Monashees on the Grizzly Northern Railway!

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The Caribou News and Chronicle

Since 1909

Kamloops, British Columbia           Wednesday 16 April 1930               

Monashees on the Grizzly Northern Railway!

An enthusiastic crowd of 500, both railway people and townsfolk,  turned out yesterday at the Grizzly Northern’s Kamloops station to welcome the arrival of the railway’s latest major purchase, two enormous articulated steam locomotives, known as 2-6-6-2 “Mallets”. The two engines, Grizzly Northern No’s 8001 and 8002, purchased from their original owner, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, were delivered via Minneapolis and St Paul, Moose Jaw, and Calgary. Operating together the two Mallets had hauled Soo Line and Canadian Pacific railway freight trains of up to 120 box cars as they made their way north to their new home in Canada.

Mr. Artemius Vandonkers, Chairman of the Board of Directors and recently retired President and General Manager of the railway officiated at the welcoming ceremonies, together with Mr. Isambard Neuville, the Grizzly Northern’s President and General Manager. Mr. Vandonkers announced to much applause that the Grizzly Northern’s 2-6-6-2’s would be known as class T5, and following a poll of the railway’s employees, called “Monashees”, after the Monashee mountain range through which the Grizzly Northern mainline runs.

The two locomotives, built by American Locomotive Company in January 1923, have been bought to handle increased traffic on the 39 mile-long branch line between Geiranger, Brunel. and Kingdom, running through Horsefly Pass. Traffic on the branch line has been busy for years, servicing the coal mine at Brunel and the copper mine at Kingdom and has increased dramatically with the opening last year of the Goldsworthy coal mine near Brunel. The two Monashees will largely replace the much smaller 2-8-0 “Consolidations” that have serviced the route until now. Each Monashee is capable of handling heavy coal or ore trains that currently require two or three Consolidations on the 3 percent grades between Geiranger, Horsefly Summit and Kingdom.

Maudie-Ann Currie

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The Climb Over Horsefly Summit - September 1930

Tales From The Grizzly

 The Climb Over Horsefly Summit – September 1930

An early dawn sky on Tuesday 23 September 1930 in Kingdom, British Columbia. The temperature at 7:00 am was just above freezing. A strong wind chilled by the Prince Albert Glacier blew down on Kingdom from the east side of the valley, unbroken by the dark stunted spindly fir trees along the tree line. Patches of yellowing trembling aspens mixed with black firs brightened the otherwise grey mountainside. The intensely blue sky was unmarred, except for a large mass of dark grey nimbostratus clouds piling up to the far south, beyond Horsefly Summit. A small flock of bighorn sheep browsed  on a patch of alpine grass near the town, while higher up two mountain goats could be seen picking their way along a cliffside.

The town, population 500, located at 5,200 feet above sea level and below the western edge of the glacier, was home to the Kingdom Copper Mine. The mine lift house, buildings and mine rail sidings were located across the Yee Haw River from the town, a mile away and 500 feet higher, above the tree line. The Yee Haw’s headwaters flowed from the toe of the Prince Albert Glacier, the rapidly moving water coloured an opaque light grey from the large volume of fine glacial till in suspension. A railway spur line ran from the Grizzly Northern yards across the river and up to the mine.

Kingdom had only three streets – Railway Street and intersecting 1^st and 2^nd streets, surfaced with course gravel and tailings from the mine tip and bordered by rough wood plank sidewalks. The only commercial buildings of note were on Railway, on the opposite side of the street from the Grizzly Northern station and yard office. Typical of many western towns of that era the hastily constructed buildings were mostly of clapboard construction, with high false fronts and raised front porches. None of Kingdom’s buildings were painted, all beginning to weather into a grey like the mountainside above the town.

Commercial signs provided the only colour that relieved the monotonous grey that enveloped Kingdom:  “Hooper’s Grocery, General Store and Post Office”, “King’s Inn Boarding House –Viola Bloom Proprietress” and “Wong’s Sanitary Laundry and Barber Shop”. Kelley O’Brian’s “Victoria Café” was on 1^st Street, just around the corner from Harry Hooper’s store. “Pylyp’s Livery Stable and Blacksmith” shop was located behind Viola Bloom’s boarding house, on 2^nd street. The town was quiet at this hour except for the crow of a rooster from a home on 2^nd street, the clanging of Yuri Pylyp’s hammer as he worked on new horseshoes on  his anvil, the hiss and chuff of steam from engines in the railway yard and a low rumble coming from the mine operations across the river.

