INT - STEVE is doing work inside of an Airbnb. STEVE glances at the clock.

CLOCK
12:00

STEVE
Wow, looks like it’s time for lunch.

VOICE INSIDE STEVE’S HEAD
Are you sure it’s not time to visit the Central B.C. Railway and Forestry Museum?

STEVE
Wow, looks like it’s time for lunch and a visit to the Central B.C. Railway and Forestry Museum

---

And so, I got there and started admiring the cars

…and then the train cars 😉

Who wouldn’t want to visit a Central B.C. Railroad and Forestry Museum?

After all, since I’ve been continuing northward on this journey, I’ve been seeing more and more signs of logging, one of Canada’s big industries. So many trucks that I’ve passed on the highway have been logging tracks, one of which had a big metal skull affixed to its grill. Friendly.

The Railroad & Forestry museum is ultimately more of a railroad museum, and more of a railroad equipment museum. There are some really cool items from the forestry side of things, and a few small exhibits showing how railroad workers lived, but most of the focus is on train cars and rail infrastructure.

The trains are parked outside, and you can enter a few of them.

---

Probably one of the star attractions are the selection of plow train cars. It makes sense that you’d need to remove snow from the train tracks, and these train cars are simply monsters.

Apparently a lot of them were hit by avalanches in the mountains, causing them to briefly be fitted with controls on the roof so workers could jump off if an avalanche occurred. Insane!

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There’s also an exhibit devoted to Ukrainian railroad workers who were essential in building rail infrastructure up north.

One of them, Mike Kruk, has a fantastic story, which I’ll dramatize thusly:

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CUT TO - Montage. In 1889, MIKE KRUK is born in Western Ukraine. Show scenes of childhood passing, and emigration to Canada in 1909. Show MIKE joining the Pacific Grand Trunk railroad, helping to build bridges, and eventually, transferring to PRINCE GEORGE in 1913.

Also include scenes of MIKE purchasing a wooded plot of land in SOUTH FORT GEORGE.

CUT TO - EXT. MIKE is leaving a shift with some other railroad workers.

RAILROAD WORKER 1
Hey, Mike. You gonna have some drinks with us?

RAILROAD WORKER 2
Yeah, you want to drink some hard alcohol, and do a spot of ye ol…

RAILROAD WORKER 1 & RAILROAD WORKER 2
(in unison)
gambling?

MIKE
You know I’m not a betting man.

RAILROAD WORKER 1
Oh yeah? Seems like you’re placing a pretty big bet to me.
A bet on the future!

MIKE
I do not place bets, I work only with certainties.
If I clear my plot of land, I will most certainly have the basis for a homestead.

RAILROAD WORKER 2
Good luck with that!

MIKE storms off. The RAILROAD WORKERS immediately produce flasks from within their shirts and wander off somewhere.

CUT TO - A montage of MIKE cutting down trees, and doing lots of work on his plot of land with the hope of building a house.

CAPTION : Two years later

MIKE is again getting off work.

RAILROAD WORKER 1
Hey, now that you’ve finished clearing your plot of land, why don’t you celebrate with us?

RAILROAD WORKER 2
And a bottle of whiskey and a deck of cards

MIKE
Actually, you know, I was thinking. Once I find a bride she might have certain expectations.

RAILROAD WORKER 2
Expectations?

RAILROAD WORKER 1
You mean, she isn’t gonna expect you to be drinking and gambling.
Enjoy your freedom while you can, bachelor!

MIKE
No, no. I was thinking she might want a garden.

RAILROAD WORKER 1 & RAILROAD WORKER 2
(in unison)
A garden!?

MIKE
Yes. I will go buy and clear a second plot of land. See you later.

MIKE wanders off. The two RAILROAD WORKERS produce flasks and immediately start drinking from them.

RAILROAD WORKER 1
What is his problem?

RAILROAD WORKER 2 shrugs.

CUT TO - MIKE toiling away on his second plot of land.

