Home
2009
 Cordova Station
 

 
19 September 2009

Spiralling Through Kicking Horse Pass


As one end of this potash train exits the spiral tunnel, another
part of the same train is yet to enter.
 
 
Field British Columbia - As Calgary's glass towers disappear into the distance, prairie gives way to rolling foothills, and the Rocky Mountains take over the landscape, I stand on the back of Canadian Pacific Railway's Mount Stephen car on the same platform where world leaders and royalty once perched.
 
The distinctive black-topped maroon passenger car, built in 1926 for $72,522, is outfitted with leather armchairs and plush couches, and is where, according to CP lore, Winston Churchill, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Mackenzie King talked strategy before the Quebec Conference in 1943 when the Allies plotted the D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied France. On the walls hang pictures of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth during their 1939 Canadian tour, Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh during their coast-to-coast trek in 1951, as well as Churchill with King on that historic ride, each person standing in the same place I have settled in.
 
On this excursion, three diesel locomotives power the 12-car train, which includes a recently completed museum car that tells the 128-year-old story of CP, and its inseparable link to the development of Canada as a nation. We are bound for Field, B.C., 220 kilometres west, in Yoho National Park or, more chiefly, the Spiral Tunnels carved through the indefatigable Kicking Horse Pass. Construction of the Spiral Tunnels is credited with helping goods and people move more quickly - and safely - across the spine of the continent.
 
"In the railway industry, it's known as the holy place of railroading," says Doug Welsh, a retired 33-year veteran of CP, who is along for the ride.
 
When British Columbia joined Confederation in 1871, it was on the condition that prime minister John A. Macdonald agreed to tie it by rail to the rest of fledgling country. CP plugged away at the project, but faced a significant challenge on the steep western slope of the Rockies. The railway could have found an easier route by looking farther north, but it didn't want to chance abandoning territory to tenacious American railroaders to the south.
 
Under pressure to complete the transcontinental railway, CP was excused from the railway rule of track that the grade not exceed 2.2 percent. Trains were not supposed to climb or descend more than 2.2 feet for every 100 feet of track (the railway still operates exclusively in imperial measures), but CP would be allowed a 4.5 percent grade. What was supposed to be a temporary fix, which was completed in 1884 and became known as Big Hill, lasted 25 years.
 
The first train that attempted a descent, however, lost control and plunged into the Kicking Horse River below. Three crew members were killed. To prevent future tragedy, spur lines were built to divert runaway trains. Even still, tackling Big Hill remained daunting.
 
That didn't deter Lady Agnes Macdonald.
 
In 1886, the year after the last spike was driven in at Craigellachie, B.C., she joined her husband, Sir John A., on a cross-country journey.
 
By the time they reached what is now known as Lake Louise, she marched up front, feeling restless. She hopped on the cowcatcher, a fender to sweep away debris and wildlife, and, despite the danger, rode it down the Big Hill and all the way to Vancouver.
 
"She might have looked Victorian, but she was a little wild on the inside apparently," said Kristy Putman, a Parks Canada interpreter based in Field.
 
The Big Hill also proved inefficient and expensive. It required more locomotives and additional crew to move trains through. The laborious process also slowed the transportation line. CP's assistant chief engineer, John Edward Schwitzer, inspired by the Baischina Gorge railway tunnels in Switzerland, designed a pair of looping tunnels through the pass that also kept to the spirit of a 2.2 percent grade. An upper tunnel was blasted through Cathedral Mountain, spinning trains through 991 metres of rock, arriving at the exit at a different elevation. The lower tunnel, also with portals at different elevations, was blown through 891 metres of Mount Ogden.
 
For trainspotters, this is an iconic location in North American railroading. Canada has been described as a country linked by a ribbon of steel, and this spot has been called the bow. For shutterbugs, it is perhaps the premier way to capture a train in motion. If a train is long enough, it will appear to spiral over itself as the engine leaves one portal while the tail has yet to enter the other.
 
Without the luxury of modern technology or computers, workers carved out the tunnels at both ends, deviating only five centimetres off the mark when they met in the middle.
 
The $1.5-million project took two years to build and on 1 Sep 1909, the Spiral Tunnels were put into use - and were travelled by passenger trains on a regular basis until 1990, when VIA Rail ceased passenger service through them.
 