Southbound freight  (Extra Number One South) stood ready in the Kingdom freight yard, headed by Grizzly Northern No. 8001, one of two massive articulated 2-6-6-2 “Monashees” that had recently entered service on the 39 mile long Geiranger – Kingdom branch line. Wisps of steam issued from several points around the front and rear cylinder sets, a very pale plume of smoke and steam issued from the smokestack; periodically the thunk-thunk of the twin air compressors could be heard against the background muted roar of the smokestack blower.

Extra Number One South consisted of 25 40-ton hoppers, laden with copper ore destined for the concentrator at Geiranger, plus a van (caboose) at the end. No. 8001 would lift the 1,000 ton train up to  Horsefly Summit and down to Geiranger without pusher assistance, although speed would be limited due to the punishing grades and sharp curves on both sides of the summit.

The crew members who would handle Extra Number One South were Bart Beckerleg - engineer, Bart’s longstanding partner, Ben Locke - fireman, Moses McLeod -conductor, Erskine Brown - head-end brakeman and Oscar Plummer, as rear - end brakeman. Bart and Ben had been close buddies since the Great War*. Bart, his wife Felicia and their five children lived in a railway-owned clapboard house on 1^st  Street. Ben Locke and his wife Leonora lived across the street from the Beckerlegs, above the Victoria Café. The rest of the crew were boarders at Viola Blossom’s boarding house. Since the morning run down to Geiranger usually took just over four hours and as there normally was a consist of empty hoppers waiting to be brought up to Kingdom in the afternoon, the crew could expect to be home in time for their suppers.

* See Notes at end

Earlier that morning, starting at 4:00, engine hostler Ernie Sugden had been at work servicing No. 8001 outside the two-stall engine shed; building up the fire, which had been banked overnight, filling side rod lubrication pots, sand dome, coal bunker and water tank, and then parking the engine on the ready track, where the train crew would take charge.

About 6:15 am, after gathering together for a slap-up breakfast at Kelley O’Brian’s café, as was their Tuesday tradition, the train crew had straggled across the tracks to the yard office to check time pieces and pick up train orders. An 0-6-0 yard switcher crewed by Septimus Shad and Jean-Pierre Pellé had already marshalled the train consist. By 6:45 am the train crew had coupled their big Monashee to the consist and built up pressure in the train’s air brake lines.     

Bart Beckerleg climbed back into the engine cab following a final walk-around inspection. Ben Locke, was at work, having checked the water sight-gauges, and was now placing several well aimed shovels of coal in the firebox to adjust the fire-bed level. Although the mechanical stoker appeared to be working satisfactorily, Ben Locke was a perfectionist and liked to fine-tune his fire. Ben had already brewed a pot of coffee using a convenient ledge on the intensely hot firebox backhead. Erskine (Skinny) Brown joined Bart and Ben in the cab for a quick coffee, before heading for the rear-facing “doghouse” on the tender deck, from where he would keep an eye on the train. In contrast to his nickname Skinny was a man of generous proportions, weighing 250 pounds and 6 ft tall. He barely fit inside the tender doghouse.

Moses (Mo) McLeod and Oscar (Ozzie) Plummer walked back to the caboose, installed tail-end marker lanterns, checked supplies, including fusees, track torpedoes and lantern fuel, tucked away their lunches in the ice box (ice certainly was not in short supply in Kingdom), lit the pot-bellied stove and put on the kettle for a pot of tea. Both Mo and Ozzie  were dedicated tea grannies. They sat down to review and fill in various bits of paperwork while waiting for Bart Beckerleg to confirm all was ready up front.

The sun began to show over the Prince Albert Glacier just after 7:00 am. Bart Beckerleg gave two short blasts of the whistle and looked back for Mo McLeod to acknowledge readiness at his end of the train. Mo gave a highball wave of his lantern. Bart released engine and train brakes and gradually opened the throttle, with the Johnson bar in long cutoff, admitting steam to the two sets of cylinders in compound mode – high pressure to rear cylinders, low pressure to front cylinders. Later he would set the engine working in simple mode, high pressure to both front and rear cylinder pairs, to increase tractive effort on difficult stretches of track, at the expense of increased coal and water consumption.

