Railway society hopes to get refurbished steam locomotive running with passenger cars and a caboose from Kamloops to Vernon, with stops in between, in 2026
Picture this: you're walking down 30th Avenue in Vernon, or Pleasant Valley Boulevard in Armstrong. You see smoke billowing into the sky. It's not a fire but steam; steam rising from a beautiful, historic, black locomotive on the city's railway tracks as it pulls into a station.
"The plan is to create one of the world's longest steam-powered rail excursions which would be from Kamloops to Vernon, and we're encompassing all of the communities along the rail route," said Jordan Popadynetz, leader of railway development for the Kamloops Heritage Railway Society, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2024.
Simultaneously, focused work began on a business plan that would guide the society through a transition from a restoration project to an operating rail-tour business. Kamloops Heritage Railway Society and CN Rail collaboratively began planning to operate a rare steam-powered passenger train on 105-territory track within the city limits.
"For the public, we have a cafe lounge car from 1954, we have a parlour car from 1930, and a caboose from 1975," said Popadynetz."You know, it's a beautiful train to ride on. It's a beautiful loop. What we're trying to do is we're really trying to give people that immersive heritage experience, but at the same time perfectly balance it with modern day travel.
"What that means, on paper, is that the boiler basically doesn't exist anymore so we have to start from square one. We have to have it completely inspected. We have to get all of the paperwork in order. Once we have that in order, then we can fire it up, start running it down the tracks, and start training crew. That's the locomotive itself. There's a whole bunch of other things that have to be done as well.
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