Block Print: The Train Dock

The Train Dock in the 1980's

When I was a kid, we lived right across the road from the train dock in Naramata. In fact, the house we lived in was actually a barn, floated down from Kelowna on a barge and unloaded off the dock. From there it was  dragged across the street and placed on a vacant lot. But that is another story....

I was warned by my mother never to set foot on the dock without an adult present; a rule I broke early and often. The train dock beckoned little kids like me to crawl all over it's sticky creosote beams.

 As teenagers, the boys would dive off the towers into the cold waters of Okanagan Lake while the girls suntanned on the deck. Honestly, it was never a great place to swim - the creosote beams created a smelly oily film on the surface of the water and our bathing suits would easily be stained with dark brown tar. But it was a great place to meet and hang out. I have fond after-school memories of  eating ice cream sandwiches with my best friend, our bikes dumped unceremoniously in the nearby gravel.

Then, one day in 2002, news spread that the Train Dock was gone. It was deemed unsafe and disappeared so quickly, many Naramatians were surprised and shocked at the speed of it's demolition.

The Train Dock in 2010

Today, the dock has been preserved, but the landmark towers are gone. Where there were once weeds and gravel, there is grass and a manicured path. I wasn't able to find any pictures of the old dock on the web. The one old picture here is a photograph of a photograph hanging on the wall at the Naramata Museum.

And so, this is the train dock the way I remember it when I was 12 years old. This print was composed from a few old photographs and a lot of memories.

 "The Train Dock" 

Hand-painted block print

Limited edition of 12

My sister will have these prints for sale at the Christmas Faire held at the Naramata Heritage Inn and Spa, along with her paintings. More on that soon!