Lumby Line

The Lumby Line is an electrified and double-tracked 15.0 mile railway line of the British Columbia Railway (BC Rail) running from Middleton on the Okanagan Line to Lumby.

The Lumby Line is Line 401 of BC Rail's Kettle Valley Region.

History
The line from Middleton, Vernon to Lumby was opened in 1925 by the Kettle Valley Railway (KVR), as part of the KVR's Kelowna Subdivision.

After the oubtreak of the Pacific War, fears of Japanese attack on the coast led to Hoffar Aero Engines opening a massive new plant at Lumby in 1942; to serve this the Middleton–Lumby line (along with the KVR's Armstrong–Vernon–Kelowna line and the BCR's Slahaltkan Line) were double-tracked and electrified. After the war, the HAE plant became an automobile factory, since 1988 operated by British Columbia Rover-Leyland.

As soon as the electrification was completed, Kelowna–Vernon–Lumby passenger trains switched from locomotive-hauled trains to electric multiple-unit trainsets.

Services
The Lumby Line sees primarily freight traffic, but there is also a local commuter service along it.

Freight
This line is extremely busy with freight traffic moving to and from the Rover-Leyland facilities in Lumby; at Dure Meadow is the engine factory, and at South Lumby, a large freight-only sorting yard, begins a spur to Rover-Leyland's stamping and assembly facilities located southwest of the town of Lumby. At 100 acres, this complex is one of the largest in BC, and has a total of 3 miles of trackage within the plant area; railcars are moved around the factory by small diesel shunters built, owned, and operated by the factory.

BC's largest furniture factory, Lavington Planer Mills, is located at Lavington. Also at Lavington is the Okanagan Glass Works, which supplies window glass for Rover-Leyland, for the Vancouver Locomotive Works, for Supermarine BC, and for Bedford BC, amongst others. As well, there are some light industries at Coldstream Ranch.

Passenger
The only passenger train on the Lumby Line is the KalExpress commuter service introduced in 1993, operated by BC Rail under contract to Vernon Regional Transit. This service is operated with single-class electric multiple-unit trainsets painted in a special KalExpress livery, but owned by BC Rail.

KalExpress trains run between Armstrong and Lumby via Vernon with hourly service from 05:20 to 01:20 Monday through Thursday, 05:20 to 02:20 Friday and Saturday, and 07:20 to 0:20 on Sundays and statutory holidays.

Route
A yellow background indicates that that section of line is electrified.

• - KalExpress stop | - No passenger service