Information obtained from: Kettle Valley Railway Mileboards, A Historical Field Guide to the KVR by Joe Smuin, Published by North Kildonan Publications 2003. If you are interested in the KVR we HIGHLY recommend picking up a copy as it contains a wealth of knowledge about every stop along the KVR!
We Reference Chapter 5 of the above book Pages 1-10, sadly to our knowledge and references all bridges along this section of the track have been removed & the tunnels have mostly caved in. It had 2 stops – Including Allenby & Copper Mountain & ran for about 21.9 km. It was also active for only a small amount of time – our sources say from Mat 16, 1926 – July 26, 1957. The rails reached their intended destinations starting in about 1919, but there were many trestles & tunnels still to be completed.
Closure of the Copper Mountain Subdivision was a major blow to the Kettle Valley Division. This subdivision by far had been the biggest revenue producer o the Kettle valley Division. It could be argued that the closure of Copper Mountain was the first augury of the fate of the Kettle Valley Division because revenue car loadings in the next year (1958) dropped by about 39 percent. Highway competition was drastically undercutting the railway’s share of transportation business and as the highway system continued to undergo improvements throughout southern British Columbia, competition only got worse for the railway. (Knowledgeable old-timers state that the CPR charged very high rates to haul ore on the Copper Mountain Subdivision. So much so, that it is alleged by some old-timers that Granby closed the mine in 1957 at least in part to get free of an increasingly onerous contract with the CPR. However, others have rightly pointed out that the unstable ground conditions and numerous trestles would have made the Copper Mountain Subdivision horrendously expensive to maintain.
The Allenby station held a Station Building, Section House, Headquarters, Water tank, Turntable & a Car repair track. As well Telegraph operators were on duty for day and night shifts after September 30, 1951 until either 1954 or 1957 (depending on the source)