Railway Barge Slip Rosebery BC (1989)

Hello Rosebery BC! It’s the summer of 1989 and yours truly (for those who don’t know, this means Chris, half of Team BIGDoer, who’s writing this particular post) was single and living out in Vancouver BC. Awesome place in many ways, but too expensive and chaotic. Anyway…after working non-stop for most of the year I had socked away enough money that I booked off an entire month and used the time to go exploring. Adventure calls and can’t be ignored.

It’s my first real road trip and of course many would follow. In the ensuing weeks a certain ugly, beat-up Pontiac Ventura could be seen all over BC and Alberta. I (fearlessly) took as many back roads as possible and with no plans to where I might end up. Nor with any consideration on the car’s questionable reliability and any associated costs.

This outing started a tradition that continues to this very day and now there’s two of us. The current car’s not quite as rusty either…and it stays running…and the tires have tread.

In the yard – rails made in Germany circa 1902.

One nice summer morning I found myself in Rosebery BC and it’s a nice little dot on the map kind of place. Never much of a town and only a few houses were scattered about. Its significance, in railway terms, is that it functioned as a transfer point where trains were loaded on and off rail barges. Read on and enjoy, as it’s an interesting arrangement.

This line, the CPR’s Nakusp branch, remained isolated from the rest of the system and trains using it floated here from down the lake. What a labourious, complicated process and terribly inefficient. The last train to use this line did so in December 1988, although some reports say the final run happened that following March. The attached photos are from 1989 and scanned from slides.

This line headed north from Rosebery and ended in Nakusp some 40km away. In the past, a second branch continued south, travelling through New Denver and into the mining camps of Sandon and area.

Before the advent of good roads in the area, the railway did a good business and everything needed by the communities along the line got brought in by train. People and things. On return trips products like lumber and ore mined up in the hills were shipped out. It functioned as the lifeline of the district and without commerce would have come to a grinding halt.

Built under the charter of the Nakusp and Slocan Railway it almost immediately got leased by the CPR. Completed in the mid 1890s it remained in service almost a hundred years and that’s not bad considering. Rosebery as a landing point got selected as it had a decent little harbour and a flat area for a railyard. It’s a mountainous area and the only level land around.

In the early days trains and barges nearly operated around the clock. Later they only ran if sufficient number of loads justified a movement and that meant once a week or so most of the time. In quieter periods it might be months before a wheel turned and the track often looking as though abandoned.

The trains would originate in Nelson and travelled through to Slocan City, at the south end of Slocan Lake, where it got loaded onto the barge. After reaching Rosebery and back on solid ground, it continued on to Nakusp. It’s not really a long way but still this round trip would typically take two full days.

In later years, so the late 1970s and to the very end, the only commodity of significance moving were wood poles coming from a firm in Nakusp. Prior to that, fuel got brought in and other lumber firms filled outbound cars too. As roads in the area improved most of this business dried up and/or taken over by trucks. The shipping of ore from local mines ended in the 1950s but early on filled many railway cars.

Taking in the yard and barge loading area, I wandered around aimlessly taking pictures of what every caught my interest. Sadly, as a poor broke dude this meant I had to be selective of what could be photographed. Film and processing were expensive. That’s too bad, as many photographable things were missed as a result and now lamented.

A small yard could be found on the flats and were perhaps three tracks deep. Heading south, the line crossed over Wilson Creek and shorty after that ended, although the abandoned roadbed to New Denver and Sandon continued on.

I noted a wye here and it’s the place where locomotives or other railcars could be turned around. By this point, it likely saw little use, as diesels care not which way they face, but once in a while a snow plow, which is directional, required this. The very tail end of the wye had been undercut by the creek and sort of hung out over the water.

This section of track also functioned as a lead to the barge slip. Two parallel sets of tracks went down to lake level on a fairly steep grade (steep for railways anyway) and it’s down there were the water to land/land to water exchange took place.

Normally the barge slip is half submerged and lined up with both the two lead tracks and rails on the barge. It’s the transition point between the floating barge and terra firma. Since the last train came through some time earlier, they had dragged it out of the water and this presumably in anticipation of it being scraped.