The two sets of drivers briefly slipped on the damp rails, resulting in a series of staccato blasts from the smokestack before traction was gained and the exhaust settled down to a steady deep repetitive chuff. All coupler slack was pulled out gradually, the caboose began to move and Bart opened up the throttle to increase speed. Within several minutes the train was moving at 10 miles per hour as it left the Kingdom yard limits (Mileboard 39.0, i.e. 39 miles from Geiranger). The maximum speed reached on the 1,200 feet descent to Brunel, 8.6 miles to the south, would be 15 miles per hour due to the steep grades and sharp curvatures.

Brunel, Mileboard 30.4, at 4,000 feet above sea level was the site of the Brunel Coal Mine, source of fuel for the Grizzly Northern’s motive power. Extra Number One South rolled through Brunel without slowing, conserving momentum for the start of the 5.7 mile climb up the 3.3% grade to Horsefly Summit.

While the Yee Haw River continued its downwards course to its junction with the Running Bear River at Geiranger, from Brunel the rail line was forced to climb along the precipitous narrow canyon walls of Horsefly Pass, crossing back and forth across the river several times and through a number of closely spaced tunnels and a long snow shed in a section known as “Hades Door”, between French  , Mileboard 27.1, and the summit, Mileboard 24.7.

As the train continued to climb past French, the weather changed dramatically. The dark grey cloud mass that had been seen earlier swept over and down the mountains, bringing high winds, dropping temperature and rapidly falling heavy snow. Flashes of lightning lit up the dense clouds and thunderous crackling booms echoed up and down Horsefly Pass. A rapid sequence of cloud to ground lightning bolts crashed down just a few hundred yards ahead of the engine, the thunder shaking the entire engine. The crew were next startled by the sight of blue and violet coloured electrical flame-like discharges wicking upwards from the four pressure relief valves located at the boiler mid point. While they had heard of Saint Elmo’s Fire in connection with tall sailing ships, this was new to them insofar as railroading was concerned.  

Visibility ahead quickly dropped to no more than a dozen feet as the main brunt of the snow storm hit the train. The locomotive drivers began to lose transaction as ice build up was encountered on the rails. Bart Beckerleg turned on the rail sanders and cautiously juggled the Johnson bar and the throttle, however the drivers began to slip intermittently, first the front set, then the rear set. Train speed dropped to an agonizing five miles per hour or less, despite Bart’s best efforts.

Extra Number One South crawled into Horsefly Summit (altitude 5,070 feet above sea level) under whiteout conditions. Bart stopped the train with 8001 next to the small station house - barely visible from the cab. Both semaphore arms on the station mast were in down indicating “Stop” for trains in either direction. The passing track, the yard service track and the pusher turning wye were empty. No one was to be seen on the station platform, nor visible through the snow-plastered station windows.

Bart clambered down from the cab and staggered across the station platform, nearly being bowled over by the 50 mile-an-hour winds. Bursting into the station, followed by a gust of snow,  he was greeted by Silas Snoresby (station master) and Télesphore Titmouse (telegrapher) - both were astounded to see Bart, not having seen or heard 8001 roll up, given the force of the storm Silas excitedly exclaimed “Bart, Seamus O’Rourke at French says he’d felt a massive shaking and heard an enormous roar from Hades Door just after you passed his station and thought you must have been caught by a slide." He went on “The line is blocked by slides between Geiranger and Currie and it’s going to take a rotary and a crew to clear it. You guys better be prepared to spend the night here. Geiranger has directed that you not continue until further notice. At the rate this snow is falling they’ll need to run the rotary up here and through to Kingdom!”.

Snow drifts were piling up around the station and the train. Bart staggered back to 8001 to alert Ben Locke and Skinny Brown. A series of sharp whistle blasts and quick taps on the brake pipe pressure served to get  the attention of Moses McLeod and Ozzie Plummer in the caboose, a thousand feet to the rear. Moses and Ozzie rightly concluded that they should join the head end crew. Bart and Ben prepared 8001 for a lengthy unattended wait and closed up the cab as best they could against the blasting snow. Skinny managed to clamber up front and capped the smoke stack with the butt end of a 45 gallon drum, kept in the coal bunker – to conserve firebox and boiler heat. Moses and Ozzie staggered their  way up from the caboose, keeping hands on the hopper cars lest they get lost. Together now, the crew were only too ready to head for the warmth of the station office.

