Tea & Tales 2014 Collection

This is a short edited version of Roy Crowston’s presentation “Memories of a Conductor”. He gave some insight on what types of jobs there were on the train and what the conductor does and he talks about accidents, snowstorms and rock slides.

This is a short excerpt from Chief Leonard Andrew’s presentation at Tea & Tales in 2014. In this excerpt Leonard shares some of his memories about the railroad, the long travel required by railroad to Ottawa by area Chiefs (Thevarge) and the changes that have come since the railroad was built in 1914.

This powerful documentary from White River Productions covers the controversy surrounding the end of passenger service on BC Rail in October 2002.

Emily Carr’s PGE Railway Trip in 1933
– In May 1933, the renowned artist Emily Carr left her home in Victoria for a month long expedition on the PGE Railway. Her objective: to take on a deliberate new artistic challenge – mountain scenery. After visiting with a niece in the Squamish Valley, Emily took the train north to Lillooet, and on the return trip stopped to explore and sketch at Seton Lake and Pemberton. This PGE railway journey was an important turning point in Emily Carr’s life and career. An outcome of the he journey was several remarkable paintings, including one of Pemberton Meadows on display today in the Vancouver Art Gallery.

1914 marks the centenary of the arrival of the PGE railway to Pemberton, and also the completion of marine terminals and new townsite at Squamish. This route had been considered as having potential for a railway as early as Gold Rush times, and was surveyed for the CPR in 1873. There were several competing proposals for a line during the 1890s-1910. What were the interests and personalities behind the idea of a railway from the head of Howe Sound through Pemberton? Eric Andersen will discuss this topic in a slide presentation.

This week was the fourth Tea & Tales of the summer. We had about 30 people attend. Due to the 100th anniversary of the Railway coming to Pemberton, our main focus this year is the history of the railway.

Roy Crowston came out to present his “Memories of a Conductor”. He gave some insight on what types of jobs there were on the train and what the conductor does; the importance of watches and he talks about accidents, snowstorms and rockslides. Roy also presents his best memories and his memories of Seton Portage, Squamish and the Wye lands.

Jim Watson and Trevor Mills come in to present their “Rail Tales from the Telegraph”. During their presentation they brought up artifacts to show and gave us some memories of the radio system on the railway, the speeder cars and the W.A.C. Bennet visit. They also spoke about the delivery system, bud cars and the daily trains and their timetable.

Last week was the second Tea & Tales of the summer. We had about 30 people attend the second tea of the season. Due to the 100th anniversary of the Railway coming to Pemberton, our main focus this year is the history of the railway.
We had Chief Leonard Andrew come in to present his Memories of the Railway in the Pemberton Valley. Leonard also spoke about The Barny House (owned by Eddy Thevarge) and the Sam Jim house. We had also gotten a story about Eddy Thevarge and Sam Jim from Chief Leonard Andrew.
Leonard was first elected in 1981 as Chief and served until 1989. He then worked as land manager until he ran again and won election in 2003.He had then retired in 2011. Leonard had served the community for a total of 38 years.

Welcome to the first Tea & Tale of the Summer. To kick off our summer of celebrations for the 100th Anniversary of the Railway we presented:
Buster Keaton in the Railrodder.
George Henry introduced the movie and talked about this 100th Anniversary and why it is such an important event in our history.

This Tea & Tales clip also includes an edited version of the documentary “Buster Keaton Rides Again” by John Spotton that records the making of the Gerald Potterton picture “The Railrodder”, as well as Buster’s techniques and biography.