74929

Best Trainmen on the Road — Locomotive No. 5 'Lytton' c. 1884
BCA Photograph No. 74929
BCA Call No. I-30837
Photo in Onderdonk Album, #1, 56 and also in Album #5, 3. (BCA Accession No. 98401-006)

The caption identifying the photograph in the first Onderdonk Album at the BC Archives leaves one wondering just who these men are, and what made them "the best trainmen on the road." The locomotive in the picture is No. 5, called Lytton. The locomotive was a 2-6-0, or "Mogul" type, and was acquired by Onderdonk in October of 1883 from the Virginia & Truckee Railway. According to research done by the Nevada State Railroad Museum, this was the V & T locomotive #7, the Nevada, built by Baldwin in 1870, with a cylinder size of 16 x 24 - 48 in., and a weight of 55,000 lbs. In 1887 the locomotive was sold to the Intercolonial Railway in Nova Scotia, and numbered 191. It was rebuilt in 1896, and re-numbered 1026. The locomotive became the property of the Canadian Car & Foundry Co. in 1917.

The Lytton had the honour of pulling the first through train from Port Moody to Yale, on Wedensday, January 23, 1884, as was reported in the Inland Sentinel of January 24, 1884. On February 7, 1884, the Lytton was the subject of another article.

Onderdonk by this time had five locomotives at his disposal. It seems he needed them all as they were frequently involved in accidents and were often in the Car and Machine Shops. One particular incident is related in The Inland Sentinel of May 15, 1884, and called into question the competence of the engineers running the trains.

The 'Lytton' was also the first locomotive through the village of Kamloops, as was reported in The Inland Sentinel on July 16, 1885.