Apart from several utility and storage buildings the two story station was the only major structure sitting on the wind swept summit. Considering that the weather conditions at the summit were usually foul (snow, hail and heavy rain were not unusual in mid summer), the station was strongly built; apart from the usual office and storage facilities including under the one roof, a kitchen, coal and wood shed, and mercifully at the rear, a privy accessible without having to go outside. The kitchen pantry was always well stocked with basic provisions, in anticipation of the station being isolated at any time. Three rooms upstairs provided sleeping quarters for the resident station master and telegrapher and for any others overnighting for whatever reason – such as the just arrived crew from Extra Number One South.

Silas Snoresby, whose previous occupation had been a cook at the Palliser Hotel in Calgary, prepared a large stew in the kitchen while Télesphore and the others leaned in to help prepare supper. After eating and wash-up the crew settled down to wait out the storm, passing the time playing poker, catching a bit of sleep around the office’s pot bellied stove, or kipping out on double bunk beds in the large room upstairs. A bit of evening entertainment was provided by a good-old-fashioned sing-along, accompanied by Silas plunking on his guitar and Télesphore on a fiddle.

Silas and Télesphore had comfortable beds in their own rooms. The two were brothers-in law; their families lived down the line in Currie, Mileboard 15.6, an arrangement which suited them, since their respective wives, Temperance and Chastity, had tempers that lived up to their family name, which was Harridan. Despite that Silas and Télesphore managed to get to Currie often enough to inspire population growth there from time to time.

The telegraph key clattered away in the background, mainly repeating messages between Geiranger and Rocky Mountain House and head office in Kamloops. Télesphore kept an ear tuned and updated the others on the news as the day and night passed. It was evident that the rapidly moving and massive snow storm had caught everyone by surprise, heavy snow blocking the Grizzly Northern mainline at a number of points in the Running Bear Pass on either side of Geiranger, as well as on the branch line between Geiranger and Horsefly Summit.

Early Wednesday morning the skies began to clear. A message was received from Geiranger that a rotary plow train with work crew was on the way and expected to reach the summit about noon. Silas went to work on preparing breakfast while the train crew struggled out the door and through three feet of drifted snow to take stock of their train. Heavy snow was banked up against No. 8001, almost to the height of the cab floor and over the drivers.  Similarly the train itself was half covered by snow. It was obvious that they would have to wait for the rotary and the work crew to clear away enough snow to get them going again.  In any case there was also the question as to what state 8001’s firebox and boiler were in after standing for so many hours, even though the outside temperature had only dropped to 20 degrees F overnight.

Towards noon the relief train came into view, the rotary plow throwing a magnificent plume of snow many yards to the side of the right of way. Two 3900 series 2-8-0 Consolidations  provided the train’s motive power, trailing a  retired passenger coach occupied by the work crew of some twenty men. The rotary train paused at the station to let the work crew off to start work on clearing Extra Number One South, then continued northwards to Kingdom.

While Bart Beckerleg and Ben Locke cleared their way up and into the cab, Skinny Brown climbed over the banked snow to the top of the smoke box, where he retrieved the 45 gallon steel drum cap from the smoke stack. Only a thin layer of coal embers remained in the firebox and steam pressure had dropped to 90 lbs. Ben kindled a roaring fire with wood borrowed from the station wood pile;  followed that with strategically placed scoops of coal until a solid fire bed had been built up, then started the automatic stoker. Several hours would be required to get boiler pressure up to 210 lbs operating pressure. Bart did his engine  walk around inspection, checked gauges and kept an eye on the work crew as they cleared away No. 8001.  Mo McLeod and Ozzie Plummer, joined by Skinny Brown, began setting brake retainers on the hopper cars, after the work crews had cleared away enough snow on each car.

By 2:00 pm and in bright sunlight Extra Number One South was ready to roll south once more. Bart eased the train out of the summit yard and onto the 3.5% descending  grade, passing through Haig and on to Currie at ten miles per hour, car brakes smoking and squealing loudly. South of Currie the grade reversed, becoming a 0.8% climb through Joffre and Clemançeau to Geiranger.

Extra Number One South rolled into Geiranger just after 4:30 pm. The crew left the ore hoppers on the Monarch Mines ore concentrator service track, parked their van adjacent to the roundhouse and then turned No. 8001 over to hostler, Basil Palfreyman, who would service it ready for tomorrow’s work.