MIKE
This is way more fun than drinking and gambling.

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CUT TO - Another montage. MIKE and the RAILROAD WORKERS finish work on another bridge. They collect their pay and MIKE goes to ALBERTA to find a bride. The montage should end on scenes of MIKE getting married to one OKSANA WORONA.

CUT TO - INT - Bedroom. It is our young newlywed’s time to consummate their marriage.

MIKE takes off his shirt.

MIKE
(flirtatious)
So, before we get started. I just wanted to let you know
I know what it takes to please a woman.

OKSANA
(excited)
Really?

MIKE
Oh, yes. I have big strong hands, and I know how to use them.

OKSANA
(interested) Oh really? What do use them for?

MIKE
Clearing plots of land mainly.

OKSANA
(crestfallen)
Clearing plots of land?

MIKE
(daydreaming)
Oh yeah, I’ve cleared the perfect plots of land, near South Fort George. Just enough acres for a cottage and a garden.
We’ll have an idyllic life together!

OKSANA
(indignant)
Hang on, hang on. You want me to move to the other side of the mountains, to live on some tiny plot of land you cleared?

MIKE
(defensive)
I did say I know how to please a woman.

OKSANA
(frustrated)
Did you know that my garden on my father’s estate is twice as large as your two plots put together?

MIKE
(mainly to himself)
Wow, I never imagined I’d marry such a worldly, wealthy…

OKSANA
(assertive)
You need to support me in the manner I’m accustomed to.

MIKE
(continuing to himself)
…demanding woman.

OKSANA
Understand?
Mike? Are you even listening.

MIKE
Yeah, yeah. I’ll just get some more plots of land and clear them. It’s my favorite hobby.

OKSANA
Not drinking and gambling?

MIKE
Nope.

OKSANA
(to herself)
Hmm, maybe marriage won’t be so bad after all…

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CUT TO - Montage: MIKE purchases 160 acres of partially-cleared land in a nicer area and gets to work. OKSANA looks on. Perhaps she is satisfied, but her gaze is ambiguous.

CAPTION: Three Years Later

CUT TO - EXT - MIKE disembarks from a train at a PRINCE GEORGE train station and walks into a building helpfully labelled GOVERNMENT BUILDING.

INT - MIKE enters an office. GOVERNMENT official is behind a desk.

MIKE
Hi. I want to do some paperwork so I can sell two plots of land.

GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL
I’m afraid you can’t do that.

MIKE
Why not?

GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL
Because you don’t own any plots of land around Prince George, Mike.

MIKE
Yes, I do! I spent years clearing them myself.

GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL
Yes, and then you spent years not paying taxes on them.

MIKE is distraught, but keeping it together.

GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL
Look, if that land really mattered to you so much, maybe you should have visited in the last three years, or payed your taxes like a good citizen.
Get out of here!

EXT - MIKE leaves the GOVERNMENT BUILDING, slamming the door behind himself. MIKE storms off, but the camera does not follow him.

Instead we pan to two men are sitting on the ground next to the door. They are the two railroad workers from earlier.

RAILROAD WORKER 1
I knew drinkin’ and gamblin’ was a better investment.

The two RAILROAD workers produce flasks from under their shirts and clink glasses.

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WAVY TRANSITION back to present day.

STEVE is still walking about the museum, captivated by the story easily imagined by reading museum placards.

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There’s an entire vintage train station, which was designed to be hoisted on to train cars and dropped in place in a new town. I’m used to prefab homes. I am not used to prefab train stations.

On the forestry side, there’s a collection of chainsaws, a few larger industrial saws, and a giant burner, used to torch useless byproducts of logging. (Bark, etc.)

It’s definitely an impressive collection, and it’s definitely worth a visit, but it would have been nice to have some more historic information about the construction of railways in Central B.C., as well as some information about logging practices in the region and their history.

It was cool to admire the train cars, but I could have learned more. 😉