Onderdonk seems to have sub-contracted most of the right-of-way work, concentrating his efforts on laying the track which could be done easily once the railway had been completed to Savona. He continued to use steamboats to provision the crews throughout the project.
Work commenced on the CPR contract in the spring of 1884. Apart from some tunnels in the Cherry Creek area, the construction went smoothly. By July 31, 1884, an item in The Inland Sentinel reported that the 7 miles above Savona had begun, and was described as "light work." The work had been subcontracted to Mr. T.F. Sinclair. A Mr. Ferguson was in charge of the Chery Creek Tunnel work about 13 miles west of Kamloops. The steamboats on the lakes, such as the S.S. Lady Dufferin, the S.S. Peerless, the S.S. Kamloops, and the S.S. Spallumcheen were all employed in hauling goods, materials and workers, and greatly facilitated the good progress made on this section of the railway. The right of way had been staked along the main street of Kamloops in August of 1884, the locating engineer for this section being Mr. W.P. Watson. The grading through Kamloops was being carried out in October of 1884, but the track was only laid through the town in July of 1885 and the first locomotive into Kamloops was No. 5, the 'Lytton,' as reported in The Inland Sentinel of Thursday, July 16, 1885.
Construction east of Kamloops progressed rapidly, but towards the end of the summer of 1885, however, Onderdonk ran out of rails at a place along the Eagle River which would become known as Craigellachie. He discharged most of his work force at that time. The last spike would be driven there on a cold November day in 1885 when crews working from the east linked the rails to the last rails laid by Onderdonk's crews.
By this time, the prosperity of Kamloops was assured. Not only did the rails run right through the town—a situation that was not very practical— but Kamloops was also the starting point for navigation up the North Thompson river. 
ith all of the contracts for the Federal Government nearing completion, Onderdonk was engaged by the CPR syndicate early in 1884 to continue the construction of the railway from Savona, through Kamloops, and on to Eagle Pass.[Map: 210 KB]. This was almost two years after the Columbian of New Westminster had suggested the wisdom of beginning construction from Kamloops eastward so that supplies coming from 'this side' of the mountains could provision railroad construction in the Big Bend area.
