Comments on: 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.

By: Klaucker

Klaucker — Wed, 19 Nov 2025 00:40:28 +0000

Amazing to think you captured one of the few Whitcomb to ply the rails in Canada, probably without realizing it…

Stephen C. Host — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 20:02:53 +0000

This is really cool, I would love to see this operation in person some day.

It looks like quite the shelf railway…