KVR Tales-Page 1 KVR Tales-Page 2
Written and maintained by Hector Turner (hectorturner@home.com)
Contents Copyright ©2000
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My first experience with the KVR, although I was too young to remember this trip, was in the Summer of 1919 when my family moved from Vancouver to Summerland. Among the memories of that move was our stay at the Hotel in Summerland (not West Summerland) on the shore of the lake and meeting a gentleman who was also a guest there. As it turned out, my Grandmother had nursed his dying brother back in Dublin, Ireland years before. Another recollection is of the Realtor showing us rentals from a horse-drawn Democrat, on which were mounted two seats. Thinking of the current problems with leaky Condos in Vancouver, I am amused when I remember the Summerland rental my family took that Summer of 1919. The kitchen was a lean-to to the rest of the house and over time separation had occurred so that the sky could be seen through the six inch roof gap between the two parts of the building. I celebrated my fifth birthday that September. During the early 1920s the Railway Company decided to fill the trestle approach to the Summerland end of the Trout Creek Bridge. I believe that the fill was taken from the right-of-way at the Winslow Flagstop. Filling of the trestle provided easy and safe access to the Dominion Experimental Station by walking down the rail line and across the bridge. This was my route to work each day the summer I was employed in the Fruit Products Laboratory. Walking across the bridge is easy if you place the heel of your shoe on one tie and the toe of your shoe on the adjacent tie; your instep being across the gap between the ties. I have no memories of when we took the KVR to holiday in Vancouver the Summer of 1928, but I well remember that, though fascinated by the trains, I was terrified by the noise and power of the locomotive when the trains came into the Station at West Summerland, so I always tried to hide until it had halted in the Station. In 1931, that Gentleman that my Grandmother met at the Hotel in Summerland in 1919, died. Having no relatives in Canada, he bequeathed his property to our family. The property, a ten acre orchard was on a hillside. From the top of it there was an uninterrupted view of the railway bridge over Trout Creek Canyon. Thus it was possible to see the trains approaching Winslow Flagstop from Penticton as well as those south-bound from West Summerland. This Flagstop was important to me when I started studies at UBC in September 1935. There is a good picture of where our family orchard used to be in the book by Robert Turner, Steam on the Kettle Valley: A Railway Heritage Remembered, (1995, Sono Nis Press, Victoria, BC), on page 113 there is a photo of three CP Rail GP38 diesels easing down grade over the Trout Creek Bridge. Look directly up over the terraced hills behind the first three woodchip cars to the green hill on the top of the gully, the orchard was where the front tip of the green hillside meets the brown of the field. Here are a few memories I have of traveling the KVR from my home to Vancouver during my University days. Probably the most serious incident was the morning that I wakened in my upper berth to realize that the train had stopped for a long time. When I was dressed and went out of the motionless train, the cause was abundantly clear. The locomotive, tender, the two express cars, the two day coaches and one Pullman car were leaning against the rock face of a cut in the Coquihalla Pass. A small rock slide had fallen in the short cut shortly before the train, thus causing the derailment and the tearing-up of the road bed when the train hit it. The mishap was in a short cut between two trestles. Had the rock fall been closer to the trestle at the exit end of the cut, one can only imagine the consequences of the derailment. If the locomotive had fallen off the exit trestle, the next stop would have been down in the Canyon bottom. A rescue train was backed to the wreck site from Hope and all the passengers had to carry their hand luggage to it across the trestle. I was glad of my experience in walking on ties! Another time, I recollect seeing from the train, a rail line built on an angle down the side of the Canyon to where a wrecked locomotive lay at the bottom. I assumed the purpose was to retrieve the damaged equipment in order to repair it. The Jura loops