Celebration marks centennial of first KVR trains into Penticton

PENTICTON – Penticton has a party planned for an important anniversary of the city’s rail transportation history.

On May 31 the museum, Peach City Community Radio and the Department of Canadian Heritage will commemorate the arrival of the first trains on the Kettle Valley Railway into Penticton with 'Steamfest in the Park.'

Fifteen hundred Pentictonites – half the city’s population at the time – turned out to welcome those first locomotives on May 31, 1915. One hundred years later the Penticton Museum and Archives will host a free centennial birthday event in Gyro Park called Steamfest in the Park.

Steamfest host, Peach City Radio’s Craig Henderson, says the railway linked Penticton with the rest of Canada as well as coastal B.C., playing an influential role over the years in the development of local industry.

“Those who worked the trains considered the KVR to be a ‘badge of honour’ amongst railroaders because of the challenges faced in operating a railway through some of the continent’s toughest terrain,” Henderson says.

The party begins at 1 p.m., May 30, with the Kettle Valley Brakemen performing at the Gyro Park bandshell at 4 p.m.

On Sunday, May 31, the Kettle Valley Steam Railway in Summerland will host special celebratory train trips to commemorate the centennial. Tickets will be available during the May 30 event at Gyro Park.

For a schedule of events for May 30, and for more information, visit peachcityradio.org/events/steamfest/

To contact the reporter for this story, email Steve Arstad at sarstad@infonews.ca or call 250-488-3065. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.

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Steve Arstad

I have been looking for news in the South Okanagan - SImilkameen for 20 years, having turned a part time lifelong interest into a full time profession. After five years publishing a local newsletter, several years working as a correspondent / stringer for several local newspapers and seven years as editor of a Similkameen weekly newspaper, I joined iNFOnews.ca in 2014. My goal in the news industry has always been to deliver accurate and interesting articles about local people and places. My interest in the profession is life long - from my earliest memories of grade school, I have enjoyed writing.
As an airborne geophysical surveyor I travelled extensively around the globe, conducting helicopter borne mineral surveys.
I also spent several years at an Okanagan Falls based lumber mill, producing glued-wood laminated products.
As a member of the Kaleden community, I have been involved in the Kaleden Volunteer Fire Department for 22 years, and also serve as a trustee on the Kaleden Irrigation District board.
I am currently married to my wife Judy, of 26 years. We are empty-nesters who enjoy living in Kaleden with our Welsh Terrier, Angus, and cat, Tibbs.
Our two daughters, Meagan and Hayley, reside in Richmond and Victoria, respectively.

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