I don’t hang out in this forum (I’m in the model rr forums) but thought I would check to see the coverage on THE RR story going on in North America, and discovered there was nothing…nada… zippo… zero…
As of today 7 September, there have been 12 of 18 trestles destroyed on the historic Kettle Valley Railroad. This story is slowly become an international large story.
Below is a clip from our local newspaper here in Vancouver, BC.
Friday, September 05, 2003
Province Newspaper
KELOWNA – Ken Campbell compares his love affair with the Kettle Valley Railway trestles to marriage.
“It was love at first sight. It’s really a special place,” Campbell said yesterday.
Considering the blood and sweat the Kelowna resident poured into restoring the internationally recognized heritage structures, it’s no wonder his heart broke when he learned that all 18 mainly wooden trestle bridges would likely be destroyed in the Okanagan Mountain fire.
“It’s a pretty sad day around here,” he said. “It’s a huge loss, economically, psychologically and emotionally. They’re really irreplaceable because each of them is a heritage structure. That’s why I’m very, very upset today.”
On Wednesday night, the wind-fuelled fire spread into Myra Canyon, where the sporadic trestle bridges spanned 10 kilometres of scenic gaps over rivers and valleys. By last night the flames had devoured five of the bridges, despite fire guards dug around the structures and buckets of long-term fire retardant dumped on top of them.
Construction of the bridges began in 1914 and took two years to complete. They were part of a Canadian Pacific line linking the ore- and timber-rich Kootenays to the Lower Mainland.
“Every one of them is different in design and structure,” he said. "It was some of the most difficult railway-building terrain in Canada. It’s a very deep canyon and the railways hung on the side of the canyon walls