Cranbrook-Creston 2026

 Cranbrook-Creston 2026

Cranbrook Rain Day 

June 9, 2026

This morning we awoke to a steady down pour of rain.  This was not a big surprise as this had been in the forecast for quite some time.  I had thought we would hit Fort Steele historic village but it was closed on Tuesdays, so instead we headed over to the Cranbrook Train museum.  The train museum houses several pieces out of the Winnipeg Canadian Pacific Hotel which was closed in the 1950's and demolished.  One of the grand ballrooms was salvaged and reinstalled in the museum.  This magnificent ballroom is fit for a president.  

We took the tour which walked us through the TransCanada Limited train which ran from Montreal to Vancouver in 1929 through 1932.  There are around ten cars which have been restored or at least partially restored.  All of the magnificent wood work had been painted over in a 1940's modernization project had been scraped off and the wood work restored.  The tour guide said that over $2 million dollars had been spent per car doing the restoration work.  The guide said that the cost of the trip from Montreal to Vancouver in 1929 was $800 which would be over $8000 today.  I took a lot of pictures but the lighting was not very good.  

In the rest of the museum was a fossil collection collected from local fossil beds.  These were primarily Devonian in age.  There was also a hand made quilt which depicted a Cranbrook heritage scene.  It was really beautiful.  There was also a very large model train layout.  There was an "O" gauge (1;48 scale) layout with three operating trains and an HO scale layout (1:96) with one operating train.   

A good nap occupied the rest of the afternoon.  

All in all a very nice relaxing day. 

Terry