More Than Forty Years of Service

The Kettle Valley Railway line, including the Coquihalla section, was completed in 1916. It operated for more than 40 years, linking communities in southern British Columbia. It took a great deal of effort to keep the trains running due to the harsh landscape and climate. The KVR was considered a dangerous railway. There were daily foot patrols, and brakes were tested before every hill. McCulloch himself checked every bridge and tunnel each year. A plow train or track car often went through the Coquihalla Pass looking for washouts or snowslides. Deep snow fell in the Coquihalla section with a record of 211 feet (63 m) in one winter. In 1917, a snow and rock slide hit the end of a plow train, and the caboose fell into the canyon. One crewman was killed. Others were hurt, including McCulloch. He then walked over 25 miles (40 km) to Hope on an injured leg. In the hot summer of 1931, a forest fire raged toward Myra Canyon. Water trains were rushed in to dampen the timbers of the wooden trestles and bridges. During that same summer, a plague of grasshoppers settled in the Okanagan. They stripped the orchards clean. They landed on the tracks and were crushed by the trains. The tracks became so greased that the trains could barely move.