I used to live in Cranbrook a few years ago when Canadian Pacific still ran a daily train up to Kimberley. When did the mine close up there, when was the last frieght run & did they eventually pull up the tracks? Thanks for all replies
The Sullivan mine closed back in 2001, but I don’t know when the last freight run was. The tracks were only pulled up either in early 2008 or late 2007, can’t remember which. Very recently at any rate.
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Kootenay Central,
That story you told of switching & operations was quite fascinating. Thanks for sharing it.
I was surprised to find a lot of rails intact there last week, I guess I take back my previous post…
My wife’s father and his brother were playing near the tracks near Lower Chapman Camp, near Kimberley, when they decided to hop on board a stopped train, hoping for an adventure. They were 8 and 10 years old. They rode the train all the way to Cranbrook.
Their troubles really began when their father, my wife’s grandfather, received a call from his brother, who worked for CPR in Cranbrook to come pick up his sons.
One can only imagine the 45-minute ride back to Kimberley, anticipating what would happen when they got home.
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Just curious - For the amount of funding involved [2.8 million], about how long is this trail going to be [Q]
I note from the 1st article posted above that the contract’s scope of work includes removing and hauling a meter’s worth of the ballast back to the mine’s waste dump, because as that ballast is tailings from the mine, it is supposedly contaminated with lead and zinc. But a meter’s depth seems excessive to me.
Finally, I note with interest in the most recent article that a good portion of the remaining funds is reserved for inspection, analysis, and repairs of the St. Mary’s rail bridge.
Yep - we wouldn’t want the prospective users of the trail to overload that old railroad bridge, now would we. [:-,] [swg] [Note - this kind of nonsense is not limited to Canada - here in Pennsylvania, our very own PennDOT is notorious for requiring the same kind of analysis to be done - though I haven’t heard yet of a bridge that flunked.]
- Paul North.
RIP all.
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Very true. A very important step in my learning to read was reading ETT’s from cover to cover when I was about eight or nine years old. I could not believe years later after I started working in the oil business, that the oil companies used the CPR station names that I more or less memorized as a child as the names to locate their wells.
One question though, can you verify that the Chute Lake Hill mentioned on the first of the two pages of Special Instructions was in fact the steepest grade on the CPR after the Big Hill on the mainline was replaced by the Spiral Tunnels?
Reading these pages was the most fun I’ve had in a couple of days.
AgentKid
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Thanks K.C.
Man that was some kind of tough railroading. No wonder this was one of the first divisions to dieselize. Water towers, at most, about 20 miles apart and coal about every 40.
And that Rossland Sub. from Tadanac to Rossland, 10.6 miles, 3 water towers, 2 sidings (one with a 14 car capacity and one with an 8 car capacity), and a thermal test on the way back! One hour west bound and 50 minutes return for the passenger train.[:O][wow]
AgentKid
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