Written and maintained by Hector Turner (hectorturner@home.com)
Contents Copyright ©2000
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If you're driving east of Hope up Coquihalla way Take heed of what I'm telling you and make the trip by day. To drive by night is scary for there's no telling when The Kettle Valley Ghost Train will fly those grades again. You may call it superstition but I know it isn't so, (And I know they tore her tracks up over thirty years ago) But when men have built a railroad where a railroad shouldn't be And have fought with mountain rock and snow through winter's misery, And have dared to battle nature, and sometimes the men have won, Their wounds and scars stay with them long after the job is done. Long after their fears and curses, long after the blood and sweat, They're haunted by memories of struggles they can't forget. excerpt from "The Kettle Valley Ghost Train" by Arnold Jones The Kettle Valley Railway in British Columbia, Canada has been called the most expensive railroad ever built. It was built through some of the most challenging terrain in North America at a time when most construction was still done by hand with pick and shovel. Indeed there were many who thought that it would never be built, but they didn't count on the ingenuity and resourcefulness of a man named Andrew McCulloch, Chief Engineer of the KVR. McCulloch took personal charge of surveying some of the route's most difficult obstacles, finding a way where some said there was none. The Othello Tunnels, Trout Creek Bridge, the Jura Loops and Myra Canyon, all of these achievements stand as testament to the genius of a master railroad builder. The Kettle Valley wasn't just difficult to build, it also proved to be difficult to operate as well. Winter conditions were the worst, with massive amounts of snow, especially in the Coquihalla, causing snow slides and avalanches that would force the closure of that part of the line for the most of the winter. In the spring there was no relief as the melting snow and heavy rain would cause washouts and rock slides all along the line, bringing long delays to service. In spite of these hazards the railroad never suffered a fatality by a paying passenger, although many was the KVR trainman who perished in the line of duty. Today, the trains no longer run. In the end the Kettle Valley fell victim to the highways and peoples growing reluctance to take the time to travel by train. Even when the railway decided to run the passenger trains during the day through the Coquihalla, to capitalize on the scenery, they couldn't make up for the lost revenue. In 1989, almost 75 years after it was completed, the last train travelled the tracks of the Kettle Valley Railway. It will be remembered for all time, though, as one of the most outstanding achievements in railroad construction and an example of the determination of early railway builders to overcome almost insurmountable natural obstacles. The following site has been set up for anyone with an interest in the Kettle Valley Railway or someone discovering it for the first time. I hope to hear from people about how they liked the site, any errors or omissions I might have made or just to compare notes on this incredible railroad. I would particularly like to talk to people about modeling the Kettle Valley as I'm planning on modeling at least a part of the KVR including the Coquihalla, Brookmere and the Nicola Valley. If you have any information you would like to share or would just like to chat, e-mail me at hectorturner@home.com I'm also working on finishing the History of the KVR including operations and the decline and abandonment of the railway. If anyone has any photos of the KVR in it's later years I would love to hear from you. The website has been devided upinto the following sections which can be accessed through the directory bar at the top & bottom of each page or through the text links at the bottom.
Over the course of the life of the site I've been awarded the following...
I was selected as one of Yahoo Canada's picks of the week for Sept. 26, 1997!
In addition, I was voted "Canuck Site of the Day" for Sept. 18, 1996!
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