Andrew McCulloch (June 16, 1864 – December 13, 1945) was born in

Lanark County Lanark County is a county located in the Canadian province of Ontario. Its county seat is Perth, which was first settled in 1816.Brown, Howard Morton, 1984. Lanark Legacy, Nineteenth Century Glimpses of on Ontario County. Corporation of the Cou ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

and died in Penticton,

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. was a

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...

with the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...

(CPR).

Biography

A native of

Lanark, Ontario Lanark is an unincorporated community and former village in the municipality (and incorporated township) of Lanark Highlands, Lanark County, in Eastern Ontario, Canada. History The village was first settled in 1820 by Scottish immigrants who ...

, after graduating from the Dominion Business College in Kingston, Ontario in 1888, McCulloch moved to the West Coast of North America. There he got a job as an axeman on the Great Northern Railway. Several other jobs followed, and in 1884 he was employed by the CPR on bridge repair work. He eventually became a Resident Engineer on the construction of the Lake Superior and Ishpeming Railroad, and this was followed in turn by work for the

Nakusp and Slocan Railway The Nakusp and Slocan Railway (N&S) is a historic Canadian railway that operated in the West Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia. The N&S initially connected Nakusp and Three Forks but soon extended to Sandon. Proposal The 1891 disco ...

, for the CPR's line through the Crowsnest Pass, for the

Columbia and Western Railway The Columbia and Western Railway (C&W) was a historic, and initially narrow gauge, railway in southern British Columbia. Heinze ownership Proposal & planning Fritz Augustus Heinze, who opened a smelter at Butte, Montana in 1893, was seeking inve ...

and for the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. He returned to work for the CPR as Divisional Engineer of Construction, Eastern, based in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

. In early 1910, McCulloch was appointed Chief Engineer for the CPR's Kettle Valley Railway in

, a project which was to be the most challenging of his career and included the 18 Myra Canyon Trestles, 14 of which that were destroyed by in 2013. Following completion of the line in 1916 he was appointed Superintendent of Operations. One of Canada's leading construction engineers, he left the KVR in 1933 and continued as a consultant for many years up to his death in 1945. In 1934 he was Chief Engineer for Consolidated Mining and Smelting's Northeastern Railway in

Stewart, British Columbia Stewart is a district municipality at the head of the Portland Canal in northwestern British Columbia, Canada, near the Alaskan panhandle. In 2011, its population was about 494. History The Nisga'a, who live around the Nass River, called the h ...

. Andrew McCulloch is buried in the Lakeview Cemetery in Penticton overlooking the Kettle Valley Railway that was such an important part of his life. His gravestone , which is laid flush with the ground, can be found in section D, about 20 m south of the main entrance and about 5 m to the west of a fire hydrant on the adjacent Lower Bench Road.

Legacy

''McCulloch Station'', ''McCulloch Lake'' on the Kettle Valley Railway, ''McCulloch Road'' in the nearby city of

Kelowna Kelowna ( ) is a city on Okanagan Lake in the Okanagan Valley in the southern interior of British Columbia, Canada. It serves as the head office of the Regional District of Central Okanagan. The name Kelowna derives from the Okanagan word ''ki� ...

, and Kelowna's ''McCulloch Station Pub'' are all named after McCulloch.

Biography

Legacy

References

Further reading