Rocky Mountain Express Page #2

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those too were abandoned.

(steam hisses)

In February of 1910,

the chief engineer

wrote to Van Horne:

"There has been

a terrible accident:

"many men died last night in the

valley of the lllecillewaet.

The rest are afraid."

In the early years,

this short stretch of track

would threaten

the very survival

of the entire railway.

Some thought Rogers

had been more than eccentric.

His ego had led him to promote

a route of total madness.

Railway surveyors seek

the lowest possible route

through the mountains,

like the rivers

they often parallel.

In Rogers Pass,

they used side canyons

to build loops,

lengthening the line

to give trains more distance

to climb the mountain.

To lower the grade further

would require tunnels,

at vastly greater expense.

In 1914, work began

on the five mile

Connaught tunnel,

the longest in North America.

This would reduce the grades

on the old route

and hide the line

from relentless avalanches.

The nine-mile

Mount McDonald tunnel

followed in the 1980s,

further reducing the grades.

It would take the CPR 100 years

and 14 miles of tunnels

to finally escape beneath

the original line--

the folly that was Rogers Pass.

(train whistle blowing)

(engine chugging rapidly)

(steam hisses)

(whistle blows)

The deep cliffs and valleys

of the eastern face

of the Selkirk Mountains

were no easier

for the builders.

As trains begin the long, steep,

downhill journey,

they will cross a series

of great bridges--

at the time of construction,

the highest in the world.

At the eastern foot

of the Selkirks,

the great steam trains

often paused for service

at the railway town of Golden.

The Rocky Mountains lay ahead.

The inhabitants

of railroad towns

once lived to serve

the appetites

of the steam locomotive.

Water, grease, oil,

coaling, running repairs,

day and night,

winter and summer...

preparing them to operate

at the limit of their power.

The locomotive engineer

was the folk hero

in the Age of Steam.

(whistle blows twice)

(engine chugs slowly)

On the modern railway,

there are two possible routes

for eastbound trains.

If the shorter main line

is blocked or damaged,

trains can be diverted

on an easier route south,

out of the mountains.

By 1900, the railway sought

to relieve the pressure

on the main line,

and the terrible grades ahead,

constructing an alternate track

south, along the Columbia River,

through a pass called

the Crow's Nest.

But to an already long journey,

it would add hundreds of miles.

(gentle acoustic guitar

intro playing)

FEMALE VOCALIST:

If you miss the train I'm on

You will know

that I am gone

You can hear

the whistle blow

A hundred miles

Hundred miles,

a hundred miles

-(whistle blows)

- A hundred miles

A hundred miles

You can hear

The whistle blow

A hundred miles

Lord, I'm one

Lord, I'm two

Lord, I'm three

Lord, I'm four

Lord, I'm 500 miles

From my home...

500 miles, 500 miles

500 miles,

500 miles

Lord, I'm 500 miles

From my home...

Not a shirt

On my back

Not a penny

To my name

Lord, I can't

Go a-home

This a-way...

This a-way, this a-way

This a-way,

this a-way

Lord, I can't

Go a-home

This a-way...

If you miss the train

I'm on

You will know

that I am gone

(fading out):
You can hear

the whistle blow...

NARRATOR:
But soon after this

easy southern route was opened,

the ultimate nightmare occurred

on an April night in 1903.

(deep rumbling)

At 4:
30 a.m., a freight train

had just passed through

the mining town

of Frank, Alberta,

when much of Turtle Mountain

collapsed.

The train's brakeman,

Sid Choquette,

made his way in total blackness

across rocks the size

of apartment buildings

in a frantic attempt

to stop an express train

coming from the east.

At the last possible moment,

he stopped the Spokane Flyer

bound for Washington...

...saving the lives

of hundreds of passengers.

He received an award

from the railroad of $25.

Roughly 90 souls

on the edge of town

were not so lucky.

They remain buried

under the slide to this day.

(wheels clacking)

There would be no easy route

through these mountains

after all,

but there is an easy stretch

along the Kicking Horse River

before the greatest

challenge of all--

the towering

Rocky Mountains ahead.

Pa'?

The railroad town of Field

is at the foot

of the steepest stretch

of track in the Rockies.

In 1886, the Baldwin Locomotive

Works of Philadelphia

designed a special series

of locomotives

to help move heavy trains

up and down the CPR's Big Hill.

These Consolidation-class

engines

were enormously successful,

except for number 314.

Descending the Big Hill in 1899,

314 ran away and jumped

the track, killing its crew.

Rebuilt and renumbered,

but this time

climbing the Big Hill,

it blew itself to pieces,

killing another crew.

Repaired again, it worked

up and down the Big Hill

for 30 more years,

all the time feared

and despised by its crews.

(engine chugging slowly)

Pa'?

(chugging faster)

The 20 miles ahead remain,

to this day,

among the most challenging

stretches of track

in all of railroading.

Pa'?

(chugging slows)

(metallic screech)

Pa'?

20 years

after the railway was opened,

the terrible grades

on the Big Hill were reduced

by one of the most famous

engineering projects

in the history of railroading--

the spiral tunnels.

The tunnels give the line

additional distance

to climb the steep western face

of the Rocky Mountains.

Through both an upper

and lower tunnel,

long freight trains cross

over themselves

by looping around

inside the mountain.

(engine chugging)

(hammer clanging)

The Last Spike was driven

at Craigellachie

in the fall of 1885--

an extraordinary accomplishment

for the tiny new country

of Canada.

(crowd cheering)

But soon after

transcontinental trains

began running from sea to sea...

(train whistle blows)

...it was apparent the railway

had profoundly miscalculated

one significant detail--

Winter.

(wind gusting, ice crackling)

(ice crackling, rumbling)

Virtually no one

had ever ventured

into Rogers Pass in the winter,

and for good reason.

It had among the deepest

known snowfalls in the world--

as much as 60 feet

in a single season.

(rumbling)

On February 28, 1910,

a gang of 60 men were working

to clear an avalanche

in the pass.

At midnight,

another slide came down

the opposite side of the valley

and killed all but one.

Most of the men were Japanese.

At least 250 men would die in

avalanches in Rogers Pass alone

in the first few years

of operation.

When construction began,

few could have imagined

the terrible sacrifices

the southern route would entail.

The new railway

and the country itself

hung on the thinnest of threads.

The mountain sections were

ruinously expensive to operate

and the company teetered

on bankruptcy.

It would take a miracle to save

the Canadian Pacific Railway.

A miracle did occur.

Just over the top

of the Continental Divide,

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