On June 26th the West Coast Railway Assn. announced that the planned excursions from North Vancouver to the West Coast Railway Heritage Park at Squamish B.C. are cancelled. The excusions were to run from June 26th to September 8th to raise funds to restore the Royal Hudson steam locomotive. The train consist was to be cars from the Royal Hudson trainset with motive power provided by the groups ex-CPR FP7-A, #4069.
The culprit here was the cost of insurance. The lowest quote received was eight times that in the budget and would have priced the trip out of range for the average family and other patrons.
Royal Hudson #2860 is on display at the Heritage Park. A special interpretive display has been prepared and the cab is manned by former BC Rail engineers who ran the locomotive in her years of excursion service.
The WCRA remains committed to the restoration of the locomotive and funds are being raised through the Royal Hudson Restoration Fund. All donations are tax deductible in Canada. Donations can be sent to the fund c/o P.O.Box 2790, Vancouver, B.C. Canada, V6B 3X2. US funds are welcome, although we can't issue a tax receipt for them. All mechanical documentation and drawings of the locomotive are being provided by BC Rail as well as all spare parts and stocks of materials, supplies and tools on hand. The target for return to operation is 2010.

http://www.wcra.org
gferguson@aebc.com