Penny station is a railway station in Penny, British Columbia. It is on the Canadian National Railway mainline and serves as a flag stop for Via Rail's Jasper–Prince Rupert train.
The station was built by the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway in 1914. The original building burned down in a 1947 fire and the station building from Lindup, British Columbia was moved to this location. The station building was again moved in 1988 to the Prince George Railway Museum.
History
Penny lies at mile 69.5, Fraser Subdivision. Previously designated as Mile 159 during the line's construction, it was the area headquarters for Foley, Welch and Stewart, the prime contractor.Fort George Herald, 17 May 1913Diary of Ada Adelia Sykes The Siems-Carey headquarters,Fort George Herald, 21 Jun 1913 and a work camp existed at Mile 160. Mr. Flannigan, a contractor at this camp, who considered all the camps maintained exceptional sanitary conditions, complained of IWW agitators seeking better wages and camp conditions.Fort George Herald, 12 Apr 1913 The government sanitary inspector, who described camp conditions as fair, destroyed 20,000 lbs. of beef at about Mile 160, and bacon unfit for human consumption at other camps. He advised contractors to stop dumping garbage into the Fraser River.Fort George Herald, 31 May 1913 Soon after, typhoid and diphtheria cases filled the medical outpost. In one 10-day period, the facility treated five victims of dump-car accidents, and the latest patient from Camp 162 had been cut in two.Fort George Herald, 7 Jun 1913 The Miles 160 and 162 camps were both large, and a hospital was mentioned at Mile 160. The true location of the hospital was likely Mile 73 (formerly around Mile 162.5).Clarence & Olga Boudreau recollections, Dec 2019
Not a planned station on the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (the Canadian National Railway after nationalization), Penny remained absent from the 1916 timetable. Exclusion from the 1919 and 1921 Official Guides probably reflects that only the employee timetables initially listed it as a footnote. Mention in the 1918 BC towns directory, and on a c.1919 map, suggest a 1917 or 1918 opening date for the station.
The settlement developed between Lindup to its northwest, and Guilford to its southeast. The name, a surname that emerged by the beginning of the 13th century, was selected for unknown reasons.Prince George Citizen, 27 Jan 1984 (44) Commonly claimed as an English place name on the list prepared by Josiah Wedgwood (submitted at the request of William P. Hinton, the railway's general manager),Prince George Citizen, 27 May 1957 no such location existed in the United Kingdom. Furthermore, the name Penny, in use by 1914, predated the station by at least three years. Formerly it was known just as the Engineers' Camp.
Trains sometimes struck straying livestock,Prince George Citizen, 15 Jun 1944 but slowed to a crawl if sighted in time.Prince George Citizen, 25 Apr 2000 A passenger shelter likely existed prior to replacement in 1927 by a converted section tool house from Miworth. In 1947, the latter burned to the ground. Transported the by railway flatcar,Prince George Citizen: 4 Sep 1947, 16 Oct 1947 & 8 Jul 1989 Lindup exchanged its standard-design Plan 100-152 (Bohi's Type E) station building for Penny's Plan 110-101 converted sectionmen's bunkhouse. The CNR appointed the first station agent at this time.
A burned out journal box on a freight car immobilized a train at Penny for seven hours in 1955.Prince George Citizen, 1 Sep 1955 During the 1960s, 18 cars derailed from an eastbound 98-car freight train in the vicinity, which delayed the westbound passenger train for three hours.Prince George Citizen: 14 & 15 Dec 1961 In another incident, a head-on collision with a bull moose, just outside Penny, derailed 23 cars of a westbound 50-car freight train.Prince George Citizen, 17 Jan 1967
In 1970, CNR closed its section shop.Prince George Citizen, 24 Jun 1970 Isolated communities, like Penny, suffered when the Prince George–McBride way freight ceased operations in 1977.Prince George Citizen, 25 Jul 1977 The next year, Penny was one of the 11 communities between Prince Rupert and the Alberta border, where the CNR replaced its agent-operator positionPrince George Citizen: 2 & 8 Aug 1978 with a resident serving as CN Express agent.Prince George Citizen: 3 Oct 1978 & 13 Mar 1980
The deep snow of the 1981/82 winter near Penny caused hundreds of collisions between moose and trains.Prince George Citizen: 15 & 17 Sep 1982 By this time, the station was boarded up apart from a small waiting room.Prince George Citizen, 23 Jan 1985 In 1988, an ice bridge was built across the Fraser River to carry the station by flatbed truck to its new home, the Prince George Railway & Forestry Museum.Prince George Citizen: 11 & 12 Feb 1988 Using a raft 18 months earlier, volunteers transported a heritage railway speeder shed and tool shed from Penny to that site.Prince George Citizen: 19 & 21 Jul 1986
The remaining passenger shelter was removed in 1996.Prince George Free Press, 21 Jan 1996
Service c.1917–c.1919 c.1920–c.1921 c.1921–c.1924 c.1924–1931 1932–1942 1943–1977 1977–c.1989 c.1990–present 1920 Timetable. Bulkley Valley Museum. p. 8. 1922 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. p. 8.1923 Timetable. p. 70. 1925 Timetable. p. 105. Prince George Citizen: 12 & 19 Nov 19311932 Timetable. p. 58.1933 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. p. 8.1935 Timetable. p. 60.1942 Timetable. p. 58. 1943 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. p. 9.1945 Timetable. p. 61.1949 Timetable. p. 59.1960 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. pp. 21–221964 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. p. 441965 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. pp. 25–261967 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. p. 381968 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. pp. 25–261972 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. pp. 25–261973 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. p. 18 1990 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. pp. 95–971992 Timetable. Northern BC Archives. pp. 103–105Recent timetables Passenger Flag stop probably Flag stop Flag stop Regular stop Regular stop Regular stop Flag stop Way freight Flag stop probably Flag stop probably Regular stop Regular stop Regular stop Regular stop
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