Booking off at the yard office at 5:30 pm, the crew headed over to Butterfly Wu’s “Raven Café” for supper, where they found other crews exchanging yarns about their experiences during the monster storm. They would spend the night at the YMCA bunkhouse, turning in early since the wake up call would come at 05:30 am Thursday morning. Then Extra Number One North would be ready to roll and another day would be spent on the Kingdom branch line, hopefully not quite as demanding as over the past two days.

 -000-

Notes:

Bartholomew (Bart) Joshua Beckerleg was born in England in 1882 and emigrated to Canada in 1904; then worked as a farmhand near Macklin, Saskatchewan. In August 1914, on the outbreak of the Great War he enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF).

Benjamin (Ben) Aloysius Locke was born in St. Profiterole, Argenteuil County, Quebec, the son of  an Irish Canadian father and a French Canadian mother. Leaving the farm he join the CEF at Valcartier in early 1915.

Bart and Ben met for the first time in April 1917 during the battle of Vimy Ridge. They remained partners until discharged on return to Canada in 1919, and then afterwards, when they responded to  employment ads in 1921 seeking men to build and operate the Grizzly Northern’s branch line from Geiranger to Kingdom .

Cast of Characters:

Bartholomew  (Bart) Beckerleg-engineer, Benjamin (Ben) Locke-fireman, Moses (Mo) McLeod-conductor, Erskine (Skinny) Brown-head-end brakeman and Oscar (Ozzie) Plummer-rear-end brakeman. All in Kingdom

Felicia Beckerleg, Bart’s wife

Leanora Locke, Ben’s wife

Engine hostler Ernie Sugden, Kingdom

Septimus Shad and Jean-Pierre Pellé, Engineer and Fireman, Kingdom yard O-6-O

Viola Blossom, King’s Inn and Boarding House, Kingdom

Charlie Wong,  Wong’s Sanitary Laundry and Barber Shop, Kingdom

Kelley O’Brian, Victoria Café, Kingdom

Harry Hooper, Hooper’s Grocery, General Store and Post Office, Kingdom

Yuri Pylyps, Pylyp’s Livery Stable and Blacksmith, Kingdom

Silas Snoresby – Station Master, Horsefly Summit

Télesphore Titmouse – Telegrapher, Horsefly Summit

Temperance (Harridan) Snoresby – Silas’ wife, Currie

Charity (Harridan) Titmouse – Télesphore’s wife, Currie

Seamus O’Rourke – Telegrapher, French

Basil Palfreyman – Engine Hostler, Geiranger

Butterfly Wu – Proprietress of  Raven Café, Geiranger

Copyright ® R.T. Neuville, 2012

The History of the Grizzly Northern Railway

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The following history of the Grizzly Northern Railway was published as part of the 1 July 1938 Dominion Day special issue of the “The Caribou News and Chronicle”. Maudie-Ann Currie, the Chronicle’s Editor and Publisher wrote the article.

The annual holiday on which Canada’s birth as a nation is celebrated was originally known as "Dominion Day". The Canadian Parliament changed it to “Canada Day” on October 27, 1982.

The Caribou News and Chronicle

Since 1909

Kamloops, British Columbia           1 July 1938           Dominion Day Special Issue

The Grizzly Northern Railway

Many readers of the Caribou News and Chronicle will be familiar with the sight of Grizzly Northern Railway trains, however they may not be aware of the story as to how the railway came into being. As part of our Dominion Day celebrations we’ve put together this brief history of the railway, which is based on interviews with railway old timers and the archives of the railway, which were kindly made available to me by Isambard Dunstan Neuville, the Grizzly Northern Railway’s President and General Manager.

Maudie-Ann Currie

The Grizzly Northern Railway runs from our bustling city of Kamloops, to Rocky Mountain House in Alberta, with a mainline length of 380 miles. Rocky Mountain House, known informally as “Rocky”, is a town of 1,000 people that lies on the North Saskatchewan River, at the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains, 50 miles west of Red Deer, Alberta.

The major part of the Grizzly Northern, a distance of 250 miles, was constructed between 1906 and 1914 as the Groetli Northern Railway, running from Groetli, Alberta, a small coal mining settlement several miles west of Rocky, to Grizzly, British Columbia. The town of Grizzly, as most readers know, is 130 miles northeast of Kamloops, on the North Thompson River. The Canadian Pacific Railway acquired the assets of the Groetli Northern and completed the railway line between Grizzly and Kamloops in 1920, renaming it the Grizzly Northern Railway. 

