A chart showing the grades and curves on the E&N Corridor.
From "Vancouver Island's Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway"
by Robert Turner & Donald MacLachlan
The speed at which a train can travel is governed by the tightness of the curves and the steepness of the grades, otherwise known as the alignment. In this video Benno Giesecke and Des James describe the alignment of the E&N corridor and explain why it is obsolete for modern train traffic. Using a chart taken from a book published in 2013 by Robert Turner they demonstrate that the builders of the E&N could not even meet the standards of the day for alignment, building tighter curves and steeper grades than those specified by the CPR. As a result, as can be seen on the chart, for about half the distance from Victoria to Courtenay the train was running at only 20 mph, most likely a speed limit imposed on freight trains of the time.
This was acceptable for the mining and logging freight back then, but low speed limits will remain a problem if the railway is revived in the future.
(The yellow line on the chart shows the gradient in percent, the green line the curvature in degrees, and the blue line the maximum speed per section.)