History

The Kootenay Railway was chartered in 1888 to open a 3-foot narrow-gauge railway on a line proposed to run Nelson–Balfour–Queen's Bay–Ainsworth Hot Springs–Kaslo. Work, however, didn't begin until 1892, by which time the Columbia & Kootenay Railway had opened its Castlegar–Nelson line, so the first - and only - section of the Kootenay Railway ran 25.5 miles from Balfour to Taghum, a station on the C&K five miles west of Nelson.

This gave the C&K a rail connection to the Kootenay Lake steamboats sailing from Balfour to Kootenay Landing but the different gauges used by the two railways meant that freight had to be transloaded at Taghum. In 1899 the British Columbia Southern Railway completed its Cranbrook–Kootenay Landing line (the BCS was taken over by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1910). The problem of the change-of-gauge remained, however, and in 1901 the C&K bought a share of the Kootenay Railway in order to fund its conversion to standard gauge, which created an all-rail route from Kootenay Landing east to Canada and led to an important increase in traffic for the C&K.

In 1912, the C&K completed its takeover of the Kootenay Railway and absorbed it, and plans to extend the railway beyond Balfour to Kaslo were abandoned; instead, a rail ferry service was introduced between the two points. The CPR finally closed the gap between Kootenay Landing and Nelson in 1930; the new all-rail route between Nelson and Cranbrook rendered the Balfour–Kootenay Landing ferry superfluous and it was discontinued that year. In 1931 the C&K was in turn merged into the Kettle Valley Railway. Under the KVR, the former Kootenay Railway line from Taghum to Balfour, along with the Balfour–Kaslo ferry operated by the C&K, was made part of the Balfour Subdivision.

In 1955, the British Columbia Railway absorbed the Kettle Valley Railway, and the entirety of the original Kootenay Railway mainline became the Balfour Line. The line had lost much of its importance after the CPR put rail down all the way to Nelson in 1930, and traffic between then and 1955 was very local in nature, with only a few cars moving to Kaslo via ferry each week; it was primarily traffic from the Washington & British Columbia Railway's Bedlington & Nelson Line, moved by the W&BC rail ferry between Kootenay Bay and Balfour, that kept the line active. This proved fortunate, as severe flooding in the spring of 1955 forced the closure of the Arrow Lakes Line east of Zincton, which would have left Kaslo isolated had the Balfour Line and the Balfour–Kaslo ferry not still been operational. The W&BC ferry between Balfour and Kootenay Bay was discontinued in 1978

In 1984, the CPR closed its Lardo Subdivision between Lardo and Beaton; the BC Marble & Granite Company of Lardo opted to take over the line. Having also lost the CPR rail ferry from Beaton to Arrowhead and the connecting line to Blaenau, the BC Marble & Granite Company contracted the BCR to extend the Balfour–Kaslo rail ferry to Lardo. In 1986, the Kaslo service was discontinued, leaving the ferry running thrice weekly between Balfour and Lardo only; by 1990 this had dropped to a single Friday sailing, as the quarry's output dropped significantly.

In 1993 when the BC Marble & Granite Company closed down, leaving both the rail ferry and the Balfour Line itself superfluous, and both were closed.

Route

Balfour Line (Line 511)
Station	Milepost	Connecting lines	Notes
Taghum	0.0	Slluqan Valley Line
North Nelson	6.6	-
Willow Point	11.6	-
Crescent Bay	16.3	-
Longbeach	19.5	-
Fraser	23.4	-
Balfour	25.5	Arrow Lakes Line/Kaslo Station (to 1986) CPR Kootenay Landing–Cranbrook line (to 1930) Kootenay & Arrowhead Railway (to 1993) GN/W&BC Bedlington & Nelson Line (to 1978)	All connections via rail ferries