|  Railway
After 1909, the train was rerouted to run along the base of the escarpment.
The nearest railway station was at Crescent from which point people made
their way to Ocean Park on foot. Various approaches were made to the Great
Northern Railway for a station at Ocean Park; all met with refusal. Then,
in 1912, a sympathetic track man announced he'd be on holidays for a couple
of weeks. When he returned, he found a small grey three-sided building
(like a modern-day bus stop) at the base of the escarpment next to the
tracks. He reported this to the railway authorities who accepted the fact.
Further, they agreed that the train leaving Vancouver at midnight and
the 6:25 a.m. train would stop 'on flag'.
 Beneath
the trestle near the bottom of 1,001 Steps is an underpass which has been
partly filled in. Originally, it was at the base of a track for horse-drawn
vehicles and pedestrians, but it became too sandy for the vehicles to
climb. Before the railway was relocated, Ben Stevenson, a local farmer,
had a private road heading up the hill away from the public track, so
the railway had to grant him continued access. He would bring freight
in by barge and then take it up the hill with horsedrawn wagons. Signs
of the groins on the beach are still there. In the early days, there were
two roads down the escarpment to converge at the 1,001 Steps: Ben Stevenson's
road coming from the north; and a road from the south used by people to
get to the railway station and the beach, and to pick up the mail delivered
by train.
From May 3, 1926 through to at least the end of 1929, Rev. Robert Hughes
was actively involved in trying to get a train service more appropriate
for the needs of the growing community. He engaged in long episodes of
letter-writing to the Great Northern Railway and to the National Railway
Commission in Ottawa, as well as meeting any person available to him,
attempting to get a commitment for a regular and functional railway service.
The Association also enlisted the aid of the Reeve and Council of Surrey
to support the effort.
Trains weren't so easy to disregard then. Steam locomotives were bigger,
heavier, noisier, and slower. And local people knew the train schedules,
although there were more daily runs because there were freight and passenger
trains.
Mr. George Giblin, who had had a summer cottage north of Camp Kwomais
since the 1910s, had worked on the railway and knew all the crews. During
the days when the train didn't officially stop at Ocean Park, it always
stopped for 'Gibby' to get on or off so canny locals timed their travel
to his.
For only a few years, there was a change house at the bottom of the 1,001
Steps behind the railway station, near the trestle. It had men's and women's
change rooms and an outhouse. Eventually a big rock rolled down the hill
and seriously damaged it, after which time it was torn down.
In the 1950s there were discussions of removing the tracks to another
part of Surrey, making the track bed a walking/bicycle path to Vancouver,
but the relationship with the railway has always been a controversial
one. Individual railway contacts have expressed support for our efforts
but the company itself gives the appearance of not being overly concerned
with accommodating the community's wishes.
by Anne HelPs. Sources: OPCA Minutes, 'The Story of Ocean Park', anecdotal
evidence.
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