Being from the Lower Mainland I was a big fan of Southern Railway of B.C. then known as B.C. Hydro Rail. I haven’t been out to the Lower Mainland in years & wanted to know is SRY still going strong between Trapp Yards in New Westmininster & Chillwack? Until 1986 they ran trains down the north side of the Fraser River then down West Boulevard/Arbutus to the Burrard Street Bridge before Canadian Pacific took over this section. The only companies served was Carling O’Keefe & Molson Breweries. Is this section still in operation or has it been abandoned after Marpole?
CP rail now runs the entire marpole spur, the SRY doesn’t go much more west than New Westminster anymore.
The entire arbutus corridor hasn’t seen a train for about 5 years now, molson is now served entirely by trucks, and the tracks are pretty much all overgrown. CP is still trying to get the go ahead to sell the land (subdivide for housing), whereas the city of Vancouver wants the right-of-way to remain intact, for possible future use of rapid transit.
The SRY is still going strong eastward, still running from Trapp yard in New West, out to Chilliwack.
CP Rail still runs in Richmond via the Marpole Bridge, but recently abandoned a short stretch of track that runs south next to the river, they only served one customer down that way, and in the next five years they plan to abandon the rest of the Marpole spur that runs south and west of the marpole bridge.
I wouldn’t be surprised if within the next decade CP no longer runs into richmond anymore.
Here’s some recent picutres of the arbutus corridor.
http://www.savecambie.org/avc.htm
SRY still runs a busy little yard at Huntingdon near Abbotsford , with turns to Chilliwack a couple of times a day as well as the main trips to New Westminster . SRY have also recently acquired several ex CN GMD 1 units . None have been noted out on the road as of yet.-- unless someone else has seen any !