27 October 2010

City Commemorates Railway with Centennial Spike

Merritt mayor Susan Roline lifts a sledge hammer to drive the centennial
spike of the old Kettle Valley Railway.

Merritt British Columbia - Local dignitaries and history buffs celebrated the beginning of the Kettle Valley Railway's construction 100 years ago with a small spike-driving ceremony beside the Merritt Library Monday.
 
Under cloudy skies, Mayor Susan Roline raised a yellow sledgehammer and drove an original Kettle Valley Railway spike into an old railway tie as a crowd looked on.
 
The ceremony took place in the gravel parking lot next to the library and across the street from the Railyard Mall. In years past, the area was the hub of the Nicola Valley's rail operations.
 
The first spike on the Kettle Valley Railway was driven into the ground on 25 Oct 1910 at a site near where Ardew Wood Products stands today.
 
Railway chief engineer Andrew McCulloch was tasked with the project the previous June and given 40 days to start work. Horses and a scraper began grading the roadbed south of the Merritt rail yard that July.
 
"This was the first work done anywhere on the Kettle Valley Railway, and it happened in Merritt," said Jim Bruce, the ceremony's organizer.
 
The ceremony Monday echoed the driving of the first spike exactly a century earlier. The Kettle Valley Railway was completed in 1915, when the last spike was driven in Princeton.
 
Merritt had been linked to the west via Spences Bridge on the Canadian Pacific Railway since 1907. The Kettle Valley Railway provided the first eastbound connection out of Merritt and terminated in Midway.
 
Meant to carry the spoils of B.C. mines to U.S. manufacturers, freight service on the Kettle Valley Railway stopped in 1962, and passenger service in 1964.
 
Bruce, a member of the Merritt Live Theatre Society, hastily organized the spike driving after he realized the anniversary was coming up.
 
Although the theatre society was slated to present a show on the Kettle Valley Railway the following night at the Coldwater Hotel, Bruce admitted at the ceremony that he was unaware of the anniversary until very recently.
 
"I only discovered this a few days ago, from Barrie Sanford's writings," said Bruce.
 
Sanford, an author who lives in Merritt, wrote "McCulloch's Wonder:  The Story of the Kettle Valley Railway", which recounts the railway's history.
 
Roline agreed that the Kettle Valley Railway is important to Merritt's history, but noted that other communities like Princeton put a greater emphasis on its legacy.
 
"They've put their arms around it and celebrate it more than we do."
 
"Before all these trucks ran through town, the railway pretty much handled all of it," said Ron Sherwood, a member of the Nicola Valley Historical Society.
 
Bruce said the occasion serves as a reminder that many local centennials, like that of the City of Merritt itself in 2011, have recently occurred or will soon occur.
 
"There was a tremendous amount of development. People need to be aware that where they are at, there might be some special days coming up."
 
Murphy Shewchuk, another local, presented another Kettle Valley Railway spike mounted on a cedar plaque to Roline at the ceremony and encouraged the City of Merritt to display the spike publicly
 
Robin Poon.