Menu:
BCER 1225 Rehabilitation
BCER 1225 worked in Vancouver, Steveston and Burnaby from 1913 until Feburary 28, 1958.
This picture of BCER 1225 in the Carrall St station is possibly mid 1940's.
In early 1950's, as the BCER was being wound down, many of the cars were decommissioned. Most ended up being burnt at the rail yard under the Burrard St bridge. Some were purchased and moved to museums south of the border. BCER 1225 found it's way to the Orange Empire Railway Museum (OERM) in Perris California.
BCER 1225 was part of the rolling stock at OERM, we have heard that it was also one of the fastest cars to run on their private track. This image
courtesy of Bill Volkmer OERM member, shows 1225 underway at a Rail Fan day.
In August 2005, Interurban car BCER 1225 returned home to Canada. After a 50
year absence, the car came back on two flat bed transports from PCC.
The trucks came on the other flatbed trailer.
There was some excitement when loading the car at the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris California. In an e-mail from Perris on August 7th, Bob Ashton told us that
"BCER 1225 left Perris at noon today. We suffered through a small Tornado yesterday, which caused havoc here. Tore the roof off one building that housed all OERM old blueprints and other paper goods. This might have been OK but the rains were something I have never experienced. Then the hail. At the end trees were down and major flooding. What about 1225: Stood up well but got a good soaking. Length of time we sat out of harm's way was about 2 hours. Amazingly, after it was all over the sun was back out and the temp back to 104 degrees."
The rain storm from inside 1225.
Wonderful photo of OUR 1225 at Marpole Station in 1949. Mr. John KOSCHWANEZ
of Mission Viejo, Ca took this picture in 1949. He graciously sent it to OERM to
be sent home with the car.
A very large Thanks to all the volunteers at OERM who helped prepare BCER 1225 to come home.
The car arrived at the border and was helped through the formalities with the assistance of Dave Bucholtz from Pacific Custom Brokers.
With the paperwork out
of the way, the car crossed the border and officially returned home.
Arriving at the new home, the Sullivan Car Barn, BCER 1225 is very close to the original rail line of the BCER Fraser Valley line. The section that runs next to the car barn runs from Surrey, to Chilliwack.
Gwill Cranes lifted 1225 over the fence as the last hurdle to it's new home
at FVHRS.
We celebrated the return home with a big party on September 17th. The official ribbon cutting in the car barn brought many smiles to the officials and to members of FVHRS.
FVHRS member Vic Sharman; City of Surrey Councillors Penny Priddy, Marvin
Hunt, Judy Villeneuve; Hon. Kevin Falcon, Minister of Transportation; FVHRS
member Frank Horn; FVHRS Chair John Sprung welcoming BCER 1225 to Surrey.
Hon. Kevin Falcon, Minister of Transportation, speaks at the official ribbon
cutting ceremony form the Sullivan Station replica in front of the car barn.
And now the work begins.
Rehabilitation to prepare BCER 1225 to run again on the original line started after the ceremonies were over. Inside the car barn, dedicated volunteers removed seats and interior panels to gauge the magnitude of the rebuilding work.
October 17th, 2005. The process of removing the seats, each one takes about 45 min.
October 20th, 2005. The seats are out.
The large car barn starts to look very small when all the parts are out of
BCER 1225. Clover-Belle, car 30, is in the foreground and is in danger of
becoming a storage shed!
January 4, 2006. Preparing to remove the side plates, off come the rivits.
January 20, 2006. Lloyd Knoblaugh works on removing parts of the "A" end vestibule.
March 29, 2006. The "A" end is removed and cleaned ready for the real work.
March 15, 2007. The floor and front bumper having been replaced, work continues on rebuilding the "A" end.
May 2007. Testing the rebuilding, the original train door fits!
July 26, 2007. All the uprights have been replaced with new laminated oak pieces. Bob's desire to not cut the side plates makes for some interesting work in removing and replacing them. Here we see just how big, and bendy, the side plates are when off the car.
July 26, 2007. The side plates were moved outside to clean and prepare for painting.
August 2007. The "A" end gets new wood, work continues inside to repace the fittings.
August 2007. Dedicated volunteers needed to move the big pieces of wood.
August 2007. Oh yea! There is another side piece. This side was a bit tricky, more than our volunteers were needed to lift the steel back in place.
October 2007. The rehabilitation continues, looking more like an interurban car again.
November 2007. The original bulkhead back in place. The interior work continues. Wiring yet to be replaced. The floor
boards do not need to be removed.
December 2007. Starting to work on the underside. 1225 raised up to remove the trucks.
December 2007. The trucks will be taken to Carr's Machine shop for rehabilitation.
Feburary 2008. The "A" end looks much better. Not very often do you get to see under an interurban car.
Feburary 2008. Underneath there is a lot of work to do. Cleaning and repairs will take some time.
Feburary 2008. Work also progresses on the roof. the vents have been removed to check on the roof condition - not too bad.
March 2008. Frank Horne was a Motorman and ran 1225 in the 1940's. Today he works on the windows. Soon he should be able to run the car again.
March 2008. Cleaning under the car is dirty work. One of the "Black gang" volunteers hard at hand scraping the 50 years of gunk.
April 22, 2008. A new coat of Cloverdale paint and it looks ready to run. Not yet however as the trucks still need to be replaced.
May 6, 2008. The windows stained and installed.
July 16, 2008. Installing the West side windows. Measure twice; cut once.
July 31, 2008. removing the "B" end coupler.
August 14, 2008. Once the coupler is removed, there is still a lot of work to be done. Drilling out the rivits.
August 20, 2008. Removing the "B" end vestibule roof.
August 26, 2008. "B" end floor will need lost of work.
August 26, 2008. The "Bumper gang."
September 9, 2008. After Ron has spent a lot of time re-wiring the junction box it looks like this.
September 9, 2008. The "B" end beams after the floor is removed.
Work continues on rehabilitation of 1225.
Check here for progress on the volunteer work. Images will be updated on an irregular basis.
Links
See more pictures of BCER 1225 rehabilitation on Webshots - taken by Vice Chair Bob Ashton.
Photos by Bob Ashton, Liz Aubert, Allen Aubert and others as noted.