The late 1890’s and early 1900’s were economic boom times on the Canadian prairies and the Pacific coast. Within a year of the discovery of large gold finds in the Klondike Valley in 1897, thousands of men with their pack animals poured into the interior of British Columbia, the Peace River country and the Yukon and Northwest Territories. Those who would supply the many needs of those who moiled for gold followed them. Some would stay only temporarily, until they rushed off to the scene of the next gold rush, others would stay to homestead in the west, establishing farms, businesses and industries.

Strongly encouraged by the federal, provincial and territorial governments and enthusiastically supported by ambitious railway builders, western populations increased rapidly through immigration from eastern Canada, the United States, Great Britain and Europe. Towns and cities appeared almost overnight. The products of western farms, forests, mines and fisheries were in much demand in the Americas, Great Britain, Europe and the Far East. With that demand and the need to also transport legions of passengers in both directions, railway companies sprang up, eager to meet those needs.

Into this scene stepped Horatio Heyerdahl Hardanger. Horatio Hardanger was a wealthy Norwegian businessman who had arrived in Canada in 1899 with the object of setting up a transatlantic steamship company headquartered in Montreal. Hardanger, later to become Sir Horatio H. Hardanger KCMG, was born in Hardangervidda, Norway in 1855. He was every bit the descendent of his father’s Viking ancestors, being six ft. six in. tall, weighing 250 lbs, with a fiery-red bushy beard and head of hair and piercing blue eyes.  His stentorian voice thundered at those standing in the way of progress of his project.  Hardanger had learned the railway trade and made his wealth as a brilliant young civil engineer and entrepreneur, building railways in the mountains of Norway, Switzerland and India. Hardanger’s father was Carl Gustav Vigeland, owner of the Bergen-Newcastle Steamship Line. His mother was Lady Lily Vanessa Trollope, a famous English writer from Newcastle upon Tyne, England. 

Hardanger upon re-assessing business opportunities in Canada concluded that the railway business offered a more promising prospect than a steamship line, and noted in particular that there was ample room for another railway in the Canadian west. He therefore set about founding a railway company that would link the central western prairies to the interior of British Columbia and the northwest Pacific coast; that would carry passengers, finished goods and equipment, agricultural, forestry, mining and fishing products.

Hardanger’s concept was a railway that would run from Groetli, then part of the North West Territories, to 100 Mile House in the British Columbia interior, that would turn northwards to Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory and then run down to Skagway on the Alaskan coast; from where ships could carry away Canadian products to the rest of the world. Groetli, founded largely by Scandinavian immigrants, was a bustling frontier town of 500 people in 1900, with a majority of the male population employed in coal mining. Others operated businesses as outfitters and suppliers to those still rushing to the Yukon to explore for gold, even though the Klondike Gold Rush was at its end.

In crossing the Rockies, Hardanger’s railway would run parallel to the Canadian Northern Railway and the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway to the north, both of these railways then being under construction in the Yellowhead Pass. To the south lay the Canadian Pacific Railway, with its established route through the Kicking Horse Pass. The duplication of routes through the Yellowhead Pass would be eliminated later when the Canadian Northern and Grand Trunk Pacific were merged into what is known today as the Canadian National Railway.

In early 1902 Hardanger commissioned a field party led by Angus Ranald Kirkcaldy to search for a suitable route across the mountains. Kirkcaldy, a wiry, cantankerous little Scottish railway surveyor, was the son of a crofter family born in Spean Bridge, Scotland. He had gained his experience while working on the location for the North Western Railway lines through the Bolan and Khyber Passes in India and Afghanistan. Kirkcaldy and his four man team, fuelled mainly by oatmeal, corned beef and Scotch whiskey, carried out their search over the spring to fall seasons of 1902 and 1903. Kirkcaldy concluded that the little known Running Bear Pass in the Columbia Icefields was the most direct way through the Rockies from Groetli, rather than the nearby Howse Pass and recommended this route to Hardanger, despite the steep grades and convoluted railway line that would be required. Given his experience and eternal optimism Hardanger was not fazed by the prospect of building a railway through the Running Bear Pass and the rugged mountain ranges to the west and northwest.

