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Victoria Terminal Railway and Ferry Company

The Victoria Terminal Railway and Ferry Company (VTRF) was a standard gauge shortline railway company operating two railway lines and a connecting ferry that linked Vancouver Island and the south arm of the Fraser River in Metro Vancouver.

Construction and interchange

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In March 1901, the Great Northern Railway (GN) acquired a controlling interest in the VV&E,[1] owner of the VTRF, which in October commenced work on a railway line in Victoria.[2] In 1902, the VTRF acquired the Victoria and Sidney Railway (V&S).[3] In May 1903, the VTRF opened the short Cloverdale–Port Guichon railway link and commenced the Port Guichon–Sidney train ferry that connected with the V&S.[4] This daily ferry service carried passengers and up to eight railway freight cars.[5] The wharf largely parallelled the dyke.[6]

Cloverdale was an interchange on the New Westminster Southern Railway Company (NWSR), a GN subsidiary, which at the time connected today's Pacific Highway Border Crossing with Brownsville (Surrey docks).[7] In 1904, the New Westminster Bridge replaced the Fraser River ferry crossing to New Westminster, from which point the Vancouver, Westminster and Yukon Railway charter predicated access to Downtown Vancouver,[8] where the GN station stood immediately to the north of the existing Pacific Central Station.[9]

Operation and demise

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Port Guichon railway route

The wye was initially used for turning locomotives and accessing the Grant and Kerr sawmill.[6] Following stiff competition from Canadian Pacific Railway steamers from Vancouver and New Westminster (the latter calling at Port Guichon) and the withdrawal of an expected subsidy from the City of Victoria, the GN passenger ferry discontinued in December 1904.[10] At that time, a rail barge commenced operating either from Port Guichon or upriver. The six-car capacity service stopped in 1919 when the V&S closed. A 2.4-by-3.7-metre (8 by 12 ft) passenger shelter shed stood at the original Ladner station site, which was later renamed Challucthan. An 89-metre (293 ft) bridge spanned the then much wider Challucthan slough.[6] When the sawmill was rebuilt in 1914, a siding was installed.[11]

In 1924, the depot building, initially on the wharf, was loaded onto a flatcar and carried to a new location on Savoy St.[12] Freight from the sawmill and milk condensing plant at Port Guichon and crops from East Delta became the major source of revenue.[13] The Pacific milk condensing plant, which opened in 1914, relocated to the Abbotsford area in 1928. The facility became a pea cannery, which closed about 1933. The final scheduled monthly freight train ran in August 1935. The Ladner Lumber Company declared bankruptcy in 1938.[14] That year, the line was abandoned and the remaining track soon lifted back to Cloverdale.[15]

In 1943, the Ladner Fisherman's Co-operative Association purchased the Savoy St station for a meeting hall. In the 1960s, the building, which holds a historic places designation, was substantially enlarged.[16] Apart from the most westerly portion, the Cloverdale–Ladner right-of-way became the east–west section of the BC Rail track to Roberts Bank Superport,[17] which opened in 1970.

Ladner passenger rail

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Passenger Service
Type Period Frequency Terminal Via Terminal
1903 [18] 1905 [19] Daily Port Guichon Cloverdale, New Westminster Downtown Vancouver
1905 [20] 1905 [21] Tue, Thu, Sat.
[22] [23] Mon, Wed, Fri. Port Guichon Cloverdale
[24] [25] Mon, Fri.
1905 [26] 1907 [27] Mon.
mixed 1907 [28][29] 1908 [30] Mon, Wed, Fri. Port Guichon Cloverdale, New Westminster Downtown Vancouver
1908 [31] 1909 [32] Tue, Fri.
1909 [33] 1909 [33] Fri. Port Guichon Cloverdale New Westminster
1909 [34] 1916 [35] Daily
1918 [36] 1918 [36] Daily Port Guichon Cloverdale
1919 [37] 1925 [38] Daily Port Guichon Cloverdale, Abbotsford Sumas
Stations renamed: Guichon became Ladner; Ladner became Challucthan
mixed 1926 [39] 1926 [40] Daily Ladner Cloverdale, Abbotsford Sumas
1927 [41] 1929 [42] Mon, Wed, Fri.
1929 [43] 1929 [44] Mon, Wed, Fri. Ladner Cloverdale
1930 [45] 1930 [46] Tue, Fri. Ladner Colebrook
1930 [47] 1931 [48] Sat.

See also

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"1939 BC highway map". www.reddit.com. 29 January 2021.

