Vancouver - The group charged with restoring Burnaby's Interurban car wants people to share their stories of riding the tram system so it can preserve those memories.
 
Pixie McGeachie, president of Friends of Interurban 1223, said the group has been calling for such stories since it started restoring the tram car about six years ago. It's put the word out when it has held public displays about the project, and while it has received some responses, it's "not nearly enough, maybe a dozen."
 
Those anecdotes have been used in the group's newsletters, but the ultimate goal is to publish them in a book, and to eventually integrate them into the Interurban exhibit at Burnaby Village Museum when the restored tram car moves there sometime this fall.
 
McGeachie stressed that they want stories from riding the system, not just car No. 1223. The Interurban started in 1891, running something of an express route between Vancouver and New Westminster. Sometime after 1913, more Burnaby stations were added to what became the Central Park Line. Both that line and the Burnaby Lake line, which started in 1911, were shut down in 1953, with the last line, Marpole, ceasing operations in 1958.
 
Of the stories received so far, she said, "Kids remember putting pennies on the tracks and waiting for the Interurban to run over them." Then there's the 80-something Chinese fellow who grew up in Vancouver but recalls taking the Interurban to Central Park and from there, walking to the family farm in Burnaby. He told McGeachie his children had been pestering him to write his memoirs and "when he saw a picture of the tram, a light went on."
 
One woman wrote to say her husband used to work in a machine shop on East Cordova Street in Vancouver. When he finished his shift at 12:20 a.m., he and his co-worker would just have enough time to clean up and run to catch the last car at Carrall Street Station. Putting a wrench into the works were police officers patrolling that part of town who, if they saw people running, would typically stop and question them. The solution was that the woman's husband and his co-worker would run on opposite sides of the street. The one who didn't get caught would hold the tram for the other fellow who invariably, would be taken back to the machine shop by the officer "to confirm he was employed and not escaped from somewhere." Tram drivers would have gotten to know their regular customers and it wouldn't have been unusual for them to wait for the second fellow.
 
Just as in the early days, people used to put in their orders of small farm equipment and groceries at the store, which would deliver them to the customer's closest tram station where it would be picked up. "There was very little thievery," McGeachie said with a laugh. "Today you wouldn't dare."
 
The Interurban eventually stretched out to Chilliwack, and the ride out that way became a day's outing for people. "It was a nice scenic journey and not expensive."
 
As for McGeachie, she said she grew up in Vancouver so didn't use the Interurban much herself but it did factor into her own family's history. "My husband used it all the time. He used to come into Vancouver on it to court me."
 
Anyone with any stories to share of their experiences riding the Interurban is asked to send them to Friends of Interurban 1223, Attention: Pixie McGeachie, 6501 Deer Lake Ave., Burnaby, B.C., V5G 3T6, or e-mail to pixiemcgeachie@yahoo.ca.
 
Burnaby Village Museum opens its latest exhibit, The Tram is Coming, today (Saturday). The exhibit, in the Stride Studios, will feature images and artifacts from the B.C. Electric Railway system, with a focus on Burnaby and Interurban 1223.
 
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