east of Penticton were to me one of the many evidences of the superlative engineering that went into the construction of the KVR in the early 1900s. You could sit in the Daycoach and see both ends of the train as the locomotive labored on the grade, with the sounds of the car wheels adding to the feeling. One time I took some of the trip in what I believe was known as a Colonist Car. The upholstery was wicker. The car was heated by a coal/wood burning stove and the lighting was by gas lamps. At the ends of the car there was only a bar to prevent passengers from falling out. The normal trap door over the steps was missing as well as the outside door of the vestibule. During the years which I attended UBC, my train station was Winslow. It was only a 30 minute walk from my home to where I could flag the train. I knew where to stand in the beam of the headlight, wave my arms and wait for the short toot and change of the exhaust note of the engine to know that the train would stop. I also used to ask the trainman to let me off there when I came home for the holidays, which he did, for an extra fare of ten cents. This was very convenient, I would walk the half hour home, change my clothing, have breakfast, and be ready for work in the orchard. An interesting sight I recall was of a semi-streamlined locomotive the CPR ran over the KVR on a trial run in the late 30s. It was a standard engine with shrouding to reduce wind resistance. I watched it come down a straight piece of line and was interested to note the `waddling' of the engine on the rails (like a duck walking on the ground). My guess is that the reciprocating action of the rod masses on the drive wheels was the cause. One last comment. I used to own a coal scoop that had fallen off the tender of a train. I found it under the Trout Creek bridge sometime in the 30s (I hope they had a spare!) Three years ago I gave it to a friend for the Salmon Arm Model Railway Association. The metal Ferrule where the wooden handle of the scoop fits is die stamped CPR. The date of manufacture is in the 1910s as nearly as I can remember. The handle is original and shows the same indication of age as I do, because we are of the same vintage! Thank you for the opportunity to tell my stories of this great Railway and of an era long past. For correspondence, I can be reached via: mahara@cariboo.bc.ca - Mr. Harry Walmsley Greetings. My Mother's side of the family was (is) all a bunch of railroaders and my great Uncle was Frank Vader, of 'The Vader's Caboose'. It was a sad day when removal of the KV track commenced. Even in the early 70's Uncle Frank would come to Merritt on the freight, where I was then living, visit, spend the night in the caboose, then do the return trip to Penticton in the morning. My Mom was born in Merritt and spent much of her childhood in Brookmere. Did you know there is a get-together in Brookmere each summer, of numerous old railroaders eating, drinking, being merry, and swapping lies? My first recollection of the good old days was a couple trips with my Dad, Uncle Frank, and his sons by Bud car from Penticton to Juliet, back in the late 50's. From there we hiked a long way into Murray Lake and had some of the most fabulous fishing. Years later when I moved from Vancouver to Merritt, I found - to my great disappointment - that logging roads had made it to Murray Lake and the fishing had gone to pot. The 2 accompanying pictures are of a freight near Brookmere (I believe) and my Grandfather, Bill Osborne, leaning out the window of 5178. Cheers. - J.R. Lucke (for additional info, see note #1 on Page 1)
I thought I would share a couple of stories about the KVR which had happened to my Dad. Dad moved to Renata, BC in 1939. Although the CPR did not go through
Renata, the only way out before the road was built in 1954 was by
steamboat or by catching the train by hiking to Tunnel Station or
Coykendal. Dad used to always ride the tender of the head engine, either
west to Vancouver or east to Castlegar or Nelson. One rainy day in
November of1941 my Dad, (Bill Rempel) and uncle Henry Friesen hopped onto
the tender of Train 11 at the Coykendal water tower for a trip to
Vancouver. As they sat there and got soaked waiting for the load of
water, my uncle, who was returning off leave from the Army, decided it
was too wet and cold to ride that day. Dad of course thought he was a
sissy but agreed to walk back down to Renata and try again the next day.
