This fall, the Kettle Valley Steam Railway will celebrate 30 years of providing its unique railway experience.
Dave Smith, president of the railway society, said an event will be held on Sept. 20 from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the railway ticket office, 18404 Bathville Rd.
Around 450 people are expected to attend, including passengers on the two trains that day.
The steam railway had its first train on Sept. 17, 1995, and over the years, it has become a popular tourist attraction in the South Okanagan.
Around 35,000 passengers ride the train each year.
Smith says the steam train has gone through a lot of changes.
When the tourist train began, a 1924 Shay locomotive, once used by Mayo Lumber, was on loan to the railway from the BC Forest Discovery Centre in Duncan. Today, the train uses a former Canadian Pacific 2-8-0 steam locomotive, built in 1912.
Two former Canadian Pacific coaches and three former Canadian Pacific stock cars, converted into open-air cars, are pulled by the locomotive.
The track used for the tourist rides is 10 kilometres in length and runs from the station on Bathville Road to the bridge on Trout Creek Canyon.
The railway society takes care of track maintenance and some work on the bridge, in addition to operating the train itself.
The locomotive has recently been refurbished and track work has been done. In addition, cleaning up a small landslide on the track cost around $140,000.
The train pays homage to Summerland鈥檚 history, as rail service has played an important role in the community鈥檚 past.
Initially, the Kettle Valley Railway was designed to bypass Summerland, but in 1910, James Ritchie, the reeve of the municipality, requested that the railway come to Summerland.
His request was turned down, but Ritchie then surveyed the area, using a carpenter鈥檚 level, and designed a route that would pass near the present research station.
The plan kept the grade to two per cent or less and shortened the route by almost a kilometre.
A steel bridge over Trout Creek Canyon was constructed in 1913 and the first train crossed it on Oct. 25 of that year.
The first train to pass through Summerland was on May 1, 1915.
That day, more than 2,000 people stood at the site of the train station to see the train. Schools were dismissed early and many businesses were closed.
The first train consisted of a steam engine and its baggage car, a first-class coach and a sleeper. It arrived in Summerland at 3:59 p.m.
At that time, a train trip from Summerland to Vancouver took 23 hours, 20 minutes.
Passenger service continued until Jan. 16, 1964. The Kettle Valley Railway continued freight service until 1989.
While much of the track has been removed, a 16-kilometre section, from the Trout Creek bridge to Faulder, is still in place.