G.R. Nylander Photography

Tuesday, June 04, 2019

The Vancouver Island Dayliner

A couple of years ago I wrote about a train trip on the "Dayliner" a Budd Rail Diesel Car that used to run from Victoria to Courtenay, B.C. on Vancouver Island up until March of 2011. On that first trip in January of 1978, I was taking pictures for the Toronto Star.

The Dayliner rumbled past my parent's home on Station Avenue in Langford on a daily basis twice a day except for Sundays. So it was decided one day In October of 1985 while I was on vacation from my photography job at the Kelowna Daily Courier, that a trip on the Dayliner would be a good way to see the Island. Along for this trip including myself were my parents and grandparents.

As I recall it was a typical Vancouver Island day, cloudy with a few showers. It was only the second time riding the train and as it turned out, my last trip on the train. It was a great way to see the Island, all the beautiful distant views that you would not normally see driving along the highway. The run from Victoria to Courtenay is a distance of 362km ( 225 miles ) and took around 4 hours and 45 minutes each way.

I shot probably half a dozen rolls of Tri-X black and white film that I ran through my trusty Nikon cameras with an assortment of lenses, but mostly I used just my 35mm and 105mm lenses. I have copied these negatives with a digital camera and a macro lens.

(Photos No.127-6 — 152-36) Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, October 1985. Copyright © Gary Nylander. Scanned from 35mm negatives. Nikon camera, 35mm and 105mm lenses.