Canadian Railroads > CP's Canadian at Dunsmuir Tunnel

The Canadian has arrived at CP's station along the waterfront in Vancouver BC in Oct '77......discharged passengers and enters the nearly mile long Dunsmuir Tunnel to run under downtown Vancouver to the yard and services facilities near False Creek.

http://www.vancouverhistory.ca/archives_skytrain_tunnel.htm
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Waterfront Station now serves the West Coast Express and the Dunsmuir Tunnel has been 'double-decked' for the Skytrain 'subway' under downtown with stations added in the tunnel at Burrard and Granville Streets.

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Thanks for posting the before and after pictures.  Last time I was there was in May,83 when I rode a CP Excursion from Vancouver to Penticton over what was  left of the Kettle Valley Line. The group sponsoring the trip said was to be the last train to use the CP Station . Any truth to that??

mopacrr Wrote:
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> Thanks for posting the before and after pictures.
>  Last time I was there was in May,83 when I rode
> a CP Excursion from Vancouver to Penticton over
> what was  left of the Kettle Valley Line. The
> group sponsoring the trip said was to be the last
> train to use the CP Station . Any truth to that??

VIA had moved the Canadian to the CN now Pacific Central Station in Oct 1979 so your's was probably the last 'CP' train to use the station until the West Coast Express started up in the mid '90s.

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The concrete office tower in the background was the property of CP's real estate subsidiary, Marathon Realty, and until the late 1980's housed the Pacific Region administration offices and the Vancouver Division rail traffic control (train dispatchers) office.  The CP Vancouver Division offices were upstairs in the station. Both the station and the office tower are no longer CP property, and the RTC office moved to Calgary circa 1995.

​The interior roof has some nice murals of mountain scenery.  The track closest to the station used to house the Pacific Division office cars, in those days the "Van Horne" and the "Shaughnessy".  As an early director of CP, Shaughnessy and other directors decided to move the western terminus from Port Moody to Vancouver, and made much money in real estate as a result. An upscale district of Vancouver is named for Shaughnessy.

mopacrr Wrote:
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> Thanks for posting the before and after pictures.
>  Last time I was there was in May,83 when I rode
> a CP Excursion from Vancouver to Penticton over
> what was  left of the Kettle Valley Line. The
> group sponsoring the trip said was to be the last
> train to use the CP Station . Any truth to that??

That was not a CP excursion. It was organized by the B.C. Chapter of the NRHS, using the chapter's own fleet of cars (Okanagan Express -- Vancouver to Penticton and return)..

And the 1983 trip would not have been the last, because the same group ran another one in 1984.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/27/16 04:34 by railsmith.

Before the Dunsmuir Tunnel was built, trains reached Drake St over street level trackage from the waterfront and it's still easy to follow that route from the angles of the buildings along the old right-of-way. It passed through the domed BC Place and over to the restored roundhouse (still standing):

https://goo.gl/maps/dodyfbdq1MF2

https://goo.gl/maps/jcTcoAmg45F2

Was there a CP steamship dock to the left of photo #1? Remember it sitting out there by itself with no structures on the pier.
Interesting to see how things have changed, the family would drive to Vancouver in the mid-60's, mostly to shop at 'Inglis Reid' but also Woodwards. Very different times.

I just got back from staying on the waterfront in Vancouver and this answers so many questions!  One question I do still have, how far back do the tail tracks go under the new development built overtop the westerm end of the yard?

Thanks

Davis

strench707 Wrote:
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> I just got back from staying on the waterfront in
> Vancouver and this answers so many questions!
>  One question I do still have, how far back do
> the tail tracks go under the new development built
> overtop the westerm end of the yard?
 
They stop more or less underneath Burrard Street.

TCnR Wrote:
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> Was there a CP steamship dock to the left of photo
> #1? Remember it sitting out there by itself with
> no structures on the pier.
> Interesting to see how things have changed, the
> family would drive to Vancouver in the mid-60's,
> mostly to shop at 'Inglis Reid' but also
> Woodwards. Very different times.

The CPR Pier D was roughly in that position. There are photos in the passageway from Canada Place to the underground mall adjacent to the Skytrain station showing the spectacular fire which destroyed it. The date of the fire, according to Wikipedia, was July 27, 1938.

  A bit to the west of Pier D was Pier B&C which was the main steamship terminal. Wikipedia says it was used only until 1970 but that isn't true. At that pier I boarded the CPR's Alaska cruise ship Princess Patricia in Sept. 1972. I had a tour of P&O's Arcadia in 1974 and I have seen other ocean liners there after that. I don't know when it was closed. It has been rebuilt as Canada Place with a luxury hotel on top. It opened in time for Expo 1986. The cruise facilities were recently extended. It can handle three very large ships.