Switchbacks & Shays - Lenora, Mt. Sicker abandoned line hike

I like three things about narrow gauges – seeing them in person, researching historic info and old photos, and exploring abandoned grades.

Here in Ontario I lead occasional abandoned line hikes, usually on the old Toronto, Grey & Bruce narrow gauge line. Therefore, although I will most likely never see it in person, I have been quite inspired by the Madera Sugar Pine exploration reports as posted by Dave Peterson, and will attempt to replicate that here.

My wife and I spent most of October visiting Vancouver Island, British Columbia. A local railfan friend wanted to do some abandoned line exploring, and introduced me to the Lenora, Mt. Sicker Rly narrow gauge, which was located south of Nanaimo, BC. This first post will give a brief summary of this almost unknown 3’ line, while the second will include photos of what we’ve found (so far!).

The first section was completed in 1901 as a 6 mile line from the Lenora copper mine, around Mt. Sicker and then downhill to the Esquimalt & Nanaimo Rly (CPR), where the ore was transloaded for shipping to other smelters. This section included an almost constant 13% grade and a 70 degree curve. Shipping costs were killing them, so in 1902 they completed an additional 5.3 mile line to tidewater, and constructed their own smelter at Crofton, BC. This required scaling a flank of Mt. Richards, requiring six switchbacks to do the job.

The line was built with just 20 & 28 lb rail, and featured three 2-truck Shays – Lima #621 was 8.5 ton, Lima #220 (bought used) was 18 ton, and Lima #703 was 21 ton. Ore was shipped in 5 and 10 ton gondolas, and the line also had a couple coaches. Operations still weren’t profitable and the railway closed in 1907, with the track removed in 1912.

The line rates a small two page mention in Omer Lavallee’s “Narrow Gauge Railways of Canada”, and a small booklet history “Shays on the Switchbacks” was published in 1963. There’s a little bit about the railway on the internet, so here are a couple internet thumbnails from the British Columbia Archives. First is a photo of Shay #1 at the standard gauge transloading facility, then Shay #2 on one of the line’s many trestles and sharp curves.