I was in S.E. B.C. last weekend. There were no issues at all with crossing the border. There is a lot of great rail fanning that can be done in West and East Kootenay's. There is a great museum in Cranbrook called the "Canadian Museum of Rail Travel" with many restored passenger cars and other great displays. If you make a trip following the CPR mainline over the passes going West, there is a fine museum at Revelstoke with a cosmetically restored CPR Mike housed indoors. My wife and I spent a pleasant afternoon a few summers ago setting on a park bench overlooking the rail yard at Field, B.C. watching the comings and goings. Anywhere around Fernie is good train watching. Thinking back to Cranbrook, there is a very nice hotel adjacent to the rail yard and the museum where we have stayed quite a few times. An upper floor room trackside is great on a summer evening. The yard is quite noisy at night, but the rooms are fairly well sound proofed with the windows closed. At Kimberly there is a tourist oriented "mining railroad", that while not prototypical of anything in particular is quite a bit of fun to ride. They have a very good interpretive program of the mining that once went on there. There are a number of great books on the history of railroading and steam boat operations on the lakes and rivers of the area. I recommend any of Robert Turner's books in particular as they provide maps and very in depth history of the CPR and GN as rivals competing for the traffic of the Southern B.C. interior. Lastly I assume most of us that are rail fans also enjoy other steam venues, so if heading around the area, make sure to visit the Moyie at Kaslo, B.C. which is a meticulously restored sternwheeler and also the Sicomous at Penticton. Near Penticton you also have the Kettle Vly RR. with operating steam. My favorite part of the world, so I could go on.....