Caption: On the east coast of Vancouver Island, roughly 35 miles north of Victoria, Crofton was a good harbour, for a copper smelter (Lenora Mt. Sicker Railway) in early years, transitioning to a timber transload (Osborne Bay Wharf Co.), and eventually a pulp mill (BC Forest Products), with a rail connection down from Osborne Bay on the E&N mainline and a railbarge slip for connection to mainland railways. BCFP established Stuart Channel Transportation to manage railway interchange activity, and acquired 80-ton Whitcomb number 9 (serial 60634 of 1944-11, originally US Navy at Oakland, CA) for power, seen here at Crofthill (BCFP’s railway station name) on Saturday 1971-10-23 when I barely knew anything about industrial railways.

SCT 9 became BCFP 9, then Fletcher Challenge 9 (mill is now Catalyst Paper) and was retired to the BC Forest Discovery Centre on the north side of Duncan, just six miles as a raven flies south from Crofton.