The Budd cars will ride on the rails in British Columbia like it did in days past.
The legendary passengers cars once regularly spotted on the rails in Squamish were taken out of service but the West Coast Railway Heritage Park is putting BC 33 back on the tracks as of next Saturday (Aug.13).
Rides on the restored vintage Budd Car will be offered on Saturdays and Sundays through Labour Day, between the hours of 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.
The fare to ride in the air-conditioned passenger car is just $2 per passenger.
According to Heritage Park Executive Director Don Evans, Budd car BC 33 was built for the Pacific Great Eastern (PGE) Railway in 1956 and operated with the PGE and its successor, B.C. Rail, continuously between North Vancouver and Prince George, until 2002 the servcie was halted in a changing rail climate in B.C.
"These self-propelled rail diesel cars had an amazing service life," said Evans. "BC 33 was inoperable when purchased from BC Rail by the West Coast Railway Association in 2003, but has now been restored to service by crews at the Heritage Park in Squamish."
The Heritage Park operators are offering rail trip to give guests a chance to relive the experience of local rail travel in Western British Columbia.
In 2004, the 15 Heritage Park employees hosted 45,500 guests from all over the world. The paid staff is supported by a large group of volunteers. The volunteers contributed more than 29,600 volunteer hours last year to the park located on Government Road.
-Contributed to The Chief
