The Alberni Pacific Railway operates from the 1912 Canadian Pacific Railway station in Port Alberni, a building that once served the commercial rail line connecting this mill town to the outside world. Port Alberni sits at the head of a long inlet on Vancouver Island's west coast, and for most of the 20th century its economy ran on timber. Logging railways crisscrossed the surrounding valleys, hauling massive Douglas fir and western red cedar from the forests to the mills and the port. When the logging industry contracted, the railways fell silent. The heritage railway that runs today preserves the equipment and the route, transforming an industrial artifact into a tourist attraction that connects visitors to the working landscape that built Port Alberni.

The Alberni Pacific Railway's locomotive collection reads like a registry of industrial survivors. No. 2 is a Class B Shay locomotive built by the Lima Locomotive Works in 1912, originally ordered as Weist Logging Co. No. 1. She passed through several owners -- including a stint labeled "US Army No. 7089" -- before operating in the Ash River Valley as Alberni Pacific No. 2 from 1936 to 1952. Retired in 1950 and displayed in a city park for decades, she was restored to operating condition by Robert Swanson in 1984, appeared at SteamExpo 86 in Vancouver, and made her last run in 1994. She is now on static display. No. 8427, an ALCO RS-3 diesel built in 1954 for Canadian Pacific, is believed to be the last surviving unit of its type from that railroad, though it currently sits out of service awaiting wheel work.

The destination of the railway's excursion is the McLean Mill National Historic Site, a preserved steam-era sawmill that operated commercially until the 1960s. The combination of heritage railway and working mill site creates a complete picture of the timber industry's supply chain -- trees from the forest, logs on the rails, lumber from the mill. The McLean Mill is one of the few places in British Columbia where visitors can see the full cycle demonstrated with original equipment. The 40-minute ride from the 1912 station to the mill follows a route that once carried raw logs in the opposite direction, a reversal that captures the shift from extraction to preservation that defines many of Vancouver Island's former resource towns.

No. 7's return to service in November 2024, after six years of painstaking mechanical repair, was celebrated by railway enthusiasts across the Pacific Northwest. The 1929 Baldwin is a tank locomotive -- carrying its own water and fuel rather than pulling a tender -- which makes it compact enough for the tight curves and short sidings of a logging railway. Her backup is No. 11, a World War II-era diesel switcher built in 1942 and later used by MacMillan Bloedel in its logging operations. The railway also runs a Santa Train in December and other seasonal events, drawing visitors beyond the summer tourist season. Five passenger coaches -- three open-air and two covered -- carry riders who range from rail enthusiasts photographing every rivet to families simply enjoying the sound of a steam whistle bouncing off the forested hills above Port Alberni.