Item 2020.08.83 - Pacific Great Eastern Railway work train on Pavilion Creek trestle

• Graphic material

1 photograph : b&w

Photograph depicts a Pacific Great Eastern Railway work train on Pavilion Creek trestle at Mile 20.3. laden with workers, railway ties, and a steam donkey. The work train may be returning to a work camp, as a man dressed in the attire of a camp cook is standing beside the track.

The ca. 1921-1927 “PGE Bridge List” from the notebook of William H. Hewlett (1914-1968) references a 389.4 foot long, 34 ft. high, framed trestle with 26 spans of 14.8 feet at Mile 20.3 carrying the line over Pavilion Creek. There was a water tank at Pavilion located between the North end of the siding and the South end of the trestle. A track profile chart confirms that the track at this point is on a 12 degree curve. This photograph was taken at trackside. The structures at the lower left of image 2020.08.82 are consistent with a small construction camp, which accounts for the presence of a camp cook in this image (2020.08.83).

"Canadian Railway and Marine World" reported in their January 1916 issue (p. 11, c.1), that track had been laid to within ½ mile of Clinton (Mile 45.0) on Dec. 14, 1915. If a constant rate of construction had been maintained from Mile 14, reached on July 30, 1915 as previously discussed, to Clinton, the approximate date of completion to Pavilion would be around the end of August, 1915 which is probably the earliest possible date for this photograph.