After sailing between Canada, Great Britain and Europe a number of times, Hardanger obtained British and European financing worth $10,000,000 by April 1904, following which the “Groetli Northern Railway” (the “GNR”) was formally incorporated in July 1904. Angus Kirkcaldy and his surveyors completed detailed route survey work in November 1905.

Hardanger hired Artemius Breukelyn VanDonkers, a hard-driving American railroader as the GNR’s Construction Manager. VanDonkers in contrast to Hardanger was a short stocky man, 5 ft. 4 in. tall, weighing 240 lbs, with a prodigious appetite for fine cigars, food, wine and glamorous women. VanDonkers was born in Stuyvesant, New York, the son of Cornelius VanDonkers, a wealthy steel magnate and Jessica Melba Jefferson, a prominent Philadelphia socialite. VanDonkers was noted for wearing the latest European fashions at all times, irrespective of the weather or the primitive conditions often prevailing when building new railways in undeveloped territories. He always wore an elegant silk hat and carried a gold tipped Malacca walking cane, usually causing amusement in those people meeting him in the rough conditions of the field for the first time. Despite his deceiving elegant appearance, like Hardanger, VanDonkers had a voice, manner and obvious competence that commanded attention and got results from his crews.

VanDonkers gathered together a 2,000-strong construction gang of experienced tracklayers, tunnel and bridge builders and other trades, many of whom had just finished working under VanDonkers in building a railroad in the northwestern United States. His Master Builder, responsible for the many tunnels, bridges and other structures, was Isambard Dunstan Neuville, originally a tin mine miner from Cornwall in England. VanDonkers’ construction crew started laying track at Groetli on the 31^st of March 1906, moving westward across the foothills and into the Rockies, following the North Saskatchewan River to its headwaters in the Columbia Icefields, near to what was to become the coal mining town of Clinemore, Alberta.

On the 22^nd of July 1909 the Groetli Northern railhead reached the Continental Divide at the eastern end of the Running Bear Pass, 58 miles west of today’s Clinemore and 125 miles west of Groetli, at an altitude above sea level of 5,010 ft. To commemorate the occasion an impressive stone cairn was erected at Nigel siding, one half mile east of the Continental Divide, near the headwaters of the Running Bear River. The cairn may be seen today from the train and also from the new Icefields Parkway now under construction.

The turbulent Running Bear River, generously fed by the Icefield glaciers, drops rapidly over the 46 miles from Nigel to its junction with the Columbia River at Flummery on Kinbasket Lake. Formidable steep-sided mountains confined the narrow pass, and limited the opportunities for relieving the effects of steep grades and tight curves. Hardanger. Kirkcaldy and VanDonkers decided that to avoid punishing 5% grades (264 ft. incline per mile), two spiral tunnels would be needed in the descent along the river, the first tunnel to be located three miles west of Nigel and the second tunnel two miles further on. In the summer of 1912 the two tunnels were completed, limiting grades to a maximum of 4% (211 ft. per mile) and average of 3% (158 ft. per mile) in the eleven-mile drop from Nigel to Geiranger, British Columbia. Geiranger sits on the Running Bear River flats where the pass briefly widens out and the Yee-haw River coming from the north joins the Running Bear.

Over the next two years track construction continued, from Geiranger running along the Running Bear River to its junction with the Columbia River at Flummery, then bypassing the Selkirk range via the northwards loop of the Columbia along Kinbasket Lake, before swinging southwards with the river along the east side of Lake Revelstoke for 25 miles; next crossing the lake and turning westwards to cross the largely unexplored Monashee mountains through a series of long tunnels, snow sheds and wooden trestles.

Numerous unplanned interruptions in the construction work occurred as unforeseen physical obstacles were encountered in the Monashees, and as money to cover escalating payroll and material costs was frequently exhausted.  Horatio Hardanger was forced to shuttle back and forth to Great Britain and the European continent several times to bolster investor confidence and raise new moneys, despite a slowing world economy and increasing political tensions between the Great Powers.

The Groetli Northern rail line reached the North Thompson River in mid-April 1914 at Grizzly, British Columbia, 130 miles northeast of Kamloops. Due to over-extended financial resources and the onset of the Great War in August of 1914, which resulted in many able bodied men leaving to join the Canadian Expeditionary Force, construction of the Groetli Northern beyond Grizzly was suspended on 28 October 1914 and bankruptcy was declared.

