Myra Canyon British Columbia - Canadian Pacific Railway (CP), which still has the original drawings, has offered its help in designing new
look-alike trestles that don't have to carry heavy freight trains.
"That will be a big boon for us", said Ken Campbell, former society president.
CP still uses wooden trestles in its system, he said, so it has a list of suppliers for timber replacements.
Construction of trestle No. 18, 55 metres long and 10 metres high, will take 60,000 to 65,000 board-feet of lumber.
"It will be a learning experience for us and for the potential contractors as well", said Campbell.
Trestle 18 has an advantage over the other 11 trestles to be rebuilt, it has a vehicle bypass.
The successful contractor for the first trestle can easily work from both sides and a crane can use the gravel roadway to lower timbers into
place.
Lumber must be purchased, cut to proper length, bored for bolts, treated with waterproofing, and shipped to the Myra Canyon for assembly, "all compressed
into a very short time-frame", said Campbell.
The provincial and federal governments, which are sharing the $13.5 million bill, want work to begin as soon as possible "so we're pulling out all the
stops", he said.
Focusing on the design and going to tender on just one will save the society valuable time this fall.
Trestle 18 is also accessible so the public can see the progress.
"So many people are interested and want to get involved", said Campbell.
Although highly flammable creosote will likely be used to treat the new timbers, CP ran a train through the canyon for 80 years and never lost a trestle to
fire, he noted.
The society is drafting a better fire prevention strategy and ultimately may bring a water supply in to the trestles.
In the days of steam, water tanks along the line were used to refill the steam engines and water barrels were placed on the trestles for use by section crews
in case of any sparks.
The water came from KLO Creek, also known as the east fork of Canyon Creek.
Author unknown.
