I will taking Amtrak from Seattle to Vancouver BC so i can catch the eastbound canadian but the Cascade get to Vancouver at about 11:30 do I will about 5 hours in Vancouver, so what kind of railfanning is there and is it railfan friendly.
I don’t think there is much to see around the Station. There is a Skytrain station right in front of it if you want to travel around. I believe you can be fined for being on a Skytrain Station platform without a ticket. I guess you could ride Skytrain to the Scott Road Station and hike to CN’s Thornton Yard, but I wouldn’t try it on a 5 hour layover. At the other end oy the yard at the Station, past VIA’s maintenance facility is a junction with a freight line to the waterfront. The Canadian skirts the south side of CP’s Port Coquitlam Yard, but most of the power is on the north side of the yards, with strings of freight cars inbetween.
I wouldn’t recommend Thornton yard, CN police patrol Thornton looking for tresspassers and railfans.
What you can do is ride the SkyTrain over to Waterfront Station. There are commuter trains parked there for rush hour. I don’t think you can get on the platform without a ticket (meaning you can’t be there when the trains aren’t running either) but it’s possible to walk in Gas Town along the tracks and get some shoots through the chainlink fence. You will also see a CP switcher or two from the observation area.
Vancouver is a big city and there’s lots of chain link and no trespassing signs everywhere you try to railfan. There is a trolley car that runs on weekends in the summer and is an easy walk from Pacific Central Station.
If you want to rent a car, then you can go east along either the CN or CP to try and catch some freight action. Mission is a good spot, as their’s a bridge and crossover, so you get more trains (in my experience), but it’s an hour away, and I wouldn’t go that far if I only had five hours.
There’s a great railroad museum in Squamish, but it’s also at least an hour away (as far as I remember).