On the sunny summer weekends coinciding with Port Moody’s forty-seventh annual Golden and with the PoMo Summer Market, over 168 people made their way to Port Moody’s Spring Street to take in free public screenings of the wonderful National Film Board of Canada short film, The Railrodder. The 26-minute film directed by Gerald Potterton was produced by the national Film Board of Canada in 1965 and features a 70-years-young Buster Keaton still up to his slapstick best. The film screened on a loop over four days for the duration of the events. The audience response was overwhelmingly enthusiastic with many people speaking fondly of seeing the film in their classrooms or on TV when they were kids and how they were thrilled to be able to share it with their kids now. People new to Canada who were seeing this for the first time marvelled at the scale of the country and the diverse landscapes through which Keaton sped from the east coast to the west aboard and around a railway speeder with sight-gags galore delivered with deadpan perfection.
Te screening was accompanied by an old-timey letterpress poster featuring some background on the film and the history of the railway in Canada and a story of the “Real Golden Spike” with an image of the second “Last Spike”. There were four. The first Last Spike was plated in silver and was intended to accompany Governor General Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice to the site of Craigellache in the British Columbia Rockies where he was to drive it to commemorate the completion of the transcontinental railroad. Due to poor weather conditions neither Governor General nor silver spike made it to the site and on 7 November 1885 the honour fell to CPR Executive Donald Smith to drive the simple, iron spike pictured (the “Golden Spike”).
As Port Moody is well known as the original terminus for the Canadian Pacific Railway which received its first passengers on 4 July 1886, train lore runs deep through the history of the community and the Golden Spike Days Festival remains one of the largest cultural events in the city. The free screening brought neighbours together with visitors in a spirit of entertainment and celebration of Port Moody and Canada.
