Photo Record
Images
Metadata
Catalog Number |
1976.100.001 |
Object Name |
Print, Photographic |
Description |
Gerry Wellburn operating a railroad switch to enable the locomotive behind him, Cowichan Valley Railway No. 24 ("Susie"), to be guided from one track to another. Susie is a 12 ton 0-4-0 tank narrow gauge locomotive built by Vulcan Iron Works of Pennsylvania. The photo is by Irving Strickland of the Victoria Times. |
Image File Name |
1964 - Gerry Wellburn & Susie - Deerholme - 1976100001 - jpg72 - 001 |
Date (y/m/d) |
1964/03/24 |
Place |
Deerholme |
Provenance |
Susie was built in 1900 and her construction number is 916. She was used for mining. It is unknown where Susie worked for the first 20 years of operation as earliest records are from 1920. In 1920, the W.H. Mussens Co., of Montreal, sold the locomotive to the Crow’s Nest Pass Coal Company. In 1943 the CNPC opened the Elk River Colliery where No. 4 worked untill 1958. While at Elk River Colliery a balloon-stack was installed and the wooden cab was replaced with a metal one, by a British engineer, who incorporated the porthole-type windows, used on British railways. In 1958, No.4 was saved from scrapping by Gerry Wellburn who re-numbered it as "24" for his Glenora & Western Railway in Deerholme. In preparation for use on the GV&R, the loco was converted from coal to oil and a tender was added to carry the fuel oil tank, making it a 0-4-0-STT. She is named "Susie" in honour of a former conductor. Gerry Wellburn (1900 - 1992) was the founder of the BC Forestry Museum (now the BC Forest Discovery Centre). He logged for several years, having founded the Wellburn Timbers Ltd., a sawmilling and logging company in Duncan, in the 1930's. In 1943 he sold the company to his friend H. R. MacMillan and continued on as manager of the then Shawnigan Division of MacMillan & Bloedel Ltd. |
Photographer |
Strickland, Irving |
Search Terms |
Susie No. 24 Wellburn People Cowichan Valley Railway Locomotive Vulcan Iron Works 0-4-0 Deerholme Glenora & Western Railway |
Collection |
BCFDC Institutional Memory |
People |
Wellburn |
Subjects |
People Locomotives |