Volunteer Fair A Great Success

CN Station Manager Helen Williams stands beside John Sprung, chair of the Fraser Valley Heritage Railway Society. A big thank you to all our returning volunteers who stopped in to show their support and to staff the Langley Heritage Society's first annual Volunteer Fair. Great to see visitors, new volunteers sign up, and our friends from the Fraser Valley Heritage Railway Society. Our season begins on the Victoria Day weekend. If you'd like to learn more about becoming a volunteer go HERE.        LHS volunteer Gerry Landsman and John Sprung inside the 1920s wooden caboose with its Glen Valley model railroad. LHS Volunteer Charlotte Landsman punches a ticket in the 1915 CN Station.

2020-05-27T05:59:45+00:00April 28th, 2019|

An Artist’s View of Langley Heritage

Lyle Longstaff is almost 80 years old, and still loves to paint heritage buildings. Born in New Westminster, he was a home builder for many years, and appreciates the rich character of heritage structures.  "I hate to see the old architecture destroyed. I once lived in a house that was over 100 years old...the wood in it was close-grained fir that you can not get today. Beautiful!!" As you can see in the painting of  Dixon House (restored by the Langley Heritage Society, video HERE), he has a warm and engaging style. Lyle is also drawn to trains, "I grew up in the era of steam trains, and that is my real love. I paint the new locomotives because that is what people want."  He painted the scene below at Fort Langley's Heritage CN Station, operated by the Langley Heritage Society. Remarkably, Lyle only started painting about 14 years ago. We [...]

2020-05-27T05:59:49+00:00March 22nd, 2019|

Sing Your Song Down at the Station!

  Would you like to join our roster of buskers at the Fort Langley CN Station this coming season? To apply, please contact manager Helen Williams via email volunteer@langleyheritage.ca (Performances will be on Sundays.)  Pictured above: Arianna Lagoudakis.

2020-05-27T05:59:50+00:00March 15th, 2019|

New Video: Life at CN Station

      Fort Langley's Diane Simpson grew up at CNR stations in Saskatchewan and Alberta. Her parents were employed as station agents, and the last live-in agents at Fort Langley's CN Station. In this short video, Diane describes what life was like growing up beside the tracks. Thanks to students at Langley's Brookswood Secondary School for producing this latest video with the Langley Heritage Society. Watch HERE:                  

2020-05-27T05:59:50+00:00March 15th, 2019|

Langley’s Partners in Heritage

Langley Heritage Society hosted its annual Heritage Week Tea at the Milner Chapel to highlight heritage partners in the Langley region. LHS President Fred Pepin launched the event and encouraged all to share highlights of their work, and to collaborate even more in the days ahead. Please send your events for our quarterly newsletter to: info@langleyheritage.ca Brigette Wieronski, manager at the Fort Langley National Historic Site. Many exciting things are happening at the fort, including a project to craft a new bateau by a Metis staff member. Matt Offer from the Canadian Museum of Flight. The recent Family Day events drew more than 1,300 people to this unique museum at the Langley Airport. The museum's collection even includes a window from an original Avro Arrow -- along with many vintage aircraft that still fly. CN Station manager Helen Williams thanked all the volunteers who keep our 1915 heritage site humming. [...]

2020-05-27T05:59:50+00:00February 23rd, 2019|

Our Latest Video

Brookswood Secondary student Emily De Guisti edits our most recent video, CN Station Memories. This video features CN Station manager Helen Williams and tells the story of the first British war bride to arrive in Langley, why the telegraph was developed and Royal whistle stops in Langley. Watch the video HERE.

2020-05-27T05:59:50+00:00February 8th, 2019|

Tales From the Station House: Life Beside the Tracks

Not too many people practised Morse Code using their knife & fork at the dinner table, but Diane Simpson is one of them. Her father, Murray Williams, was a CN Station Agent who wanted his two children to know the basics of the code. Murray spent the last three years of his career (until 1968) at the Fort Langley CN Station with his wife Florence; today the station is the jewel of the Langley Heritage Society. Diane grew up in CN stations on the prairies and in Alberta, and has been one of our society's treasured volunteers. She has often been asked about the role of the station agent. Here’s what she told us in her story Tales From the Station House: The Williams Family on the Rails! The most obvious tasks of the agent are, of course, selling tickets and helping people plan their trips. Receiving, recording, billing and [...]

2020-05-27T05:59:55+00:00October 30th, 2018|

Royal Whistle Stops in the Fraser Valley

The Royal Tour of Canada in May and June of 1939 by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth was the first time a reigning monarch visited this country. They travelled west on the Canadian Pacific Railway and returned on the south side of the Fraser River on the Canadian National line  — with a brief whistle stop at Fort Langley (more likely a slow crawl by the train). The month-long visit to Canada was highly successful, with large crowds greeting them at every stop. It was also the eve of WW II and  the visit was part of an effort to cement relations between Great Britain and Canada, with hopes for a united “Empire”.  The photograph above hangs inside the passenger car at Langley Heritage Society’s Fort Langley CN Station. The late Langley historian, Norm Sherritt, recalled the visit in a 2002 interview with the Langley Times HERE.  Among those [...]

2020-05-27T05:59:55+00:00October 30th, 2018|

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