Former Ashcroft mayor Rod Craggs passed away on May 23, aged 97.
Craggs led an extraordinary life, and while he had many interests, his big passion was trains. At age 16 he became a telegraph operator on the Kettle Valley Railway during World War II, after which he trained at Brandon, Manitoba and entered the Air Force. In 1949 he became a train operator in Glacier, where — in 1951 — he snapped a picture of Princess Elizabeth (as she was then) and her husband Prince Philip when they made their first trip to Canada.
“I bought a film camera just for the event,” said Craggs, years later. “Cost me $300 in 1951. I still have the footage somewhere.”
He moved to Ashcroft, where he was a train operator, then CP stationmaster from 1960 to 1969. He was also able to continue working on a project that spanned decades: the Tomahawk and Western Railroad Company, a miniature railway that he had started during his earliest railroading days.
“There wasn’t much to do there in Glacier,” said Craggs, “so I began to build a railway. A lot of it is from my memory, and based on real places.” Six decades later he was still adding to the Tomahawk, which comprised some 90 feet of model railway track that wended its way through an immensely detailed landscape of towns, rivers, tunnels, mountains, and painted backdrops in a building in his back yard. Among the details — all painstakingly crafted by Craggs — were the old Ashcroft fire hall, and an engine house so lovingly detailed that smoke from the engines coming and going could be seen on it.
A keen amateur radio operator, he had a ham radio outfit in the same building that housed the Tomahawk, where he kept in touch with other enthusiasts around the world; during the 2003 fire west of Ashcroft, he logged 18 hours straight working his radio. He was also a telegraph operator, who never lost his knowledge of Morse code or his ability as a telegraphist.
A former chief with the Ashcroft Volunteer Fire Department, he was also a Search and Rescue volunteer who worked out of Kamloops as a spotter for seven years. He was one of the area's first ambulance drivers and attendants, going off for training in 1975, not long after what is now BC Emergency Health Services was formed. In 2017 he was one of the first people to get a ride in Ashcroft’s new Engine 3, and in 2020 his 92nd birthday was marked by a drive-past of his home by a convoy of more than three dozen vehicles, including two of Ashcroft’s fire engines and three ambulances.
In 1964, when then-chairman (mayor) A.E. North resigned, Craggs put his name forward in the resulting by-election and was unopposed. He served as Ashcroft’s mayor — the town’s fifth — for two years, and while he did not seek re-election as mayor, he served two years as councillor (or alderman, as they were then known) from 1968–1969.
Craggs was always proud of the fact that during his time as mayor, most of the streets in downtown Ashcroft were paved for the first time. Craggs Crescent, off Hollis Road, is named in his honour. At the time of his death he was a resident of Jackson House in Ashcroft, and was predeceased in 2024 by his wife Bernice (Barnie).
