TRANSPORTATION HERITAGE
The Fernie Airport
MINING HERITAGE
Engine #1, model DS4-4-660
Morrissey, Fernie & Michel Railway
Visitors to Fernie would be forgiven
for being confused at the title of this
feature; locals would be forgiven for
not knowing the official name of the
subdivision known as ‘The Airport.’ In a Railway Museum in the small town
of Portola in northern California sits a
1940s Baldwin Diesel Locomotive with a
strong connection to Fernie’s mining and
railway heritage.
Officially now Mountain view or
Mountview — a low-lying subdivision to
the south-east of Historic Downtown —
this area is a significant marker in Fernie’s
transportation history; ironic, perhaps,
given that it is not now directly linked to
the Highway. Situated below the bluff on
the south side of Coal Creek, the area
was home to one of a network of cross
country airfields built by the government
of Canada starting in the 1920s to
support cross country transport and civil
defence. The Fernie Airfield — a simple
airstrip and hanger — was added in 1931. Originally purchased by the Morrissey,
Fernie & Michel Railway (MF&M)
circa 1946 to replace its existing two
2-8-0 steam locomotives, engine #1
was the first diesel built by the Baldwin
Locomotive Company for service in
Canada and operated between Fernie
and Coal Creek township. After the
MF&M was decommissioned in 1958,
the locomotive was sent to Johnston
Terminals in New Westminster, BC and
later transferred to the Delta Terminal,
which closed down in 1978. From here
it was sold to Seattle & North Coast’s
partners and leased to the port of
Tacoma, then to Publishers Paper Co.
in Newburg, Oregon, and later used on
the Chelatchie Prairie and Napa Valley
Railroads. It was placed in storage at
the California State Railroad Museum
before being donated to the Feather
River Rail Society. The society installed
Along with the airfield, the area was
home to the Fernie race track, sports
grounds, and the popular open air Coal
Creek pool. Near the southern edge of
Coal Creek was the railway connection
from the CPR line to the Elk River
sawmill in West Fernie. The Airport lies
within the 1:200 year floodplain and is
24
protected by an engineered dyke system
along the Elk River and Coal Creek, built
in 1983.
The Airport subdivision was officially
added to the city in 1968 when the
airfield ceased operation, but the name
stuck and is still widely used to refer to
the area by local residents. Residential
development first began below the
bluff on the south edge of the runway
alignment, soon followed by further
development oriented along the old
runway and north out toward Coal
Creek, following the original alignment of
the old runway.
25
the locomotive at the Western Pacific
Railroad Museum in 1990, where it
remains to this day.
The MF&M Railway was a terminal
branch line leased by the Canadian
Pacific Railway to the Great Northern
Railway (GNR) – Crowsnest Southern
Branch in 1904 for an initial period of
20 years. The CPR reached Fernie from
Lethbridge in 1898 and the line is still
in use today. The GNR arrived from
Bonners Ferry in 1903 on lines situated
approximately where Highway #3 is
today; the highway tunnel near Elko was
the original GNR tunnel. The two routes
were linked by spur lines and the new
connection serviced both the coke ovens
at the current site of the Fernie Aquatic
Centre, and the town and mines of Coal
Creek, 10km to the south.
Proposals were developed in the 1960’s
for a new ‘Kootenay and Elk Railway’
(running into the United States) but
these never amounted to anything.
What happens for Engine #1 next,
remains to be seen…
25