Railway Construction
The construction of the Great Northern Railway on the north
shore of Burnaby Lake began in 1904. Although the grades were
level, the section along Still Creek at the west end of the lake
proved challenging. The peat bog required significant loads of
gravel to build up the railbed. One day, so the story goes, a
dangerous sinkhole developed between Douglas Road and Sperling
Avenue. One member of the work crew that was on shift that day was
interviewed in 1959. This is what he recollects:
"We used to take a gravel train out on the track to the end
and dump the gravel and go back for another load... One day we got
to the work site close to noon so we did not dump the gravel and
went to lunch... When we got back the train was not there. All we
saw were the tracks going down to the muddy water and bubbles
coming up... the whole thing sank out of sight."
Needless to say, some trouble ensued and everyone searched for
the train but it was never found...
Reference material: Wolf, Jim; Pixie McGeachie.
Burnaby A Proud Century: A Historical Commemoration of
Burnaby’s Centennial (Opus Productions, 1992)
Sunken Engine art sculpture.
CONGRATS TO NEZGAR AND VANA FOR FTF!!!