Now, only those aboard Royal Canadian Pacific, a luxury rail service chartered by luminaries including Bill Gates, Francis Ford Coppola, and George Lucas (with a five-star price tag of about $8,000 per person), or the Rocky Mountaineer, another premier touring company (with multi-day prices ranging from $889 to $2,399 per person), can experience Schwitzer's ingenuity.
 
Like other trainspotters, Ruth Gair, Schwitzer's 76-year-old granddaughter, has stopped off along the Trans-Canada Highway to watch the trains use the tunnels. With an estimated 120,000 visitors a year, it is one of the most stopped-at historical sites in Canada's national parks.
 
All along our journey, rail buffs - also called foamers for their near-frothing-at-the-mouth excitement - are hunkered down at intersections, near bridges, and tunnels to admire and photograph passing trains. They have mined schedules, websites, and CB radio chatter (Editor's note:  Does she possibly mean a scanner?) for news of approaching trains. Now, they wait.
 
I notice a large gathering as we prepare to pass Morant's Curve, a curved segment of track that stretches along the Bow River near Lake Louise, made famous by Nicholas Morant, a photographer for CP. I wave. They wave. I feel like a rock star.
 
I have driven this route along the Trans-Canada many times, but I have never seen the rivers, lakes, and mountains like this. The track meanders away from the road. We pass sites of particular historical interest, including the monument marking "the great divide," which, at an altitude of 1,625 metres on the Alberta-B.C. boundary, is the highest point of elevation along CP's main line.
 
Nature seems closer, bigger, and more perfect. As we chug along at 64 kilometres an hour, the aroma of pine needles and the hum of the wheels hang in the air.
 
Passengers are whisked inside as we slow to enter the first Spiral Tunnel. The car darkens. The smell of soot, diesel, and metal sneaks in. We are travelling in a circle, entering each tunnel at a different elevation than we will exit. In both tunnels, and in both directions, I feel neither the curve of the track nor the change in altitude.
 
When we emerge from the dark, passengers with cameras flood out the doors and hang their heads out openings to take pictures before the tunnels fade from view. I watch the foamers collapse their tripods, pack up their gear, and wander away.
 
When I finally get home, I can still feel the sway of the railcar beneath my feet. And the trip through history swirls in my head.
 
If You Go
 
GETTING THERE
 
By train:  Rocky Mountaineer, 1-877-460-3200, www.rockyMountaineer.com; Royal Canadian Pacific, 1-877-665-3044, www.royalCanadianPacific.com. Multiday packages or charters can be booked spring through fall on various routes, including between Calgary and Vancouver.
 
By car:  Field, B.C., is 206 kilometres west of Calgary on the Trans-Canada Highway. The Lower Spiral Tunnel viewpoint is east of Field just off the highway. The Upper Spiral Tunnel viewpoint is also accessible off the highway east of Field; turn north on Yoho Valley Road. Don't trespass on railway property:  It's illegal and dangerous. On average, 25 to 30 trains pass through the tunnels each day. There isn't a regular schedule, but if you see a train in Field, it will reach the tunnels in 10 minutes.
 
WHERE TO STAY
 
Visitors can camp, stay in a bed and breakfast, or travel to nearby Golden, B.C., and Lake Louise, Alta., for hotel accommodations. But there are two premier mountain retreats in the area:  Cathedral Mountain Lodge Yoho Valley Road, Yoho National Park; 1-866-619-6442; www.cathedralMountain.com. Two and a half hours from Calgary, three kilometres off the Trans-Canada Highway. From $195, spring through fall. Emerald Lake Lodge Yoho National Park; 1-800-663-6336; www.crmr.com. One kilometre west of Field on the Trans-Canada Highway. Open year-round. From $180.
 
WHAT TO DO
 
Hike to see the "stone bugs" workers stumbled upon during construction of the railway in the 1880s. Trilobite fossils were later determined to be more than 500 million years old and a major clue to the origins of life. Burgess Shale, one of the most significant fossil sites in the world, celebrates its centennial this year. You will need to be reasonably fit although you won't need serious climbing gear. Open, weather permitting, until the end of October. 1-800-343-3006.
 
Dawn Walton.
 
 Up to top
 
OKthePK Vancouver Island British Columbia Canada - http://www.OKthePK.ca/