CPR’s Boundary District ROBERT WHETHAM: SOUTH SLOCAN, B.C.; MAR., 1973
The small wooden station at South Slocan was at the junction of the Slocan and Boundary Subdivisions. The Slocan Sub ran north to Slocan Lake, where a barge service took trains to Rosebery and on to Nakusp. Here (above), three F-units, a C-Liner and a caboose are on the mainline of the Boundary Subdivision, westbound. The CPR Station at Castlegar (be- low), just west of the Columbia River, was located in the middle of a wye with the tracks to the left leading to Trail, and those on the right, to the west and the long climb over Farron Hill. The extra, behind a pair of freshly painted Geeps, has just arrived from Midway and Grand Forks. The station has since been moved a short distance away from the tracks, out of the center of the wye, and is a community information center and heritage site.
Castlegar, and a mixed that ran up the Slocan Subdivision to connect with the lake steamer and eventually met an- other mixed train, providing a once a week service between Nelson and Nakusp. This train, usually powered by a 2-8-0, or after passenger service end- ed, a road switcher, normally had a col- lection of boxcars and flatcars used pri- marily for lumber shipments,
a
combine and a caboose, making a great consist for a model. The steamer con- nections in the region were featured in my November,
2010, RMC article
“Floating Branchlines: Sternwheelers, Tugs and Barges” and also in my book Sternwheelers & Steam Tugs. In 1957 mail and express began mov- ing by trucks on the expanding highway systems in the region, taking away im- portant business for the trains. RDC’s replaced conventional trains on the Kootenay Division in 1958, providing a much-reduced service. The Budd cars did not last long on the route and the service was cancelled in 1964. Some- times a failed RDC would be assisted by a C-Liner in an interesting combination of equipment and a good wild card situ- ation for model operations. The first-generation Fairbanks- Morse diesels survived into the mid- 1970’s on the Kettle Valley and Koote- nay Divisions. Several Train Masters also lasted until about 1974, when they were withdrawn from work around the Trail smelter. The H-16-44’s lasted a lit-
52 MAY 2013
tle longer but were soon replaced with GP9’s or other General Motors locomo- tives, including some F-units. A few oth- er types of diesels also showed up, but by the 1980’s most road assignments were in control of GP38-2’s with as many as four on a train being common. Heavy trains to Trail and its smelter usually got SD40-2’s. All of this made for interesting operations and it was surprising what might show up unex- pectedly on a train. At Nelson, the yard
CASTLEGAR, B.C.; JUNE 1978
was busy and there were usually outfit cars there along with a wrecker, which was steam powered long after steam lo- comotives had gone from the railway. A snowplow or two was based there, and a Jordan spreader was often at work. By the 1980’s steel cabooses had re- placed the older wooden cabooses, the last one being based at Nelson. Other early equipment disappeared, too, as the railway business retrenched. The steam wrecker and its outfit cars as- signed to Nelson were retired or re-as- signed and not replaced. Flangers, snowplows and Jordan spreaders were seen less frequently, but still on occa- sion needed. The trackage around Trail and Rossland, with its steep grades and switchbacks, led to the modifica- tion of the basic CPR wooden caboose design to produce two shorter versions that were used until the 1970’s. Nelson’s station was a substantial wooden-framed structure built when the railway was constructed
in 1900-
1901. After the railway’s divisions were reorganized and most responsibilities for the area shifted to Revelstoke, the big station was closed. It was unused for some years before being preserved as a heritage building. Nearby is the house formerly used by the superintendent; it is now a bed and breakfast establish- ment. Nelson’s diesel shops were closed in 1988 and later demolished, removing a landmark that had been important to the city since the mid-1950’s. It is hard to think of this modern-looking struc- ture, with its steel and glass construc- tion, which itself replaced the Nelson steam-era roundhouse, as being obso- lete and no longer needed.
The Great Northern also had sub- stantial trackage in the region, some of
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100