Canadian Railroads > A promise fulfilled, CN's Okanagan connection

The Canadian Northern, Canada's second transcontinental railway was a "system" of multiple charters and corporate entities.  The line through British Columbia was called the "Canadian Northern Pacific". East of the Rockies, the Canadian Northern had received generous land grants and investments in exchange for building multiple routes and branches to serve the prairie farmers. Truth be known, the CNor also had a profitable "Natural Resources" department which encouraged the development of coal mining in the Alberta foothills.

When the CNor decided to build a route through to Vancouver, the Government of British Columbia was not inclined to offer the same land grants as other Provinces the CNor served. The BC Government rightly assumed that CNor was anxious to secure valuable forest lands, in fact the CNor had a profitable lumber subsidiary operating along other portions of the railway outside of BC.

​So it was that the CNor was built across BC with far less subsidy than on other parts of the system. Mackenzie and Mann, the two financiers and chief executives of the CNor responded by saying that they would not serve any community already served by the CPR. In the case of Kamloops BC, it meant the CNor main line would bypass the city by several miles. The City of Kamloops and its elected representatives strongly objected to being bypassed and used political influence to have the CNor build a spur line to the city.

​By the time the CNor built west to Kamloops, the corporation was beginning to fail financially.  The route west through the Thompson and Fraser Canyons was expensive and challenging to build, and soon the railway failed to pay the construction companies, who in turn failed to pay the workers, massive labour unrest took place.

​The spur to Kamloops from Kamloops Junction was partially complete when the CNor collapsed in 1916.  The tracks only went as far as the north shore of the South Thompson river.  Some time before, the BC Government built a wooden trestle road bridge (the Red Bridge)  to the Kamloops First Nation and the CNor's Kamloops City station was built next to the north end of this bridge. In the image, a pair of baggage cars owned by the Kamloops Model Railroaders are visible at the site of the CNor shelter.

​When the Canadian National Railways were formed in 1923 , the first new construction was a line to Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley.  The CNor's spur to Kamloops was lengthened to cross the South Thompson on a swing bridge and connect to the CP main line. CN used trackage rights to connect with the newly constructed Okanagan branch at Campbell Creek BC.

A substantial brick station was built along Lorne Street in Kamloops which served as a dispatching office. For many years, the CN's transcontinental passenger trains made a short detour from Kamloops Junction to serve downtown Kamloops.

​Today, CN's Kamloops Lorne Street yard and station continue to serve as an interchange point between CP and CN, and in season, Lorne Street is the station where the "Rocky Mountaineer" boards passengers and the Kamloops Heritage Railway operates steam excursions from.

​In 2016, the "Keg" steakhouse vacated the station after 18 years. The building is vacant.

​In the images, a CN transfer is setting off cars for the CP in Lorne Street yard, the Red bridge is shown with the original CNor spur visible, and the CN's swing bridge over the South Thompson river is shown.

Very informative.  Thank you for sharing.  

If I'm undrstanding your description correctly, a Rocky Mountaineer train from Vancouver to Banff would use CN track via Kamloops Jct. to Kamloops Lorne Street for unloading, then the passengers load again at the CN station the next morning and proceed east on CP?  

Is there an identifying name where the CN switch blends in with the CP mainline just west of 10th Ave?  This would have been the western boundary of the CN trackage rights arrangement over the CP.  

I seem to remember an old issue of Model Railroader where they showed the small network of CN track in Penticton and opined that it would be a good railroad to model.  The operation was fed by a barge from Kelowna.  Do you know when this operation ceased?  Any pictures?    



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/17 10:51 by CA_Sou_MA_Agent.

Further to Eminence's information and your question:
All arriving RMR trains from the east (Banff & Jasper) and the west, (Vancouver) arrive at Lorne St Yard and unload guests to assigned buses for the trip to their hotels.

The next morning the guests are taken to Lorne St for the departure process for both eastbound and westbound trips.

The CN trackage, eastbound departures to Banff, will join CP at Kamloops East on the Shuswap Sub MP127.1

Images:
1. Loading a Vancouver bound train around 0730.
2. Jasper bound train departs east ward (north) to the CN Clearwater Sub.
3. Bridge across South Thompson,- fall morning departure.- heading to CN Ashcroft Sub and /or Cn Clearwater Sub.

Hope this helps.

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The building of the CN line to Kelowna in the 1920's bought about changes to CP's operations in the Okanagan valley.  The Shuswap & Okanagan Railway was built in the 1890's south from Sicamous on the main line to Okanagan Landing near Vernon. Sternwheel steamboats served Kelowna and Penticton.

​CN operated on two sections of trackage rights on CP, Kamloops to Campbell Creek on the main line, and Armstrong to Vernon on the CP Okanagan line. In exchange, both railways had traffic solicitation rights along the entire route, and CP had trackage rights from Vernon to Kelowna on the CN and Vernon to Lumby on the CN Lumby branch.
CP's steamboat service to Kelowna went into decline. CP and CN continued barge service between Kelowna and Penticton into the early 1970's.

​In Kamloops, the interchange between CP and CN was at CPCN Junction, later renamed Cheng Junction on the north side of CP's Kamloops yard, Until the late 1970's, there was a stockyard served by the CN just east of the interchange.

For the first fifteen or so years of operation, "Rocky Mountaineer" stabled and maintained their trains at CN's Lorne Street yard.