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.
Along the Way at the end of the section was Copper Mountain, of which access is unavailable; however little to nothing remains of original structures as they have been obliterated by subsequent open pit mining operations). Likely the structures that were here consisted of a section house build in or about 1920 that was either removed or left to decay after rails were removed in 1958. We believe there was also a Headquarters for a short time from 1920-1925/1930 and then again from 1937-1957 along with a Water Tank that could house 20,000 gallons.
Along this section of track (from Princeton to Copper Mountain) was the Granby power plant.
In December 1936, the Granby Co. announced the site of its new power plant was to be the flat south of the river just across the Copper Mountain railway bridge. The Granby had just completed negotiations with the Princeton properties for the purchase of the site. The company was also taking over the Bromley Vale mine. The plant needed 100 tons of coal daily, and had applied for a water license to take one million gallons daily from the Similkameen River.
This power plan was the end result of a disagreement between the Granby Company over what constituted fair rates. (It was around this time that the City of Grand Forks became so incensed over the poor service provided by the utility company that the city built its own power generating plant just north of town on the Granby (North Fork of the Kettle) River. The Granby Co. built a completely new power lne from Princeton to Copper Mountain to service both Allenby and Copper Mountain, duplicating the older West Kootenay Power & Light line.)