Canadian Railroads > The Victoria Roundhouse

One of my best railfan adventures involved no trains at all.  It was just a nice quiet Saturday afternoon in August of 1994, exploring the old E&N roundhouse in downtown Victoria BC.

Cheers,
Dwayne  

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Cheers,
Dwayne

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Thanks for posting these photos.  Wish I knew about the roundhouse during my visit to Victoria during the following year.  It is still standing.

I walked around it just a few years ago and it looked the same as in your photos.   What a real gem.   I saw it in the very early 80's and it was still being used by CP and had some GP9's and a SW unit outside.    It seems the locals are smart enough to know it is worth saving.

The roundhouse is across the harbour in Esquimalt BC. 

It was built in 1913 and had some unique features including the stalls being numbered counter-clockwise.  It is also a national and civic heritage site; however this designation does not have the weight or significance it would have if a station.  I used to be Secretary and Trustee on the Roundhouse Museum Society, whose goal it was to turn the intact site (roundhouse, turntable, car shop, stores building) into a transportation heritage museum.  Spent hundreds of hours at the site photographing and assisting in measuring interior and exterior of each building in the 1990's in order for another member to make cardboard mock-up models to show community and other groups our vision.

Ultimately it did not come to fruition and there are condominiums around there now.  The land (waterfront) is valuable, the buildings are not (to those not in our hobby). 

Elizabeth

eminence_grise Wrote:
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> The roundhouse is across the harbour in Esquimalt
> BC. 

Actually, that's not Esquimalt. It's Victoria West, still part of the City of Victoria.  The Victoria-Esquimalt boundary is at Dominion Road, more than a half-mile west of the roundhouse. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/06/21 02:20 by railsmith.

The roundhouse's address is on Esquimalt Road.  It was originally called Russell's Roundhouse as it bordered Russell Street.

Elizabeth

Visited the round house a number of years ago and noted RDC's inside.  But I think it was after the service was discontinued.