Footnotes

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  1. ^ Turner & Wilkie 2007, p. 29.
  2. ^ "Daily Colonist, 22 Oct 1901". www.archive.org. p. 3.
  3. ^ "Daily Colonist, 2 Feb 1902". www.archive.org. p. 8.
  4. ^ "Daily Colonist, 17 May 1903". www.archive.org. p. 2.
  5. ^ Atkey 2004, p. 12.
  6. ^ a b c Atkey 2004, p. 15.
  7. ^ "Surrey railway map, 1914". www.wordpress.com.
  8. ^ Turner & Wilkie 2007, p. 28.
  9. ^ Turner & Wilkie 2007, p. 159.
  10. ^ Atkey 2004, pp. 13–14.
  11. ^ Atkey 2004, p. 16.
  12. ^ Atkey 2004, p. 28.
  13. ^ Atkey 2004, p. 18.
  14. ^ Atkey 2004, p. 27.
  15. ^ Atkey 2004, p. 30.
  16. ^ "VTRF Station". www.historicplaces.ca.
  17. ^ Atkey 2004, p. 24.
  18. ^ "Daily News". www.library.ubc.ca. 1 Aug 1903. p. 4.
  19. ^ "Delta Times". www.library.ubc.ca. 4 Feb 1905. p. 2.
  20. ^ "Delta Times". www.library.ubc.ca. 18 Feb 1905. p. 2.
  21. ^ "Delta Times". www.library.ubc.ca. 4 Mar 1905. p. 2.
  22. ^ "Delta Times". www.library.ubc.ca. 1 Apr 1905. p. 2.
  23. ^ "Delta Times". www.library.ubc.ca. 6 May 1905. p. 3.
  24. ^ "Delta Times". www.library.ubc.ca. 13 May 1905. p. 3.
  25. ^ "Delta Times". www.library.ubc.ca. 21 Oct 1905. p. 3.
  26. ^ "Delta Times". www.library.ubc.ca. 18 Nov 1905. p. 3.
  27. ^ "Daily News". www.library.ubc.ca. 13 Aug 1907. p. 7.
  28. ^ "Daily News". www.library.ubc.ca. 18 Sep 1907. p. 2.
  29. ^ "Timetable" (PDF). www.gn-npjointarchive.org. 17 Nov 1907. pp. 7–8.
  30. ^ "Daily News". www.library.ubc.ca. 13 Mar 1908. p. 7.
  31. ^ "Timetable" (PDF). www.gn-npjointarchive.org. 27 Dec 1908. pp. 7–8.
  32. ^ "Timetable" (PDF). www.gn-npjointarchive.org. 2 Mar 1909. pp. 7–8.
  33. ^ a b "Timetable" (PDF). www.gn-npjointarchive.org. 28 Mar 1909. p. 9.
  34. ^ "Timetable" (PDF). www.gn-npjointarchive.org. 23 May 1909. p. 10.
  35. ^ "Timetable" (PDF). www.gn-npjointarchive.org. 11 Jun 1916. p. 11.
  36. ^ a b "Timetable" (PDF). www.gn-npjointarchive.org. 17 Nov 1918. p. 11.
  37. ^ "Timetable" (PDF). www.gn-npjointarchive.org. 23 Feb 1919. p. 11.
  38. ^ "Timetable" (PDF). www.gn-npjointarchive.org. 10 May 1925. p. 11.
  39. ^ "Timetable" (PDF). www.gn-npjointarchive.org. 27 Jun 1926. p. 11.
  40. ^ "Timetable" (PDF). www.gn-npjointarchive.org. 25 Jul 1926. p. 11.
  41. ^ "Timetable" (PDF). www.gn-npjointarchive.org. 26 Jun 1927. p. 11.
  42. ^ "Timetable" (PDF). www.gn-npjointarchive.org. 11 Jun 1929. p. 6.
  43. ^ "Timetable" (PDF). www.gn-npjointarchive.org. 15 Sep 1929. p. 6.
  44. ^ "Timetable" (PDF). www.gn-npjointarchive.org. 1 Dec 1929. p. 6.
  45. ^ "Timetable" (PDF). www.gn-npjointarchive.org. 2 Feb 1930. p. 6.
  46. ^ "Timetable" (PDF). www.gn-npjointarchive.org. 9 Nov 1930. p. 4.
  47. ^ "Timetable" (PDF). www.gn-npjointarchive.org. 21 Dec 1930. p. 4.
  48. ^ "Timetable" (PDF). www.gn-npjointarchive.org. 6 Sep 1931. p. 4.

References

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  • Atkey, Kenneth M. (2004). "The Railway to Port Guichon". Sandhouse. Vol. 29, no. 3. Mississippi Great Southern Chapter National Railway Historical Society.
  • Turner, Robert D.; Wilkie, J.S. David (2007). Steam Along the Boundary. Sono Nis Press. ISBN 978 1-55039-158-9.
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