Sitting high and dry allowed me to take a good look at the whole contraption. This included the underside, normally not visible given it was typically below water level and unseen. The whole thing seemed cobbled together, in true frugal CPR fashion, and strange from every angle. It didn’t look up to the job and while the railways are always budget minded, they also know what they’re doing. Looks don’t tell the whole story and it worked well enough I suppose.

Truss rods, cables and bolted wooden braces tied the whole thing together. It’s comprised of large beams, yet looked frail and odd. Obviously it worked and for a long time too. When built is anyone’s guess but clearly it’s quite old.

The barge slip rested on some re-used freight car trucks which used the same tracks as those of trains entering or exiting the barge via the slip. The rails headed far into the water and this allowed the slip to be moved as needed as lake levels fluctuated. A simple, sound solution and very clever. Locomotives were entrusted to this job, and give it a shove set it lower or tie on a chain to drag it higher. Old photos show both being done.

A similar barge slip could be found on the Slocan City end of the barge run and presumably other barge loading spots on Slocan and nearby Kootenay Lake. The CPR had many isolated lines and spur on both bodies of water that were rail barge-served.

One can assume that every now and then the slip would have to be brought to land for inspection and maintenance. Make note of corrosion on the parts typically below water and they’re marked by a distinctive patina. The transition rails were simply old bits of track shaved down at an angle and this another simple, ingenious solution. The change of angle from land to slip to barge was quite extreme by railway standards.

By the 1980s this whole arrangement had to be a money loser and thorn in the railway’s side. The train barge must have been quite the sight and a no doubt a curious scene for those boating on Slocan Lake.

A number of railway buildings existed nearby at the time of this visit but they didn’t really hold my attention. Who knows what this twenty four year old mind was thinking. A single structure appears in the photos, marked as a section house in the notes but looks more like a station.

Some tracks in the yard were only a few cars long but it makes sense operationally. The barge only allowed a limited number of cars and trains were always short anyway. On my visit the rails extended northward, but at some point between Rosebery and Nakusp already pulled up. An earlier stop in that latter community conformed this and the small yard there marked by barren gravel.

In the final years the tracks on the Nakusp line were so bad that trains often operated at speeds no quicker than a brisk walk. It’s a strange operation in every way and the CPR in later years clearly not enthralled with its continued operation.

No doubt they would have dumped it earlier but one can assume government regulations may have played some part in its longevity. Roads in the area were bad into modern times, and the railway seen as a vital link.

The yards here and the whole area were well grown over on this visit. Old photos show it could have used a good mowing even back when in service.

The track here got pulled up not long after this visit and most of the old roadbed present day now a rail trail. Our next time in Rosebery would be 1999, but by then any hint of this operation had vanished. And I forgot the camera. We’ve since returned, several times and with gear in hand, and are amazed how much the area has changed.

Present day it’s a sobering scene and in some ways as though the railway never existed. Still, the old bridge captured in one photo remains in place and that’s about it.

The underside of the Rosebery Barge Slip.

Thinking Then & Now using these photos but most of what’s seen here today is now private yards.

This strange line (Kalso Subdivision officially) existed in this form because the surrounding area proved too rugged and made a connected railway line impossible – the lake’s the only way in. Now there’s good roads, but back then you travelled by train…a train that floated.

Know more about our subject: (new tab): CPR Rosebery to Nakusp BC Branchline.

They’re saying…

“Can we all take a moment to appreciate how great this website is?” Monica & Leslie.

A Then & Now showing the barge slip when in use…
Rosebery BC Then & Now.

Random awesomeness…
Alexandra Bridge Fraser Canyon BC.
Marblehead Underground Quarry.
1959 Calgary Stampede Dream Home.
Nakusp Rail Society. A museum not far away and in Nakusp.

Something to say and no one to say it to? Go here: Contact Us!

Date of adventure: August, 1989.
Location: Rosebery, BC.
Article references: Canadian Trackside Guides + the Nakusp and District Museum.

Lower parts were typically underwater and show this patina.

This bridge still exists and now part of a walking trail.

It looks cobbled together but seemed to work.

Looking back and up towards the yard.

The creek had undercut the tail end of the wye.

Transition rails to the slip.

It rode on the same tracks as did railcars.

A broad view – it used to sit half in water and half on land.

The Rosebery yard – left track heads to the barge slip.

All quiet and never to see another train again.