Gordon Lampert Byrnell oral history interview conducted by Don Waite in 1976.

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salishan Place by the River currently maintains a collection of over 9000 photographs, 2000 archival documents, 9000 objects, 500 works of art, and 300 oral history recordings. This collection, spanning hundreds of years, is a wonderful window on the past and present life of our community.

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Object Description

Object Name

Oral History

Recording

Object ID

SR-054

Title

Gordon Lampert Byrnell oral history interview conducted by Don Waite in 1976.

Extent

1 audio cassette.

Date

1976.

Description

SR-054: Track 1 discusses Gordon's sister's illness during the influenza epidemic of 1918 also known as the Spanish Flu.
Tracks 2 - 6 discuss electricity, including Stave hydro powerhouse, the Coglin substation, Buntzen Lake, the Alouette powerhouse, and the Ruskin powerhouse.

People/Subject

British Columbia Electric Railway Company Ltd. (BCER)

The British Columbia Electric Railway's interurban passenger service for the Fraser Valley, B.C., area came through Langley in 1910. The company was building rail lines into Langley as early as 1906, when they signed an agreement with Langley government. The company itself began as a merger of the National Electric Tramway and Lighting Company (Victoria), Vancouver Electric Railway and Light Company Ltd., and Vancouver & Westminster Tramway Company, and was responsible for hydroelectric power generation, power transmission, and electric rail lines on Vancouver Island and in Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. All three companies had gone into receivership in 1895, and the BCER was met with receivership in 1896, following the Point Ellice Bridge Disaster in Victoria. The company was only able to survive through assistance from London financers, and began operations in 1897 as an English-owned company. A station built at 240 St. in the general area formerly known as Harmsworth in Langley was named after Rochfort Henry Sperling, general manager of the B.C. Electric Company, and the area subsequently came to be known as Sperling community. In 1910, a substation was built at Coghlan, and still stands (2021). The substation stepped the voltage from the power transmission lines down for use by the trains passing through. It did not provide power to the surrounding community. Interurban passenger services on the B.C.E.R's Fraser Valley Line ceased in 1950. The company ended all service in 1958, and broke up into the branches it is modernly: BC Hydro, Translink, and BC Transit.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Columbia_Electric_Railway

Byrnell, Gordon Lampert

Gordon Lampert Byrnell was born in 1909 or 1910. He died on August 5, 1977, at Haney.

McBurney, Albert, Dr. (1884-1952)

Born in Quebec in 1884 Albert McBurney took his medical degree at McGill and moved west in 1911. By the time of arrival in Fort Langley he was married to Olive McBurney (nee ?). He moved to Langley Prairie in 1919. He was a member of the Masonic Lodge, a charter member of the Aldergrove Elks Lodge and an honorary member of the Royal Canadian Legion as well as the creator of the Langley Amateur Athletic Association.
Term Source: From Prairie to City, pg. 78, 115-7, 179 (Sommer)

Railway Track

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