Port Alberni’s passenger train takes a test drive

The familiar sound of a diesel horn could be heard across the Alberni Valley May 28 as the city’s passenger train officially returned to the tracks.

The Western Vancouver Island Industrial Heritage Society (IHS) took the train out on Tuesday morning for a test run ahead of a Technical Safety BC audit. Four passenger coaches were pulled by the No. 11, a 1942 diesel-electric locomotive. It’s the first time since December 2018 that the train has been on the tracks.

Contractors have spent the past month repairing two crossings on the waterfront, and IHS volunteers have been getting the train’s passenger coaches back in working order. The coaches were “in a sad state” after five years of inactivity, according to an IHS Facebook post, especially since they had been vandalized back in 2019.

The IHS is hoping to offer short train rides along the waterfront this summer.

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