The Othello Tunnels were arguably constructed through the most difficult region along what has been called “the most difficult and expensive railway ever built” (Sanford 2002). Several engineers who considered building the KVR believed that it would be impossible to build the railway through the Coquihalla Canyon. The twisty nature of the canyon and cliff faces rising directly from the water’s edge to heights of over 90 meters made it impossible for the train to follow the river as it did along most of the KVR. Other engineer’s proposals suggested swinging around to avoid the canyon altogether, or creating a single tunnel over a kilometer long through the bedrock.
However, the engineer who was eventually chosen to build the track, Andrew McCulloch, believed that there must be another way. He spent weeks surveying the canyon with ropes, ladders, and tenuous footholds. In the end, McCulloch found a way to ‘thread’ the canyon with four tunnels and two bridges.
Once the track route had been surveyed, work began in the canyon starting on the 4th of March, 1915. However, the work of laying the bridges and blasting the tunnels made the building of the railway slower than McCulloch had hoped. He pushed the workers through one of the wettest autumn seasons in the coasts’ history in the hopes of finishing the track before winter set in. However, by the end of September only eight kilometers of track had been laid, and snow began to fall. Rock slides and heavy snowfalls delayed the work, and by the middle of October the snow was too deep to be plowed aside. By December, the snow had piled to over 10 meters and even specially outfitted rotary plows couldn't clear the pass. On the 8th of December, 1915, one of the plows derailed into a snowdrift. Snow quickly accumulated around it, trapping it in the pass. A rescue car was dispatched to the derailed plow, and reached it after three difficult days. However, when the plow was finally reached, a huge avalanche crashed down onto the tracks, covering the entire area in over 15 meters in snow. This avalanche trapped 35 work cars and their crews on the tracks with no way to return to the nearest camp at Ladner Creek. However, the crew kept trying to clear the track until 27th of December, when high winds, more snow, freezing rain, and constant snow slides along the track caused McCulloch to call off all work on the rail, and the crews walked out. Heavy snows continued to fall all winter, and in March 1916 there was still 12-15 meters of snow covering much of the rail. |
In addition to the constant weather setbacks, the KVR suffered financial trouble. Like many industries in Canada, funding for building railways suffered during, and after, WW1. In 1915, the Canadian government spent the same on military funding as it did in the whole fiscal year of 1913. Large railways like the CN and the Grand Trunk Pacific struggled to find credit to keep building, while the KVR’s smaller operation was subjected to s severe reduction funding, and reduced access to labour and other resources.
However, track laying continued, and on the 31st of July, 1916, the last spike was laid and the Coquihalla Pass and the Othello tunnels were officially opened for operation. With the opening of this pass, the final piece of the rail connecting the coast in the west to the Kootenays in the east was completed.
However, track laying continued, and on the 31st of July, 1916, the last spike was laid and the Coquihalla Pass and the Othello tunnels were officially opened for operation. With the opening of this pass, the final piece of the rail connecting the coast in the west to the Kootenays in the east was completed.
Banner photo: Surveyors searching for a route for the Othello Tunnels. This photo shows the dangers and difficulties faced by the engineers building the tunnels. Coquihalla Pass Canyon, 9th March, 1914. Photo courtesy of The Okanagan Archive Trust Society.