In June 1916 the Canadian Pacific Railway (the “CPR”) acquired the assets of the bankrupt Groetli Northern to avoid it being acquired by the Canadian Northern, the Grand Trunk Pacific, or James J. Hill’s St. Paul-based Great Northern Railway. The CPR elected to operate the newly acquired assets as a corporate subsidiary and incorporated these as the Grizzly Northern Railway (conveniently still the “GNR”).

The Grizzly Northern was extended in the summer of 1920 to meet the CPR’s mainline at Kamloops, running along the North Thompson on the opposite side to the Canadian Northern. On the east the Grizzly Northern was connected to the CPR’s branch line from Red Deer at Ullin Junction and Rocky Mountain House. In 1921 a 39-mile-long branch line was built running northwards from Geiranger along the Yee Haw River to service two new railway subsidiaries; a copper mine at Kingdom and a coal mine at Brunel. A second coal mine was opened at Brunel in 1929. Thanks to the profitability of the three mines and the dedication of its employees the Grizzly Northern has managed to survive the economic depression that we have been experiencing these last several years. Today the Grizzly Northern continues to operate as a CPR subsidiary, with headquarter offices in Kamloops, linking the people and economies of northern and central Alberta and central British Columbia. The railway currently employs some 500 people.

Following the bankruptcy of the Groetli Northern Railway, Horatio Hardanger, never one to be discouraged, waited out the Great War by exploring for gold in the Yukon, accompanied by Angus Kirkcaldy. Striking it rich in 1921 the two men moved on to South America to build several British-financed railways in the Bolivian and Chilean Andes and on the Patagonian plains, Hardanger finally retired to London, England and was knighted in recognition of his contributions to the British Empire. He died peacefully in 1935, age 80 and is buried in Hardangervidda, his birthplace.

Angus Kirkcaldy retired to Fort William in Scotland, where he established and operated the Glen Kilmallie single-malt whiskey distillery until his death at age 85 in 1937. Kirkcaldy is buried in the Kilmallie Cemetery under a monument topped with his surveyor’s transit. 

Artemius VanDonkers became President and General Manager of the Grizzly Northern under its CPR owner, a position he held until his retirement in 1929. VanDonkers died peacefully in Kamloops in April 1937, age 72. He is buried in Kamloops, in the Pleasant Street Cemetery. His grave is marked by large granite stone monument that bears a photograph on metal of VanDonkers taken one year prior to his death. The photograph shows him in his finest gear, wearing a top hat, a large Cuban cigar in his mouth, one arm raised in toast with a large balloon glass of wine in hand and his second arm firmly wrapped around the waist of a fashionably dressed and beautiful young lady. The inscription below the photograph reads, “A woman is only a woman but a good cigar is a Smoke”.

Isambard Dunstan Neuville was appointed President and General Manager of the Grizzly Northern on VanDonkers retirement, a position he holds today. When asked about his unique first name, Mr. Neuville advised that he was named after Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the famous 19^th century English engineer, as he had been born in Saltash, Cornwall in England, the location of Brunel’s famous design, the Royal Albert Bridge across the Tamar River.

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“KCMG” indicates that the holder of the title is a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George, the second highest rank of the British order of knighthood, awarded for distinguished services to the British Empire.

Visitors to Kamloops with an interest in railways and the history of the west will want to spend an hour at the GNR museum, located in the GNR head offices at the corner of  Victoria Street West
and Seymour Street West, adjacent to Riverside Park. The museum is open during normal business hours.

A Happy Dominion Day to all from “The Caribou News and Chronicle”!

Copyright © R.T. Neuville, 2012

Grizzly Northern Railway Maps

The Grizzly Northern Railway is a CPR subsidiary that runs between Kamloops, British Columbia and Rocky Mountain House, Alberta



The railway mainline, 380 miles long, crosses the Continental Divide through the Running Bear Pass. A 39 mile long branchline runs from Geiranger, BC to Kingdom, BC on the western edge of the Columbia Icefields

Two spiral tunnels, similar to those on the CPR’s Big Hill, limit the grade to 3.5 % on the descent from the Continental Divide to Geiranger

Geiranger, located on the flats of the Running Bear River, is a major engine servicing center and home for "pusher" engines assisting heavy freights on steep grades to the east and west of Geiranger