ^ "1961 Timetable (main)" (PDF). www.streamlinermemories.info. p. 39.
  61. ^ "1961 Timetable (way freight)" (PDF). www.streamlinermemories.info. p. 48.
  62. ^ "1963 Timetable" (PDF). www.streamlinermemories.info. p. 42.
  63. ^ 1964 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. p. 44
  64. ^ a b c 1965 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. pp. 25–26
  65. ^ "1966 Timetable". www.traingeek.ca. p. 38.
  66. ^ 1967 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. p. 38
  67. ^ a b c 1968 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. pp. 25–26
  68. ^ "1971 Timetable" (PDF). www.streamlinermemories.info. p. 19.
  69. ^ a b 1972 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. pp. 25–26
  70. ^ 1973 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. p. 18
  71. ^ "1986 Timetable". www.scribd.com. p. 50, but scan p. 52.
  72. ^ "1988 Timetable". www.scribd.com. p. 55, but scan p. 52.
  73. ^ a b 1990 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. pp. 95–97
  74. ^ a b 1992 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. pp. 103–105
  75. ^ "1996 Timetable" (PDF). www.streamlinermemories.info. p. 40.
  76. ^ "2011 Timetable". www.scribd.com. p. 44, but scan p. 24.
  77. ^ Recent timetables

Sources

[edit]
  • PRC (1995). A Penny for Your Thoughts... The Penny Reunion Committee.
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