Vancouver, Victoria and Eastern Railway
After acquisition by the Great Northern Railway (GN), most of the route was built, but a passenger through service, using the arranged running rights on the tracks of other companies, never transpired.
Vancouver's dislike of the US encroachment equaled its contempt for CP's local monopoly, and its cartage of Kootenay traffic eastward.
Denied the benefits of this BC mineral wealth, Vancouver promoted the idea of an independent Coast-to-Kootenay railway.
[1] In 1898, Daniel Corbin's Kettle River Valley Railway, a paper railroad, sought such a federal charter.
[3] Meanwhile, CP's isolated Columbia and Western Railway (C&W) extended westward from West Robson via Grand Forks, reaching Midway by the end of 1899.
[5][6] However, Mackenzie and Mann, lacking favour with the federal party in power, made no progress, and resold a controlling interest in the charter to GN's James J. Hill in 1901,[7][6] and the balance in 1903.
No doubt Daly's involvement in the Nickel Plate Mine at Hedley influenced Hill to build westward and up the Similkameen River.
[8] In 1901, Edgar Dewdney surveyed the Cascade Mountains east of Hope, but his report to the BC government expressed no enthusiasm for any of the three prospective railway routes.
[10] GN being the greater threat, CP allied with former foe the Kettle Valley Lines (KVL).
[13] Curlew (WA)–Midway (BC) followed a gentle gradient, reaching Midway in November,[14] with passenger service commencing the next month.
[14] In October, the rail head reached Bridesville, then Molson across the border,[16] with passenger service commencing the next month.
Farther west in April 1907, a runaway construction train struck a parked locomotive at Oroville, killing one and injuring four.
[6] The rail head reached Hedley in August 1909 and Princeton in November, with passenger service commencing the next month.
[20] After World War I, plunging mineral production and meagre logging impacted the viability of both the VV&E and Kettle Valley Railway (KVR) lines in the Boundary region.
[20] Immediately east, Bridesville traffic largely travelled about 15 kilometres (9 mi) by road to the KVR in Rock Creek.
In 1972, spring runoff washed out a span of the Armstrong bridge near Nighthawk, closing the track north of the border.
[23] The GN $150,000 annual contribution to the Coquihalla trackage did make the route marginally economic for CP in the early decades.
[32] In the wintertime, GN ran trains as far north as Otter Lake, where crews cut blocks of ice to provide refrigeration for fruit packing and transportation.
The downhill grade to Wenatchee allowed a single locomotive to comfortably haul 50–70 loaded boxcars.
Running up to four round trips daily, handling both freight and passengers,[44] the service overshadowed the GN triweekly mixed-train option through the valley.
[46] In 1929, prior to abandoning, the Kilgard branch was connected to the nearby BCER line to service the clay pipe factory and a lumber company.
[23] In 1937, John Sullivan, a retired senior CP engineer, wrote to his counterpart McCulloch, stating, "Of all the blunders in railway building history, the CPR's southern British Columbia rail line is the greatest".
The animosity and rivalry between William van Horne and J.J. Hill was a factor, but so too was the railway building frenzy of the era, when the GTP, CnoR, and PGE were each naïve in their BC endeavours.
Great Northern Railway (with VV&E and W&GN subsidiaries) (blue).
Canadian Pacific Railway (with KVR subsidiary) (purple).
Kettle Valley Lines (dark purple).
