Canadian Pacific Railway
When the railway was built through the pass in 1884, the eastern approach up the Beaver River required some of the largest bridges on the line, including the often-photographed Stoney Creek Bridge. A series of loops were used on the west side of the pass to deal with the steep hill and avoid the avalanche routes. After the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed in the fall of 1885, the railway was shutdown for the winter to observe the avalanches. In response, 31 snow sheds were built, with a total length of about 6.5 km.
Some major avalanches that came without warning caused the railway serious loss of life and property. In 1899, 8 people were killed when an avalanche destroyed the train station at the pass. On March 4, 1910, the CPR suffered its worst loss. A crew and rotary snowplow were working to clear a snow slide when a second slide from the opposite side of the valley came down, killing 62 men.
To avoid the avalanches the 8 km (5.0 mi) Connaught Tunnel was completed under Rogers Pass in 1916. At the time, this was the longest railway tunnel in North America. Some sections of the abandoned railway eventually became walking rail trails in Glacier National Park.
Even with the tunnel, some of the CPR's largest locomotives and long helper districts (pushers) were used to get trains up and over the pass. The Selkirk steam locomotive, one of the biggest, was named after the mountain range penetrated by this pass. In 1988, the Canadian Pacific Railway opened the 14.7 km (9.1 mi) Mount Macdonald Tunnel under the Pass to increase capacity (operating one tunnel in each direction) and to decrease the grades on the approach from the east.
Read more about this topic: Rogers Pass (British Columbia)
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