Fred Downer with Howe Sound & Northern Railway's first locomotive
- CA SQPL 22-026
- 1910
Fred Downer with Howe Sound & Northern Railway's first locomotive
Howe Sound & Northern Railway's first locomotive
In front of logging locomotive
Left to right: Harry Brightbill, Sainsbury (cook), Amedy Levesque in front of logging locomotive, 1910-1013.
Amedy Levesque and his partners, Leviolette, McIntyre, and Levesque Co. ("The French Boys") were the first to use high rigging extensively in the valley. To rig a 70 foot high spruce tree, Arthur McIntyre would go up the tree, no spures, and chop off branches as he went. When he was tired, Amedy Levsque went up, finished chopping off the branches, topped the tree, and hung the two guy lines and blocks.
Shay Locomotive in Squamish [Front]
Newport Timber Company shay locomotive with three cars of logs travelling west from Garibaldi Highlands.
Shay Locomotive in Squamish [Back]
Newport Timber Company shay locomotive with three cars of logs travelling west from Garibaldi Highlands.
First passenger train out of Newport - PGE
Train on PGE Railway near Squamish
Part of Unknown Photograph Collection
1st PGE Train Schedule for Squamish Area
Photoraph of the 1st PGE Train Schedule for Squamish Area on November 1, 1913.
Fred Downer in front of the 2 spot in 1914
Passenger train - February 1914
Part of Unknown Photograph Collection
Located behind the present day Kaos Kids store (where Pharmasave used to be), the kitty corner to Fields. Logs used to be unloaded here. Picture taken in 1920.
Sitting on a train (Engine #51).
James and Janet Eadie with son Fred sitting on a train (Engine #51).
PGE construction, Lillooet 1927
Merrill & Ring "2 Spot" (wood burning) pushing drag out on dump. Charlie Calchan Engineer Boom Camp & Wood Yard. Comments by Ed Alridge: Note wood all gone off tender. Will wood up at wood yard before leaving. Steel gang unload steel of scow - at gridion in foreground.
Photo by: Ed Aldridge.
Aldridge, Ed
Merrill & Ring Logging Co. Camp
Early 1927 in Valleycliffe. Steam locomotives standing approximately where "townhouses" now stand.
Far left: 14 ton Plymouth gas locomotive foreground: "North-western" speeder - Model T Ford engine.
Right: 50 ton shay Loco #1 1 beam frame.
Arch bar trucks. Behind her with crummies, 50 ton shay #2 (new) girder frame, cast frame trucks. Wagon to boiler. Shays converted to oil burners later in 1927.
Photo by: Ed Aldridge.
Merrill and Ring, an American company bought their claim in 1888 for 25 cents per acre. This went from Valleycliffe through the foothills to Brohm Lake. They did not set up in the valley until October 1926. The operation had come from Duncan Bay, before that they had been at Camp O near Alert Bay. Their first camp is where Valleycliffe is located now. They employed 200 people. The hiring was done by Loggers' Agencies in Vancouver. They would fall the trees with cross cut saws then haul the logs with a steam donkey to the train. They used a steam axe to split the wood as machines used only wood fuel at the time.
A lot of Merrill and Ring timber was burnt in a Norton McKinnon fire in 1927. The McKinnon's engine was given as payment. Aloysius McNalley and John Broomquist collected it. The same year, Arthur Edwards assisted in the building of the Merrill & Ring camp at Edith Lake.
In 1929, Merrill and Ring moved their operation across the Mamquam valley to Edith Lake east of Alice Lake. A settlement of 225 men was set up there. Railway track covered the mountainside from Cheekye River southward.
Merrill and Ring closed in 1930 due to the low price of logs during the Depression. Logs were selling from 5 to 6 dollars per thousand. At this time, the logs were hauled by train to the dump at the mouth of the Stawamus River. Merill and Ring started back up in 1932.
Merrill and Ring shut down 3 times in 1937: after New Years due to snow, due to fire season, and in the fall when a bridge over the Cheekye River was washed out. Merrill and Ring left Squamish in 1940.
Aldridge, Ed
Laying steel over Merrill & Ring Mud Creek Bridge
Laying steel over Merrill & Ring Mud Creek Bridge, 1927 (now called "Ring Creek").
Photo by: Ed Aldridge.
Aldridge, Ed
PGE 55 locomotive at Alta Lake
Left to right: Hector McLean, Ed Aldridge, Henry Jensen. At Rainbow Lodge.
First full train of logs going south
First full train of logs going south through "Old Camp" on way to dump. Merrill and Ring 0-4-0 14 ton plymouth gas locomotive.
Left to right: Bun Yarwood, ?, Big Dave Thompson, Al Lund, ?, Bill Tourcotte, ?.
May 1927.
Photo by Ed Aldridge.
Aldridge, Ed
Merrill & Ring "4 Spot" with low built steel laying flatcar
Merrill & Ring 4 Spot with low built steel laying flatcar, ~1928 in Stawamus Valley. Climbing 6% grade on branch that ran south to Bughouse Heights.
Photo by: Ed Aldridge.
Aldridge, Ed
Merrill & Ring -0-4-0 - 14 ton Plymouth Gas Loco
Merrill & Ring -0-4-0 - 14 ton Plymouth Gas Locomotive with steel laying float car ahead and "crummy" behind at Edith Lake Camp, 1929 - 1930. "Ausie" Pete Craddock in cab.
Photo by: Ed Aldridge.
Aldridge, Ed
Merrill & Ring "4 Spot" on M&R Dock
Merrill & Ring "4 Spot" on M&R Dock at Woodyard and Beach Camp around 1929.
Left to right: Charlie Pierce (Camp Foreman), Big Dave Thompson (head barely visible), Ed Aldridge, Jow Ozanich.
Picture of the snowplow on Engine No. 59
Picture taken at 19 mile bridge, 4 miles above Swift Creek. Circa 1930.
Fighting deep snow in Cunningham Cut Mile 19.5
Fighting deep snow in Cunningham Cut Mile 19.5 (now 58 Miles), 1935.
Photo by: H. Brightbill
Brightbill, Harry