Central BC Railway and Forestry Museum

The Central BC Railway and Forestry Museum is an outdoor museum with over sixty pieces of rolling stock spread across an eight-acre site, including steam locomotives, diesel engines, a working 1906 steam engine undergoing restoration, and an eclectic collection of historical buildings. The museum reflects Prince George's identity as a city built by the railway and sustained by forestry — both industries are represented in detail.

The site takes a couple of hours to walk properly, and the volunteers who staff it are generally knowledgeable and enthusiastic. This is the kind of museum that rewards the patient visitor who reads the signs rather than the one looking for interactive exhibits. The collection of historic wooden railway cars is particularly good.

things to do museum
A story
The museum's centrepiece is a 1906 steam locomotive, but one of the stranger items in the collection is a 1903 wooden snowplough that community volunteers were restoring before the museum even officially opened. The museum timed its 1986 opening to coincide with Expo 86 and Canada's 150th anniversary of rail travel — a coincidence of anniversaries that pleased the founders.