Passenger train service was once an essential transportation link in Summerland’s history, but the era of passenger train travel lasted less than 49 years.
The Kettle Valley Railway was originally designed to bypass Summerland.
In 1910, James Ritchie, the reeve of the community, asked that the railway not bypass Summerland. After his request was turned down, he surveyed the area, using a carpenter’s level, and designed a route that would pass near what is now the Summerland Research and Development Centre.
The plan kept the grade to no more than two per cent and shortened the train route by nearly one kilometre.
A steel bridge over the Trout Creek Canyon was built in 1913, and the first train crossed it on Oct. 25 of that year.
The first train to pass through Summerland was on May 31, 1915. That day, more than 2,000 people stood at the site of the train station to see the train. Schools were dismissed early, and many businesses were closed for the day for this event.
The first train consisted of a steam engine and its baggage car, a first-class coach and a sleeper. It arrived in Summerland at 3:59 p.m.
At that time, a train trip from Summerland to Vancouver took 23 hours, 20 minutes.
Passenger service continued in the following decades, with the last passenger train stopping in Summerland on Jan. 16, 1964. Freight service continued until 1989.
Much of the railway track along the Kettle Valley Railway line has been removed, but a 16-kilometre section of the track, from the Trout Creek trestle bridge to Faulder, remains in place.