Kaslo & Slocan Railway - Short but Important

Silver was discovered in the mountains above New Denver and Kaslo in 1891. Soon, the town of Slocan developed to support the mining operations. But, there was still a need to get the silver to market quickly. Kaslo was served by steam ships that plied the waters of Kootnay Lake; they connected the town with places like Nelson that already had rail service. It was natural to want to build a railway to bring the silver to these railway connections through the steamship service already in place. The Kaslo & Slocan Railway was a narrow gauge railway that connected Kaslo (on Lake Kootnay), Slocan (at the southern-most point on the Slocan Lake), and the mining community of Sandon

– the picture in this post card was taken at Sandon – (in the mountains between the two lakes). It operated 55 kilometers of track between 1895 and 1955. It was first operated by the Great Northern Railway. Later the operations were taken over by the Canadian Pacific Railway, which changed it over to standard gauge track. With financial backing from the Great Northern Railway (GNR), construction on the line started in 1895. GNR had a line that ran to Spokane, Washington and getting the silver to market would provide traffic (and revenue) for the GNR. The railway proceeded up the Kaslo River toward the pass of Seaton Creek, and continued across the mountains to Sandon. There was a switchback at one point because the grade was so steep. The labourers built more than 30 bridges between Kaslo and Sandon on steep mountain sides (Payne Bluff

- where the picture in this post card was taken - had a steep drop of over 1,000 feet) that would make my heart stop. As was the standard operating procedure in those days, the only tools used by this brave crew were dynamite and the typical hand tools. The railway began service on November 20, 1895. In its first year of operations, the railway made more than 500 round trips carrying 23,734 tons of freight and 28,307 passengers. But, less than 20 years later the railway was starting to lose money. The silver had been depleted, the treacherous terrain and weather had taken their tolls so that repairs were costly, and the number of passengers was dwindling. In 1912, the CPR agreed to lease the K&S for 999 years. The CPR rebuilt it to standard gauge and connected it with its already existing Nakusp & Slocan line by abandoning the exposed section across Payne Bluff and building a 6-mile extension from Zincton to Parapet and thereby establishing a line from Nakusp through to Kaslo in November 1913. The CPR operated the line until it was abandoned. The final blow came in 1955 when torrential rains washed out a large section of track at Three Forks. Ore traffic had been dwindling for years and the CPR decided not to rebuild. Its right-of-way was used to build a new road to New Denver. Neither of these post cards were printed in that era. The pictures on their fronts are reproductions by the Pioneer Postcards Company from Kelowna, British Columbia. The were printed by Wayside Press, Ltd. out of Vernon and Kelowna.