The main exhibit building of the Central BC Railway and Forestry Museum is a recreation of the Mcbride Depot. When one goes outside from the main building, before they encounter the railway and forestry displays they will pass automobiles, fire engines and a fair amount of interesting items not directly connected to either railroading or forestry.
Structures on the grounds include the Yalenka Building, originally a CN (Canadian National) bunkhouse;
a Beehive Burner, once used to burn waste at a sawmill;
another CN bunkhouse housing a chainsaw display, a recreation of a CN section house housing the Cora Bell Donald Telephone Display;
a third CN bunkhouse displaying various railway paraphernalia; a Fire Tower;
a circa 1929 Heritage Fire Hall;
the Hixon Station, a Panabode style building built in the 1950s, serving as the Pacific Great Eastern (PGE) station;
a railway Maintenance Building from McBride, not open to the public;
the Penny Station, a Type E Grand Trunk Pacific (GTP) station built in 1914 at Lindup, BC, at a cost of $4,005 and moved east to Penny, BC;
Russell House, an ex-CN police barracks acquired from the CNR;
a Speeder Shed built according to 1919 PGE plans housing a growing fleet of speeders;
the Turntable, originally located at the CNR Roundhouse in Prince George;
and finally, we have the Visitor Centre, built to replicate the McBride GTP/CNR Depot. It houses the gift shop, archives room, public bathrooms, offices, and meeting room.
Their website lists 46 items in the
rolling stock collection, which includes cabooses, all manner of freight cars, passenger cars and maintenance of way equipment. The
Motive Power collection contains 6 diesel/electric locomotives, some switchers and some main line locomotives, one large electric locomotive and one steam locomotive. There is also a small diesel personnel carrier, sort of halfway between a speeder and a small locomotive.
There is a good collection of speeders, a
Tractors & Heavy Equipment collection and many pieces of
Logging Machinery from steam engines to nearly contemporary machines. Due to time constraints we got essentially no photos of the latter two categories.
If all this wasn't enough, there is also a miniature railroad running around the grounds. In the summer the Cottonwood Minirail Train runs daily (weather permitting) every 30 minutes, beginning at 10:30 am, ending at 4:30 pm. During winter hours the Cottonwood Minitrain runs on the weekends (weather permitting), every half an hour starting at 11:30 am running until 3:30 pm.