Parking for the trail is located at the Interpretive Forest parking off Cheakamus Lake Road on the east side of Highway 99 – turn left at the Function Junction lights when coming from the Village and the parking is the first left before the bus shelter. MIKE CRANE PHOTO Whistler Train Wreck Hike: How to Get There Parking But don’t take our word for it, go see for yourselves (and you don’t even have to break the law.) Freight trains and forest, it is truly something to see. The tracks were repaired, the train kept a’chugging and now 60 years later the trees have grown up pretty nicely, the local artists keep things colourful, and the Whistler Train Wreck is a magical kind of spot you’re unlikely to find anywhere else. Once pried loose the damaged cars were dragged up the tracks and rolled over into the forest where they remain today. The subsequent crash wedged three cars tightly into a narrow canyon-like section known as a rock cut and a local logging company owned by Whistler’s Valleau family was enlisted to remove the cars with their heavy-duty D8 Cats (logging machines). They checked the tape in the engine, which told how fast they were going… 35 mph (56 km).” “The fourth engine turned a rail, causing the train wreck. “The speed limit was only 15 mph (24 km/h),” writes the Museum’s Sarah Drewery in an old Whistler Question article on the matter. It’s like a living art gallery in the forest.
The bridge is an easy 1 KM hike from the Sea to Sky Trailhead in Cheakamus Crossing/Function Junction zone.īut what about those boxcars? How did they end up there with little or no damage to any of the surrounding trees? According to research from the Whistler Museum, the train derailed in 1956 when a freighter heading south from Lillooet came into on an area under track repair with just a little too much mustard. The suspension-style footbridge was designed with a sort of locomotive feel and includes a nice length of boardwalk leading hikers back into the mossy coastal rainforest. “Visiting the site and taking in the beautiful views of Cheakamus River is an excellent activity to do this summer.” “It’s exciting to now be able to provide a safe way for people to access it,” said Whistler Mayor Nancy Wilhelm-Morden. The site, long favoured by local graffiti artists, photographers, trail runners, hikers and bikers became a legit tourism destination with the opening of a new bridge spanning the Cheakamus and connecting the wreck to the Sea to Sky Trail and other popular hikes in the Cheakamus Crossing area. Whistler’s Train Wreck HikeĬelebrated for its visual juxtaposition of metal and nature, history and culture, Whistler’s Train Wreck used to be off-limits because access to the site involved walking along the railway tracks. It’s a free public art gallery, a bike playground, a one-time horror movie setting and hiking destination… And now you don’t have to break the law to get there.
Makes the OSS film a real 'head-scratcher.Train Wreck is one of Whistler’s most unique spots-a handful of mangled railway boxcars scattered like Yahtzee dice among towering cedar and fir trees lining the mighty Cheakamus River. Two excellent films about the art of sabotauging trains. One derailment scene wiped out almost a half-million dollars worth of Panavision camera equipment, but the film was saved. Director Frankenheimer said that it was like someone had given him a very large full-scale set of Lionel trains to play with. The jolting crashes and derailments were filmed with French National Railways locomotives and equipment that were delegated to the 'scrapyard'. The director, John Frankenheimer was allowed to destroy the rail yard for the film, and after that, the railway company came in and relaid the tracks to a new configuration. The spectacular railroad yard bombing in THE TRAIN was supervised by Lee Zavits, a Hollywood special-effects expert (he burned Atlanta for GONE WITH THE WIND) with the co-operation of the French National Railways, who were going to re-lay the tracks in the yard outside of Paris. BATTAILE DU RAIL, like THE TRAIN, concerns itself with the 'details' of sabotauge, and is in itself a taut, terrific railroad film-it also features the derailment of an actual train hauling German tanks to the 'Front', which remains the most incredible train wreck I've ever seen captured on film-it goes on forever! To re-iterate, this superb film was also inspired by the Renee Clement 1945 French film LA BATTAILE DU RAIL, which is filmed in a semi-documentary style (portions of it during the German occupation) and concerns the efforts of the "Maquis"-French Resistance-to stop German rail traffic to the Normandy Front. Absolutely incredible excitement, and not a Hollywood 'model' in the film.
I agree absolutely-THE TRAIN is one of the best, most exciting WWII dramas I've ever seen.
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