jay, May 23, 1993 - Pemberton Mountain Hwy. Keith Ad. Main St. Burrard inlet Dollaston Hwy- 3 NEWS photos THE BC Rail-owned Royal Hudson steam engine (left) will make its first run of the year from North Vancouver to Squamish and back next Sunday. Hauling freight is the maln source of business for North Vancouver-based BC Rail, which has been in business for the last 81 years. At 81, the Crown corporation’s revenues and assets are growing since would have shuffled off to that Valhalla where all signals blaze green and operating deficits . are unknown.”’ In this instalment of a series pro- filing North Vancouver waterfront industries, the North Shore News takes a look at the operations of BC Rail. ~— By Surj Rattan News Reporter NEXT SUNDAY, North Van- couver-based BC Rai) will fire up that old familiar steam engine known to everyone as the Royal Hudson and take the historic grand old lady for its first trip of the year up to Squamish and back, marking the kickoff of the Royal Hudson’s annual summer run, In February, BC Rail turned 81 years old. But the Crown corpora- tion shows no sign of old age. Evidence of that came in March when, after nearly a year of Negotiations, BC Rail signed a deal to purchase 100% of the shares of neighboring Vancouver Wharves Ltd. for $15.75 million. While BC Rail now owns Van- couver Wharves, the largest EXTENDED HOURS = Quuiroe multi-purpose deep-sea terminal on North America’s West Coast, the two industries, waterfront neighbors since 1959, will continue to operate as separate companies. BC Rail was conceived on Feb. 12, 1912, as the Pacific Great Eastern (PGE) railway when the provincial government bought the old Howe Sound and Northern Railway and renamed it the PGE. The company was officially ix.- corporated on Feb. 27, 1912. Eighty-one years ago the PGE was a relatively small operation. It had inherited the Howe Sound and Northern’s fleet of two locomotives, 52 cars much else. Today, BC Rail is Canada’s third largest railway behind Ca- nadian Natisnal and Canadian Pacific. It operates 14,000 freight and passenger trains each year. That total breaks downs to: @ 121 freight locomotives; @a fleet of 12. self-propelled BUDD (passenger) cars; ® five Summit service cars used for chartered passenger trips; BETTER SERVICE Lan Mon. - Fri. 9-5 pm Sat. 9-4 pm eS tlonday, May 37, 9-8 pm © Homeowners ® Boats ® Travel Accident ¢ Tenants * Commercial Insurance « income Tax Service and not @ 10,000 freight cars. In addition, BC Raii employs 2,300 workers, 550 of them at its North Vancouver home base. Overall, BC Rail employs people in 20 different communities around the province. Last year, those employees shared a total payroll of $123 mil- ion. The BC Railway Group of Companies is made up of five companies. In 1992, the company’s pur- chase of goods and_ services amounted to $106 million, with another $117 million spent during the year on engineering contracts and other services, for a total of $223 million, most of which was spent in B.C. BC Rail’s main business is mov- ing freight, and while the com- pany’s 1,387-mile (2,232 km) SHOP THE SHARPEST DEALS IN TOWN track is located in B.C., most commodities