The Jura loops

[pH]

We??™re just back from a couple of days in the Interior of British Columbia and while we were there, we walked the ???loops??™ on Jura Hill on the former Kettle Valley Railway. (The KVR was Canadian Pacific??™s ???second main line??? across the south of BC). Here they are on Google Maps:

http://maps.google.c...code=&q=belfort,+bc,+canada&sll=49.891235,-97.15369&sspn=40.253825,78.837891&ie=UTF8&t=h&hq=&hnear=Belfort,+Okanagan-Similkameen+H,+Okanagan-Similkameen+Regional+District,+British+Columbia&ll=49.528328,-120.492468&spn=0.019694,0.038495&z=15

 

(You may have to adjust the map a little bit to the east - I can't get it to bring up exactly what I saved.)

 

A lot of the trackbed of this line is included in the Trans-Canada Trail. It??™s accessible for walking, cycling and also ATVs, so it??™s kept in good condition. The weather was excellent, the autumn colours were beautiful and, since we walked them downhill, it wasn??™t too strenuous. The distance along the line from the Princeton-Summerland road at the top right of this map to the Belfort Road at the left is about 6 km, and with a 2.2% gradient (1 in 45), the drop in height is a bit over 400 feet.

 

I don??™t have any photos, but they wouldn??™t be very remarkable ??“ just the trackbed of a dismantled railway. It??™s the overall idea of the loops that??™s so spectacular, and that shows up best on the aerial photo I??™ve linked to above.

 

The KVR wasn??™t originally meant to come this way. By the time the decision was made that it should, money was tighter and the CPR wanted the line completed as quickly as possible. (It was 1914, and with WW1 looming, easier access was needed to the metals being mined in southern BC). Up till then, the ruling grade on the KVR has been 1 in 100, but it was decided that 1 in 45 would be acceptable over a short distance. These loops were needed to keep the gradient even to that.

[GoingUnderground]

Is the KVR all gone? I thought when I was in BC earlier this year that I saw a leaflet for it in a tourist office in Victoria. Am I wrong?

[pH]

Is the KVR all gone? I thought when I was in BC earlier this year that I saw a leaflet for it in a tourist office in Victoria. Am I wrong?

Keith, what you would have seen was a brochure for the Kettle Valley Steam Railway at Summerland. That's a 10km tourist railway, running on the track of the KVR - Kettle Valley Steam Railway.

 

The KVR was closed quite a while ago. The Coquihalla line (from Hope to Brodie) was abandoned in 1959 and lifted in 1962. The last train between Penticton and Midway was run in 1973 and the tracks lifted in 1979/80. The last section, from Spences Bridge to Penticton (including the Jura loops) lost service in 1989 and was lifted in 1991. The various branches lines had all gone by that time as well.

 

If you're interested in the KVR, there is an excellent book on it called "McCulloch's Wonder" by Barrie Sanford. It was originally published in 1977, and there was a '25th anniversary' edition in 2002.

[GoingUnderground]

Thanks, at least the memory's not gone to seed totally yet.

 

Hoping to go on the Rocky Mountaineer in 2011 Jasper-Vancouver Via Kamloops. Might just try to fit in a trip to the KV Steam as well if SWMBO lets me.

 

 

[Tony_S]

I think we may be going to Canada in 2011. Wife and child are still discussing about what and where, I'll try my best to fit in something to do with trains so the posts in this thread are very helpful. I did quite well with the New England trip this year!

 

Tony