Kootenay & Arrowhead Railway

The Kootenay & Arrowhead Railway (AAR reporting mark KA, commonly abbreviated K&A) is a railway company operating in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia.

= History = The original Kootenay & Arrowhead Railway - established as another of the Canadian Pacific Railway's BC-registered "front" companies - was opened in 1902 on a 33.1 mile line from Gerrard on the southern end of Trout Lake to Lardo on Kootenay Lake, whence it was connected to the outside world by a rail ferry to Kaslo, at the time the eastern terminus of the Kaslo & Slocan Railway; the K&S was absorbed by the Columbia & Kootenay Railway in 1914. From Kaslo, there was a rail connection west to Sandon and on to Nakusp, and rail ferries to Balfour (Kootenay Railway, from 1912 Columbia & Kootenay Railway) and to Kuskonook (Bedlington & Nelson Railway). The primary reason for the existence of the railway was to serve the gold mine at Gold Hill, and in 1913 the British Columbia Marble & Granite Company was established at Marble Head; both of these remained important customers for many years.

In July 1916 the K&A was absorbed by the Canadian Pacific, becoming the CPR's Lardo Subdivision, and a steamboat service was introduced on Trout Lake to connect Gerrard to Trout Lake City. Initially this was operated by the small sternwheeler Victoria, but later the tug Procter, transferred from Kootenay Lake service, replaced the Victoria. In 1922, when the Great Northern Railroad had extended the former Bedlington & Nelson Railway's line from Kuskonook to Kootenay Bay, the ferry service from Kaslo to the former was redirected to the latter.

The CPR later extended the line north from Gerrard, opening a 27.1 mile section from Gerrard to Beaton in 1932; at the same time, the CPR discontinued the ferry service to Kaslo, replacing it with one from Beaton to Arrowhead, southern terminus of its Arrow Lake Subdivision, which connected the Lardo Subdivision to the transcontinental trunk line at Blaenau. The loss of the Lardo–Kaslo ferry meant that the Great Northern found itself without a connection to Lardo, and the GN decided that traffic levels between Kootenay Bay and Lardo were sufficient to warrant the extension of its Kootenay Bay–Kaslo ferry north to Lardo. This service remained in operation until 1978, when the Washington & British Columbia Railway (successor to the GN's BC operations from 1937) discontinued service north from Creston to Kootenay Bay.

The closure of the Gold Hill mine in 1961 resulted in a notable drop in northbound traffic, and in 1967 the CPR discontinued all but one daily freight train between Lardo and Beaton; to make up for the loss of the passenger service the mixed trains had provided, a bus was converted to run on rails, which ran two daily round trips between the two termini.

In 1984, the CPR closed the Lardo Subdivision, the Arrow Lake Subdivision, and the Beaton–Arrowhead ferry. The BC Marble & Granite Company, however, was still generating enough traffic that it opted to take over the line, purchasing it, the rail bus, and a single old diesel locomotive (Baldwin DS-4-4-1000 No. 7075, which had been assigned to the Lardo Subdivision in 1966) for the nominal price of 1 guinea (£1.1s.-, the standard unit used at auctions). The new owners continued to operate the rail bus over the entire line with a small subsidy from the municipal governments of Lardo, Gerrard, and Beaton, but the primary purpose of the purchase was to continue hauling marble and granite from Marble Head to the ferry slip at Lardo, whence it would be transferred to the British Columbia Railway ferry to Balfour on the Balfour Line - its run extended from Kaslo to Lardo in 1984 to receive the stone shipments. Initially the ferry sailed thrice weekly, but by 1990 this had dropped to a single Friday sailing, as the quarry's output dropped significantly. In 1993 the BC Marble & Granite Company closed down and the railway was officially abandoned.

The need for passenger transportation remained, however, and the municipalities, receiving support from the Ministry of Infrastructure and Rural Affairs, continued to operate the rail bus service. At the same time, the municipal governments and the Regional District of Columbia-Shuswap jointly looked for a private partner to establish a new company to operate passenger service on the line. A suitable partner was found in 1995, and on 12 July of that year, the current Kootenay & Arrowhead Railway was formally established. Work began immediately to refurbish the track, and three diesel railcars were purchased second-hand from BC Rail to replace the ageing converted bus. Revenue service on the line was restarted on 20 March 1996.

Although no such plans exist at the moment, the possibility of one day restoring freight service on the line, should it become needed, has not been ruled out.

= Motive power & rolling stock =

= Route and passenger services = There are six daily round trips between Lardo and Beaton Monday through Saturday, and four trips on Sundays and statutory holidays.