All Aboard! The Royal Hudson Steam Train

Don Evans has been a Rotarian with the Vancouver club for almost 30 years and his other love is trains.  One of the very few steam powered locomotives in North America is in Squamish.  The Royal Hudson was retired from service in 1960 in Winnipeg.  It's second career was between 1974-1999 when the Province of BC financed  running it from Vancouver to Squamish and it became a large tourist attraction.  But in 1999 it failed it's boiler inspection and was retired again as the Province would not spend the funds to rebuild it.  In 2002 the West Coast Heritage Society moved it to Squamish and spend over $800,000 to rebuild the boiler.  This money was raised by fundraising.  In Aug. 2006 it was finished and is now in it's third career - you just can't stop a choo choo train!.  It is very expensive to run - to go between Squamish and Vancouver one way costs between $12,000 and $14,000 in oil and 12,000 gallons of water.  It is only operated now for special occasions like White Rock's 50th Anniversary or the opening of Louis Vuitton in 2010 when it only travelled 3/4 mile for the guests.  The next ten years will see it being mechanically rebuilt at a cost of up to three million dollars.  It can be viewed at the West Coast Railway Heritage Park in Squamish where our Rotary Convention will be this year.