I’m visiting Naskusp from Nelson. I will be doing some research on railroading in this area during my time here. Does anyone know the history of Canadian Pacific in this area of the Slocan Valley. I was never firm on the last date of the last train in Nakusp. Does anyone here can help me fill in some of the details?
On page 75 of the March 1989 issue of CTC Board, it says CP made 4 trips to Nakusp during 1988. The last trip left on December 20th, with GP9 8822, 2 loads of telephone poles, a flat car, a wedge plow and a caboose. This website says the last run for the Iris G for the railway was on December 21st.
http://trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/CPR/ships/LandR/history.htm
If you haven’t already, pick up a copy of Railways of the West Kootenay by Corwin & Gerry Doeksen. It details much of the history of the Kaslo & Slocan Railway, Nakusp & Slocan Railway, and the CPR in that area. I’ve seen it at many hobby stores in Alberta and BC, as well as the giftshop of the railway museum in Revelstoke. If you’re heading as far north as Nakusp, go a bit farther and hit the museum. The drive and the ferry ride are both gorgeous in winter. Is it safe to assume you’re going to Sandon to see the 0-8-0 and cars there, and Kaslo to see the old K&S station?
BTW, this book states "The last train left Nakusp for Rosebery and Slocan City on December 20, 1988 and the rails were gone by September, 1989. The last page of the book shows a picture of the last revenue train heading south out of Slocan City on Sept 14, 1993.
Happy Travels!
Thank You.
Seems like you’ve got very comprehensive sources already listed above, but here’s another one in the interest of completeness - as I recall it’s about 10 pages or so:
The Iris G, et al.
Trains, March 1977 page 43
an entire train traveling on a lake barge
( BRITISH, CANADA, COLUMBIA, CPR, FERRY, “PATTERSON, STEVE”, TRN )
Kootenay Central - Thanks again for all that info, the ‘links’, and especially the recollections of the times, too. I know that took you a while to put together and post. And I loved the video - that was hilarious - better than the snowplows, even. [(-D] It’s only about 58 seconds long, and the ‘good part’ is about in the middle. ‘‘Surf’s up !’’ I can believe some of the engineer members here will be envious when they see that one. It sure looked like the US or western Canada, too. Thanks !
- Paul
Beware the “BC Bud” gardens around Nakusp, Edgewood, etc… Stay on ‘the beaten path’ and don’t ask too many questions. Living in Nelson, you should know that. Bring beer! That will help.
Hays – a Scotsman, living in Montana. I’m tolerated because I’m 2% Norwegian! Uff da!
All together now : N A K U S P It’s too bad you have to watch your back while wandering around the outback, be careful, these doper maggots are into major money and they don’t tolerate strangers.
Thanks for all the information on the topic. I will look to find all the books recommended here. If I can’t find any of them in the Nelson Library, I have a B.C. One Card which means I can take out books from any B.C. public library. I’m a frequent visitor to Nakusp and Kaslo and will be looking for those books in each library.
I do keep to the beaten paths and don’t stray too far off them due to one of B.C.'s biggest cash crops. There was also some cougar sightings around Naskusp recently, an animal I don’t want to run into.
Last night I ran across about a half-page of reminiscences by a train crewman on the CPR in that vicinity from early in the 20th century, from a Railroad magazine in the early 1970’s. If I can find a spare half-hour or so, I’ll type it up or copy it and post it some kind of way. Although, I don’t think it’s 1/5 as good as what Kootenay Central posts here !
- Paul North.
See also “The Skyline Limited: The Kaslo and Slocan Railway - an Illustrated History of Narrow Gauge Railroading and Sternwheelers in the Kootenays” by Robert D. Turner and David S. Wilkie, Sono Nis Press, 1994 - 296 pages:
“This is the dramatic story of the Kaslo & Slocan Railway-the Great Northern’s narrow gauge-in the rugged Slocan Mountains of BC’s West Kootenay district during the 1890s and early 1900s. Here too is the superbly illustrated account of the beautiful sternwheelers that connected the K&S with other Great Northern branch lines. The Skyline Limited is a fascinating chapter in the stories of the Great Northern and the Canadian Pacific.”
From: http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Skyline_Limited.html?id=OB9_AAAACAAJ
- Paul North.
I can provide quite a bit, although I’m afraid you’ll have to wait until tonight =)
Sorry it took me so long to get a reply together, I’ve had the most incredible case of the laze, and I wanted to do a good job of this. Have a map ready!
To understand the history of Nakusp, one must look at the entire region’s history. After the mainline was completed in 1885, CP was basically bankrupt. The mainline had little resources along it, whereas the areas south of it were rich in minerals. Unlike the border, the mountain ranges and rivers that follow the valleys between them run north-south, with the Kootenay and Kettle rivers crossing the American border numerous times, and the Columbia also entering the US. This allowed many of the resources to trickle south to the GN and NP. The first recourse to this was in 1890, when CP chartered and built the Columbia and Kootenay railway between Nelson and Sproat’s Landing (across the Columbia river from Castlegar) as well as a branchline from Revelstoke to Arrowhead, at (surprise!) the head of the upper Arrow lake. This enabled them to begin steamer service on Kootenay Lake serving the mining towns on the coast, bypass the unnavigable waters west of Nelson, and send steamers up the Columbia to Arrowhead, and onto the mainline.
Their next move is where the Slocan comes in. The area was known as the Silvery Slocan, and with good reason. With the branch to Arrowhead already in place, Nakusp was a perfect starting point for the Nakusp and Slocan railway. Chartered in 1893, it was completed to Sandon by 1895. You can trace the route over the summit, down Slocan Lake to where it turned up the valley at New Denver, following the valley of Carpenter Creek to Three Forks, where it turned and went the rest of the way to Sandon. In the same year, the GN-backed narrow gauge Kaslo and Slocan built up the Kaslo river from Kaslo to Sandon. The CP line was very steep, being 4.55% from Three Forks to Sandon. The GN line had it better, ascending at less than 3% to the summit and then hanging on cliffs a thousand feet above the valley bottom at Payne B
I was wondering why I hadn’t had any replies to that post before realizing the original post was from 2010! YIKES.
Actually I wanted to get back to you to expound on one point.
In that area, between 1946 and 1953, CP had one of the few passenger operations in North America that was actually growing year over year. The post war consumer boom meant there was increasing demand for the minerals produced in south-eastern BC, so incomes were increasing as well as travel. But highways between towns were appalling or non-existent.
Then in 1953 W.A.C. Bennett was elected to his first majority government and highway building commenced. You can tell when paved roads were completed between bigger towns by looking at the ridership numbers. The year the road was opened ridership would drop almost by half, and two years after the highway would be completed ridership was down to about 2% of its’ former level.
People had money for new cars and now they had somewhere to drive them.
Bruce
Fascinating! I love to be corrected!