Image credit: CFJC Today/Anthony Corea

By Marty Hastings

GATHERING STEAM

Kamloops Heritage Railway Society reveals plan to restore Spirit of Kamloops, create one of world’s longest steam-powered train excursions

Dec 19, 2024 | 6:30 PM

“The trip is spectacular. Right off the bat, it’s a two-per-cent grade, so you’re climbing up the mountain and we climb that grade for 14 miles before we reach Monte Lake. At Monte Lake, we’ve got these sweeping views across the lake, beautiful in the fall, with those fall colours and the steam swirling around the engine. We criss-cross up and over Route 97 quite a few times and there will be cars waving at us. We go through the communities of Westwold and Falkland and then we’ll steam into Armstrong. Once we’re in Armstrong, the train will take a two-and-a-half-hour break and that will be for the crew, as well, and to water the engine. Guests will be able to dine and take a break in Armstong. A sharp blast of the whistle will signal everyone to come back to the train and we’ll continue on to Vernon. Guests in Vernon can either overnight there or be motorcoached to Kamloops or into the Okanagan Valley. The next day, it all reverses. Guests will be motorcoached directly downtown and they’ll be able to spend the night in downtown Kamloops at one of our various hotels. All that money will be kept downtown and in Kamloops.” — Jordan Popadynetz

Jordan Popadynetz explained the vision for renewal, a plan hatched to restore decommissioned steam locomotive No. 2141, the Spirit of Kamloops, and save the Kamloops Heritage Railway Society (KHRS).

“We have some gaudy goals, some monumental goals,” said Popadynetz, leader of railway development for the KHRS.

“The goal is to create one of the world’s longest steam-powered train excursions. It will be probably one of the most captivating and authentic steam-powered rail excursions in North America, if not the world. The track we’re looking at operating the train on is between here, downtown Kamloops and Vernon.”

Popadynetz said the KHRS was teetering on the edge of derailment last year.

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The train has been idle since 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on tourism and a coal-shipping agreement between CN Rail and Canadian Pacific Kansas City made 2141’s route from Lorne Street to the CN Junction too congested to accommodate the steam locomotive and heritage coaches.

Pivoting amid the pandemic, the society opened a museum and heritage park in its railway maintenance facility and on the surrounding Pioneer Park land.

The venture was shut down last year due to zoning issues and a new board was formed this past May.

“It came to the realization that hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours — eight years of hard work and labour (between 1994 and 2002) — has been put into the restoration and maintenance and operation of this train, and it really just doesn’t do it justice to sit in a backshop like it is now and to be turned into a museum, so a new board of directors was formed and the new board has that vision to get her out of the shed, get her operating again, get that whistling blowing again and take passengers on a memorable trip again.”

The goal is to have the engine under steam pulling out of the shop early in 2025 and hauling guests by 2026.

“CN is very willing for this train to still operate,” Popadynetz said, noting trip departures for the Kamloops-Vernon journey are expected to be scheduled for 8:30 a.m. in Campbell Creek. “It’s now just all about crossing the Ts and dotting the Is, ensuring it’s safe and we have everything in order to operate this excursion.

“When the engine was put into the museum, the locomotive was decommissioned. What that means is, basically, on paper, the engine’s boiler no longer exists. So what we have to do is we have to start from Square 1 and that includes dismantling the engine behind me, exposing the boiler of the locomotive and inspecting every four inches of the boiler to ensure it’s strength is there to really hold the steam in the boiler.”

Technical Safety BC and Acuren Engineering of Vancouver are overseeing the KHRS boiler project designed to bring the City of Kamloops-owned Spirit of Kamloops back to life, said Popadynetz.

The train’s guest capacity was about 350 in 2019, but two coaches have been sold since then, so that number has decreased to about 150 or 200.

Popadynetz said the plan is to build the fleet to accommodate at least 500 guests and restore the 1930-built Parlour Car No. 406 to its former glory, complete with ornate red velvet, stained glass, dry martinis and a baby grand piano.

“I cannot wait to be sitting in the dining car, having a beautiful local beverage, taking in the scenery and enjoying the hospitality that Kamloops has to offer,” said Maeghan Summers, vice-president of the KHRS. “Our community is a beautiful one that blends industrial and hospitality. What better way to combine the two than to put something like this on the track and give an authentic Kamloops experience. As a child, all I ever wanted was to ride this train. I cannot wait for this thing to be steamed up.”

The engine was completed in 1912, the same year the Titanic sunk.

No. 2141 was acquired by the City of Kamloops in 1961 and sat on display in Riverside Park until 1994, a giant playground piece and symbol of the city’s connection to the railway.

“This brings you back to a time when you first started walking this Earth,” said Bonaparte First Nation Chief Frank Antoine, a KHRS board member. “I called it an iron horse. When we were in our generation in Indigenous history, it came into our lives. Now, seeing the next generation and knowing it’s a part of our lives, we have to share that together. It’s the past, present and future we’re tying together.”

Many Kamloopsians remember holiday trips on the well-lit Spirit of Christmas to pick up Santa and elves, surviving a brush with Billy Miner and hopping on the Ghost Train.

No. 2141 is the last survivor among 25 sister engines.

“I’ll never forget it coming down the platform,” Popadynetz said, speaking of his first Spirit of Kamloops ride in 2002. “I was holding my mom’s hand. The steam came out of the engine and I say that right then and there, the steam got into my blood.

“I know the feeling our community gets when this engine’s whistle blows. It’s magical. It’s pure magic and we want to share that again.”

The society will send a delegation to seek city council support on Jan. 28 and it has launched a website, along with fundraising efforts.

“It’s now or never to keep it going,” Popadynetz said. “It’s now or never to pass the skills on. It’s now or never for succession planning and our board and staff are going to do it.”