How much of the downtown rail yard of Canadian Pacific still exists? I ask this because of the expansion of the big hotel there. I think it’s called Canada Place. Did they lay into Canadian Pacific to pull some of their rail yards out of there, notably the rail ferry to Nanaimo that was there?
The only trackage that I know of close to the water is the single, essentially unused, track that runs on the south side of False Creek along Arbutus Ave. Right down town, the old CPR Roundhouse and turntable are still there, but are now part of a museum containing a pristine 4-4-0 (or is it a 4-6-0?). AFAIK, the only “yard” (in use) for CP is under the Port Mann Bridge out in Burnaby/Port Coquitlam, on the south side of the Fraser, about 15 miles to the east.
Someone who knows better than I will surely chime in with information for you.
Edit: I found this link…to a 4-4-0, quite a honey if you ask me…and at the top are other links to aspects of the museum.
Thanks for the photo of 4-4-0. Those were the days.
But isn’t the rail yard under Port Mann used by Canadian National? Canadian Pacific had their rail yard in Port Coquitlam then went to downtown Vancouver along the south shore of Burrard Inlet. They serviced the oil referenies underneath Burnaby Mountain and IOCO on the other side of Port Moody. Then it was the wheat pools in Vancouver itself.
Is this the yard you are refering to?
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=49.216027,-122.824788&spn=0.008059,0.023518&t=h&z=16&om=1
I just tried but it wouldn’t pull up this time. I will check again tomorrow night.
The tracks end at the Convention center. The new convention center is being built where the ferry to Nanaimo used to dock. There are no customers west of there, just condo towers now.
By the Seabus Terminal is this CP Yard, full of double stack cars for the Centerm container facility. Along the south side of the CP Yard are 5 West Coast Express trains and several Skytrain cars.
Yes, that is the Port Mann bridge if you scroll right (east), but I can’t say that it is a CPR yard. I thought it is because there is another substantial yard in the harbour on the nort side of Burrard Inlet, right under the Lion’s Gate Bridge at Stanley Park, that is definitely CN (was looking just the other day).
Most of the “N yard”, the yard by the old CPR station still exists and is used to service the local ports. The interchange with CN’s Waterfront yard is a little further east, and the CPR now handles all of CN’s Waterfront work. The barge dock was moved to Tilbury on the Fraser River many years ago(after Canada Place was built IIRC) so CPR could sell off the prime real estate that the barge slip was sitting on.
That would be Thornton yard in Surrey. I believe doc was referring to the CN and CPR yards downtown Vancouver on the south shore.
The big yard in North Vancouver is CN’s former BC Rail yard.
Have you ever heard of “Air Rights”?
A portion of the rail yard still exists. It is covered by layers of development built on very expensive pilings/platforms which support the Convention Centre amongst other projects…
The real estate at the waterfront site is probably among the highest valued in the world.
If you ever in Vancouver take your camera and have a walk around. You can see a lot of the yard area’s from several elevated ramps.
There is a rail yard… right next to the seabus terminal. This is also where the west coast express departs from
Wow this is a confusing thread, lots of good info mixed up with some bad stuff. While I am no expert on what each railway does with which yards, here is a basic list.
Ok, so I started the list, and it was just as confusing. Really, you need to sit down with a map. Saying “the railyard on the waterfront” isn’t helpful for describing a particular location in the Vancouver area, with two exceptions, all the yards are on or very close to waterfront and have some sort of waterfront industry activity going on.
I think the one you are talking about is the CPR yard along the north edge of Vancouver which serves (among many other things) Roger’s Sugar, the Wheat Pool, WCE, etc etc. Yes there is lots going on down there train wise. Many of the old docks and such have been removed over time. I have no idea which are left. If you plan to do any railfanning, it has to be done from the Vancouver city streets. Unless you are on port business, you can’t drive in there anymore.