the exception of some isolated track at Grand Forks, BC, no part of the Boundary Subdivision (Nelson-Midway) was ever part of official KV territory. Former Columbia & Western territory was always administered by the Kootenay Division. In later years of operations after 1962, the Kootenay Division administered the Carmi Subdivision all the way west to the east end of the yard at Penticton, BC. Much of the KVR was built in response to the construction of the Vancouver, Victoria and Eastern Railway (VV&E). The VV&E was owned by Great Northern Railway. Although the CPR and the GNR had indulged in fierce competition in Boundary, West and East Kootenay Districts, that competition was cooling considerably by the time the construction of the KVR began in 1910. By 1913, prodded by the provincial government, the GNR had reached formal construction and then as regular operations loomed, joint track operations agreements with the KVR. The Kettle Valley Railway between Merritt and Midway was opened for service on May 31, 1915. On that date, the first two passenger trains commenced service. The Kettle Valley Railway was its own entity, but in practical reality, under the thumb of senior CPR management after about 1912. The Canadian Pacific Railway eventually took over operations of the KVR at the beginning of 1931. The former KVR territory was folded into the CPR's BC District at that time as the Kettle Valley Division. Rail service on the KVR consisted of both passenger and freight trains. Passenger service over the line consisted for many years of the Kettle Valley Express and the Kootenay Express, which carried passengers between Vancouver, BC and Medicine Hat, Alberta. Freight carried on the KVR consisted primarily of ore from the Kootenay region of British Columbia, as well as forestry products and fruit from the Okanagan. Finished goods were primarily brought into the Southern Interior on trains heading Eastbound. During the Kettle Valley Railway's lifespan, on numerous occasions it was called upon to act as "The Second Mainline" when washouts, avalanches and rock slides closed off the main CPR line through the Fraser Canyon. CPR recognized the benefit of having a second railway transiting through British Columbia, so beginning in the late 1930s and up until 1959, they set off on an upgrade program that saw the weight-bearing strength of the rails increased, as well as bridge and trestle improvements which brought the railway closer to