Canadian Railroads > Today's Okanagan train to Kamloops

Trip to Kamloops enjoying the sun as the Okanagan train comes in to town to do some switching at the old CN station before heading across the bridge to the CN yard .Thanks for looking  Greg

 

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Heading off to yard

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Excellent!
Great locations!
IOTD material!

611

Posted from iPhone

Nice catch....nice weather, too.  We had a bit of sun here today but nothing like that...

Keith Robertson
Langley, BC

What exactly does this train operation do?  Do they just come across the river and interchange with CP at Kamloops?  Has all of the track now been ripped up from Campbell Creek down into the Okanagan Valley?

CA_Sou_MA_Agent Wrote:
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> What exactly does this train operation do?  Do
> they just come across the river and interchange
> with CP at Kamloops?  Has all of the track now
> been ripped up from Campbell Creek down into the
> Okanagan Valley?

The track still extends to Lumby about about 17 miles east of Vernon.  After the Kelowna Pacific shut down there was speculation that the line might be abandoned but since then CN has invested a significant amount of time and money into rehabilitation of a lot of the track  They seem to be in it for the long haul.

There was a large glass plant out at Lumby that generated quite a bit of traffic--it is now closed.  There are two or three smaller lumber mills in Lumby but I'm not sure how much traffic moves to and from there.  CN's largest customer on the line is the big Tolko mill complex between Armstrong and Vernon.  There's also a wood pellet manufacturing plant in Armstrong--the former Buckerfield's feed mill--that generates a few loads.

And it's up to the Okanagan Valley...there's a pretty stiff climb eastbound from Campbell Creek to Monte Lake--from 1150 ft. to 2400 ft.  From there the line drops off gradually to just over 1220 ft. at Armstrong and climbs back up to about 1330 ft. at the yard in Vernon.  Lumby is about 400 ft. higher...

Keith Robertson
Langley, BC

LKeithR Wrote:
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> And it's up to the Okanagan Valley...there's a
> pretty stiff climb eastbound from Campbell Creek
> to Monte Lake--from 1150 ft. to 2400 ft.  From
> there the line drops off gradually to just over
> 1220 ft. at Armstrong and climbs back up to about
> 1330 ft. at the yard in Vernon.  Lumby is about
> 400 ft. higher...

Sorry.  I was going by map direction.  South = down; North = up.   Thanks for the updated info.  I believe all of the ex-CP line from Sicamous into the Okanagan Valley is gone?    



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/07/16 18:37 by CA_Sou_MA_Agent.

The CPR Mainline is completely intact between Kamloops and Sicamous on the way to Revelstoke and Calgary. The portion that was removed and abandoned by CPR was the branchline from Armstrong to Enderby and then up to Sicamous.

4654 needs a bath!!  Doug

With the financial collapse of Kelowna Pacific which leased the CN Okanagan trackage and trackage rights, CN decided to meet with the main shipper on the line, Tolko Industries, who operate several lumber mills along the route. If Tolko could commit to ship by CN for the subsequent fifteen years, CN would rehabilitate the lines to those mills.

Tolko said that they planned to operate mills near Vernon and at Lavington for that period of time and they planned to ship by rail. The future of their mill at Kelowna was less certain and it was decided that Tolkos output there could be handled by truck.

CN spent millions renewing the track from Campbell Creek and Lumby so that heavier locomotives could operate, and the power seen on this train recently is typical.

Here is the same train Greg photographed passing the former CN Lorne Street station (now a Keg restaurant) on the CN Okanagan Spur, the four mile long spur which connects the CN and CP main lines between Kamloops Junction (CN) and Kamloops (CP).

The Canadian Northern was a land grant railway, and late in construction, it was in conflict with the Province of British Columbia, which was less generous than the Prairie Provinces with land grants. BC had much less agricultural land to grant than other Provinces, and they guessed that Canadian Northern was after timber rights, a much higher source of revenue. By the time Canadian Northern was building through the Kamloops area, and planned to by pass the community altogether, political influence by prominent and wealthy orchardists presuaded the Canadian Northern to locate their main line closer to Kamloops, and to build a line southward toward the Okanagan valley. CNor partially completed the spur towards Kamloops from the main line at Kamloops Junction, before going bankrupt in 1916. Canadian National completed the lines to Kelowna and Lavington after 1923, with portions of trackage rights over CP.

 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/09/16 14:13 by eminence_grise.

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