Locomotive No. 3 'New Westminster' c. 1882
BCA Call No. I-30839
Photograph in Onderdonk Album, #5, 5. (BCA Accession No. 98401-6)

The locomotive was a Mogul-type, 2-6-0, and had been purchased from the Virginia & Truckee Railway in May of 1882. It had arrived in New Westminster by May 25 aboard the Victoria.According to research done by the Nevada State Railroad Museum, this was the V & T locomotive #8, the Humboldt, 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 189. It was rebuilt in 1896, and re-numbered 1024. The locomotive became the property of the Canadian Government Railway. It was scrapped in 1918.

The Inland Sentinel announced the arrival of this locomotive in its edition of July 20, 1882:

Another locomotive engine has arrived, making No. 3; the name is "New Westminster." It may be a serviceable engine, but like the other two is an old one, probably from the Truckee road and "fixed up" for the Canadian road. Well, second-hand engines may answer here.

No sooner was the locomotive pressed into service that it, too, was involved in a minor accident, as reported in The Inland Sentinel's edition of July 27, 1882. Yet another accident was reported on August 3, 1882, in these terms: "No. 3 Engine was moving a train up the line near Spuzzum yesterday, when a Chinaman got in the way of the wheels and was instantly killed."

As it appears in the photograph, the locomotive appears with a makeshift tender, subsequent no doubt to another accident.