The Little Prince: A Steam Engine’s Journey From Railway Construction to City Park

A locomotive arrived by boat

The Little Prince’s journey to northern British Columbia began with an unlikely mode of transport for a locomotive: a sternwheeler. It arrived in 1912 to help build the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. Before the rails could carry the region’s traffic, the river carried machinery needed to build them.

That is a good starting point for looking at the small engine associated with Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park. Its scale can make it look like something designed for a pleasant circuit with passengers. Its first job was construction.

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Built to work, then saved from the scrap

The Exploration Place identifies the engine’s origins at the Davenport Locomotive Works in Iowa. It was one of five narrow-gauge locomotives sent north, originally built for coal and adapted to burn locally available wood. Their work involved moving supplies and crews to railway construction sites.

When that work ended, the engines were discarded at Island Cache. Parts were later salvaged, restored and assembled into the Little Prince. The locomotive also spent 35 years as a stationary display in front of the railway station. Its survival involved several changes of purpose: useful machine, unwanted equipment, display and, eventually, an engine moving again.

On Canada Day in 1978 it returned to the rails. College of New Caledonia professor Bob Martin and his students helped design the passenger coaches. The city owned the locomotive, and the Prince George Railway Society operated it. The Exploration Place and volunteers took over operation in 2011.

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What it takes to keep history moving

A working engine asks something different of a community than an artifact behind glass. Its parts must function together, its track has to remain sound, and people need the knowledge to run it. The familiar image of a little train conceals a considerable undertaking.

That became particularly visible in 2026, when The Exploration Place and Fort George Railway paused passenger operations after pre-season inspections found serious track problems. Their May statement described erosion beneath a section crossing a drainage ditch and roughly 300 deteriorated ties requiring replacement. The organization emphasized that this is a licensed railway with trained operating staff.

The repairs also sit within the history of the place itself. The railway is in Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park, an archaeological site, so ground disturbance requires the appropriate assessment and permissions. Looking after the engine and respecting the ground beneath its tracks are responsibilities that have to be carried together.

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Preservation includes the ordinary shelter

The city’s September 2025 council discussion addressed another practical need: an undersized, leaking train shelter. Replacement had been approved in principle in 2020 and deferred during the pandemic. Council placed a new storage facility in the unfunded portion of the 2026 capital plan and asked for alternatives. That decision was a step in considering the project, not a completed new building.

A shelter, railway ties and a stable embankment are less romantic than steam and a whistle. They are also what allow the romantic part to exist. The Little Prince’s history is full of such work, from salvaging parts to building coaches and maintaining a place for the locomotive to stand.

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More than a ride

Check The Exploration Place’s current railway notice before planning around a train ride; the 2026 pause must not be mistaken for an operating schedule. The engine’s story is worth knowing whether or not it is running.

It links two versions of Prince George: a place receiving construction machinery by river and a city deciding how to care for the machinery it kept. Between them are generations of people who saw something worth saving in a small locomotive.

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