This time they decided to catch the freight at Tunnel Station and
talking to the station master, they learned the train they would have
been on hit a rockslide in the Coquihalla and the head engine derailed
and went into the canyon killing the two crew. This would have been the
tender on which they likely would have been riding. Another wet stormy night Dad was riding the westbound freight into Princeton when he noticed the Police checking out the trains. He bailed off the tender and landed in water up to his armpits beside the railbed. The BC Provincial Police Constable heard the noise and Dad spent the night in the local jail. When he was let out the next morning he caught the next freight and carried on his way. Money was tough in those days and he couldn't very often afford to pay
for a ticket on a passenger train. - Gerry Rempel, Castlegar, B.C. (for additional info, see note #2 on Page 1) I had a couple of photos circa 1950's sent to me by Jim Stotesbury from the Coquihalla Lakes Lodge. He says that one is of the the owner of the fishing camp/lodge that used to be next to the Coquihalla Station. - Jim Stotesbury, Coquihalla Lakes Lodge, BC (for additional info, see note #3 on Page 1)
I lived in Naramata until I was about 7...then Penticton until I was 18....My father owned the store in Naramata from the 1930's until about 1968 or 1969 and remember the KVR fondly. We had a cabin at Chute Lake and spent a lot of time there. We hiked and hunted the track from just south of Arawana to Myra. - An old section hand at Chute Lake (in the mid 1950's) named "One Arm Jimmy". We were told he lost the arm in a railway accident. - The stone ovens at the old construction camps and the old bottles and cans we used for target practice (worth a mint today) - I can remember the water tower at Arawana - going to Vancouver by train with my father on some of his buisness trips. My brother an I would be put to bed in the sleeping car on a siding in Penticton about 8:00pm. The train from the east would pick up the car around 11:00 (waking us up) Seems quite civilized today. - Coming back from Vancouver one night over the Coquihalla the train stopped along the top of gigantic cliff. (i was about 7 or 8) Everyone got off. there was huge bolder on the tracks. The train crew used the engine (it was a diesel) and iron bars to roll the rock off the tracks and over the cliff. The train stopped at the next section house. The snow was so deep it over the roof of the cars. - we used to walk thru the Big tunnel above Naramata as kids on a dare. Drove thru about 1989 with my kids..still freaky. - My father told me of an engine that blew a boiler at Glen Fir. - The pusher engines from Penticton to Chute Lake ( and the Y) - Seems to me there was east bound freight about 8 in the evening. When the wind was right it would keep us awake as kids. 2 or 3 steam engines going up the grade. - Saw them pull the steam engine used in the The Last Spike up the track past Arawana. - Playing on bits of the steam engine that went of the cliff leaving Penticton before I was born (my father remembered when). The cow catcher was still recognizable in about 1965 on the edge of the lake. - Remember being re-routed down the fraser canyon because the Coquahalla was closed. - walking across the huge wooden bridge across the big canyon east of Cedar Lake which is east of Chute Lake. It was still there in about 1989 but didn't have the guts to walk across it with kids. (used to know the name of it ...just slipped my mind) - And finally, for now, the fresh water spring coming out of a small rock cut about a half mile south of Chute Lake. Best water I ever tasted anywhere in the world. - Glenn Taylor (for additional info, see note #4 on Page 1) These are photos taken by Andrew McCulloch of the Coquihalla Canyon in the area of the Othello Tunnels before construction. The inscription on them is in McCulloch's own hand. They were sent to me by his decendants from the family collection.
Front and back of picture postcard of Coquihalla Canyon
In the summer of 1962 I had my first job working on a CPR extra gang. I left Vancouver on the Dominion to Spence's Bridge where I switched to a Bud Car. Got off at Brookmere and rode a speeder to "the gang". The "bull Cook" greeted me and served me breakfast - half a dozen fried eggs (small). Later this gentleman called me a "walking septic tank" because of my appetite. The gang was out working so I didn't get to join them until the afternoon. The job was tearing up the track. The next day another person joined the gang. As he walked through the car he remarked, "just like Cardova Street, the same kind of people." (Cardova Street was at that time was the most notorious part of Vancouver's slums.) Nobody took offence because most of the gandy dancers knew each other from Cardova Steet. Some of my fellow workers would pick up [cigarette] butts and break them into their tobacco pouches. One person from the other car was threatened when he came into our car to empty our ashtray into his pouch. Our gang was sent to Merrit for two weeks while a special crew removed a bridge. During that time there was a payday. The next day I was the extra gang. Nobody showed up for work. The number of days before the others returned roughly corresponded to the size of their paychecks. I really enjoyed my first summer job as a gandy dancer on the Coquahalla Pass but regretted that I was removing track rather than maintaining or building it. My wife and I drove along part of the old Kettle Valley line last summer. I could almost sense an old steam locomotive going by. Progress is not always an improvement. Thanks for reading this. - Edwin Bussey
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