Big Hill

For other uses, see Big Hill (disambiguation).
Looking west, 1890. Safety Switch No. 1 and its uphill spur are shown foreground and right; the truss bridge under the rear of the train, now known as the "Old Bridge", survives as a tourist attraction
Panorama of the tunnels from the west, 1908

The Big Hill on the Canadian Pacific Railway main line in British Columbia, Canada, was the most difficult piece of railway track on the CPR's route.[1] It was in the rugged Canadian Rockies west of the Continental Divide of the Americas and Kicking Horse Pass. Even though the Big Hill was replaced by the Spiral Tunnels in 1909, the area has long been a challenge to the operation of trains and remains so to this day.[2]

  1. ^ "Construction of the CPR". Old Time Trains.
  2. ^ Lake Louise & Yoho (Map) (5 ed.). Cochrane, Alberta: Gem Trek Publishing. ISBN 1-895526-14-0.