BC Rail was a railway that operated in the Canadian province of British Columbia between 1912 and 2004. It was a class II regional railway and the third largest in Canada, operating 1,441 miles (2,320 kilometres) of mainline track. It was owned by the provincial government from 1918 until 2004, when it was sold to Canadian National Railway. Chartered in 1912, the railway was acquired by the provincial government in 1918 after running into financial difficulties. A railway that ran from "nowhere to nowhere" for over 30 years, neither passing through any major city nor interchanging with any other railway, it expanded significantly between 1949 and 1984. Primarily a freight railway, it also offered passenger service, as well as some excursion services, most notably the Royal Hudson excursion train. The railway's operations have not always been profitable, and its debts have made it the centre of political controversy on multiple occasions.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BC_Rail

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1830: Belgian Revolution: A provisional government in Brussels declared the creation of the independent and neutral state of Belgium, in revolt against the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_Revolution)

1883: The Orient Express began operations. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orient_Express)

1910: Manuel II, the last King of Portugal, fled to the United Kingdom when a revolution erupted in Lisbon and his palace was shelled. The Portuguese First Republic was proclaimed the next day. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_II_of_Portugal)

1957: Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 1 was launched by an R-7 rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakh SSR and became the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_1)

1993: Russian Constitutional Crisis: Tanks bombarded the White House in Moscow, a government building that housed the Russian parliament, where demonstrators against President Boris Yeltsin rallied outside. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_constitutional_crisis_of_1993)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

"If we do discover a complete theory, it should in time be understandable in broad principle by everyone, not just a few scientists. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason — for then we would know the mind of God." -- Stephen Hawking (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawking)