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Kettle Valley Railway Company Railroad travel--British Columbia
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[Coquihalla lodge, fishing, miscellaneous railway shots]

Amateur film footage. The beginning and middle of this film reel contain shots taken from trains leaving or arriving in Vancouver on the CPR main line. The balance of the reel includes: views along the Kettle Valley Railway; activities at the rail station of Coquihalla and nearby Lil-Joe Lodge; CPR steam locomotives 3628 and 3652; Sperry Rail Services rail detector car SRS 130; clearing of land, horse logging, and construction of log buildings for the lodge; a pack train; and row boats and trout fishing on the Coquihalla Lakes.

F.P. McPherson interview

CALL NUMBER: T3550:0001 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1979-04-12 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: In an interview with Robert Turner, F.P. McPherson discusses: his background -- Scottish family, born in 1889 in Port Hawkesbury, N.S.; worked various jobs as a youth; father was in railroading; went to B.C. in 1912 with his third-class license (for engineer work); in B.C., he ran a donkey engine in the bush between Jervis and the Sechelt Islands for Sumner and Macdonald; working at the Midland Borough Collieries; building pipes for a number of different camps in the Merritt area in 1915; randomly getting a job with the railroad in Merritt; hired on as a brakeman, quickly became a conductor. TRACK 2: F.P. McPherson discusses: attempt to build a tunnel from Tulameen to the Coquihalla between Portia and Jessica -- anecdote about his role in this process; description of Andy McCulloch; laying the track; responsibilities of a conductor; a typical work day. CALL NUMBER: T3550:0002 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Railroading in B.C. : F.P. McPherson RECORDED: [location unknown], 1979-04-12 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: F.P. McPherson describes photographs and documents: more on Andy McCulloch -- meeting him on a work train near Juliet, "McCulloch's Wonder" (the book); did own cooking when on the trains; McCulloch (cont'd); his work on the Coquihalla; anecdote about getting caught in a snowstorm. TRACK 2: McPherson: more on getting caught in the snow on Christmas Eve; usually 11 cars on a passenger train; he helped build the line up to Copper Mountain; made his last trip in 1954 with his daughter; differences between the railroads then and now; anecdote about the birth of a child while he was conductor. (End of interview)