The Skyline Limited: The Kaslo and Slocan Railway

David E. Smith is a political science professor at the University of
Saskatchewan and the author of Building a Province: A History of
Saskatchewan in Documents.

This is a book with a special appeal—to those interested in railways
and, more particularly, in narrow-gauge railways. It recounts the
history of the Kaslo and Slocan (K & S). Begun in the 1890s as a branch
line of the Great Northern, the K & S later came into the hands of the
CPR, which broadened the gauge and operated the line until the last
section closed in the early 1990s. Interest in the K & S lies not only
in the feat of its construction through the mountainous Kootenay region
of British Columbia—lavishly illustrated here in hundreds of period
photographs—but in the era of the sternwheelers, which, as an integral
part of this interior transportation system, plied the long, narrow
lakes of the province’s interior.

This is a book about men—captains, engineers, shipwrights, miners,
loggers—and probably for men, since the cataloguing and photographing
of steam transport seems to be a male passion. The few women who appear
do so as onlookers from platforms, docks, balconies, and decks. All the
rest is wild terrain and dangerous pursuits interspersed with
representations of timetables, grade profiles, survey instruments, and
hull designs.

For the enthusiast, this is riveting material. Even the uninitiated
will find the depictions of British Columbia’s scenery spectacular.
The advance of the imperial frontier, which according to these
photographs was anything but eco-friendly, has never been so palpable.