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(the above pictures is a twitter stock-gif, and has nothing to do with vancouver, but it's time for Pictures of Old Trains! By popular choice, tonights topic is OLD STATIONS https://twitter.com/BrendanDawe/status/1249517725657022464?s=20
Today, there are two mainline stations and 19 metro stations in Vancouver. Lost among that are two interurban terminals, two mainline terminals, several CPR local stations, two versions of Waterfront Station, and whole bunch of red BCER shacks
IN THE BEGINNING, there were no trains, because the CPR terminated in Port Moody, but wise Vancouver boosters bribed CPR into moving to Vancouver by bribing them over a fifth of the future city's land area, and so Waterfront Station was born https://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/original-first-vancouver-c-p-r-station-1889
Where are the ionic columns? The scenic paintings? Well, Vancouver in 1887 was essentially an outport, and a very remote one at that. The grand architecture will have to wait. Here's the first train https://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/crowds-at-c-p-r-wharf-viewing-arrival-of-first-train-in-vancouver
A couple things to note above - the station is right on the water, as the waterline is significantly further south than today. Waterfront yard is a trestle on some pilings, and the old growth forest still constitutes the very near horizon, despite several decades of logging
Let's jump around. In 1891, Vanouver's third railway commences, the Westminster Tramway, which is mostly the Expo Line. The Westminster Tramway terminated over at Main and Carrall, where BCER would build a handsome interurban depot that still stands https://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/b-c-electric-railway-companys-interurban-tram-station-on-southwest-corner-of-hastings-street-and-carrall-street-lit-with-electric-lights-for-visit-of-duke-of-connaught
On the above occasion it's lit up for a princely visit in 1912. Today, they sell fancy light fixtures. The station tracks have been enclosed as showroom space. The building was the BC Electric Co. HQ into the 1950s until the Electra Building on Burrard was built
Trains from Carrall Street went to New Westminster via Central Park, Burnaby Lake, and onward to Chilliwack, but there were also interurbans to Marpole and Steveston. They used a different terminal https://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/b-c-electric-lulu-island-richmond-interurban-tram-station-on-west-side-of-granville-street-bridge-at-3rd-avenue
This terminal moved around from Granville Bridge to Davie a bit and was never a very substantial structure https://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/looking-north-on-granville-street-bridge-towards-beach-avenue
the BC Electric Railway placed their interurban stops about twice as frequently as today's skytrian. They were usually simple standard structures with low platforms. Here a truckload of canned salmon was hit by a train near Steveston https://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/salmon-cans-on-track-after-b-c-electric-railway-interurban-collision-with-truck
Gladstone Station, 350 Meters west of Nanaimo Skytrain, on a trestle/fill around 1945 http://archives.richmond.ca/archives/descriptions/results.aspx?AC=GET_RECORD&XC=/archives/descriptions/results.aspx&BU=http%3A%2F%2Farchives.richmond.ca%2Fdescriptions%2F&TN=descriptions&SN=AUTO4314&SE=213&RN=21&MR=10&TR=0&TX=1000&ES=0&CS=0&XP=&RF=WebBrief&EF=&DF=WebFull&RL=0&EL=0&DL=0&NP=255&ID=&MF=GENERICENGWPMSG.INI&MQ=&TI=0&DT=&ST=0&IR=182278&NR=0&NB=4&SV=0&SS=0&BG=&FG=&QS=&OEX=ISO-8859-1&OEH=utf-8
here we have another probable rail/road accident at Collingwood West in 1931, Rupert & the Expo Line https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Collingwood_Station_on_the_B.C.E.R._Central_Park_Line_1930s_CVA_677-386.jpg
One last interurban station - the station at the Viaduct over Boundary Road on the Central Park. Line. The abutments are still there, but no station. 1908 https://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/boundary-road-and-park-avenue-vanness-street-station
Moving on - the grandiously named Vancouver, Westminster & Yukon, which backed by the Great Northern Railway, first accessed the city from the south. They would manage at least two of their objectives
The VW&Y came through where the Grandview Cut is today, along the south side of False Creek, and then across a trestle ~Quebec St to a terminal at Columbia & Pender https://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/georgia-harris-st-viaduct-vancouver-b-c-july-1st-1915
Supposedly this station was located with the encouragement of the town fathers, who hoped that development in the area would drive out Chinatown. Supposedly the station building ended it's days as a Chinese restaurant https://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/mandarin-gardens-98-east-pender-st
The station location is marked on this map from 1905 in the left side. "Westminster" is today Main Street https://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/vest-pocket-map-of-vancouver-map
This station was found unsatisfactory, and in cooperation with the new Canadian Northern Rwy, they decided to fill in the then quite moist East False Creek to build an enormous railway-industrial complex. The fill was excavated from the Grandview Cut https://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/view-of-false-creek-flats-east-of-main-street
1917, shortly there after, with the same view https://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/view-of-false-creek-flats-east-of-main-street-2
Here's another panorama facing West, with Main Street Bridge being removed, and a view of the trestle leading to the VW&Y station mentioned earlier https://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/view-of-reclamation-of-false-creek-flats-showing-reconstruction-of-main-street-at-bascule-bridge
For reasons I have never tracked down, the two cooperating railways build two new, grand terminals immediately next to each other, Canadian Northern Station (Pacific Central) and Union Station (GN Station, also briefly served Northern Pacific from Seattle) https://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/view-of-c-n-r-station-under-construction-and-completed-g-n-r-union-station-march-23-1918
Canadian Northern collapsed during the war and became part of CN, but the GN Station continued as the terminal for Seattle-Vancouver services until 1965 https://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/union-station-great-northern-railway-depot
Alas, the Western Canadian boom before WWI that inspired all this building wasn't so much after 1914, and False Creek Flats was slow to develop. Here we see the King's train in 1939 passing through the weeds near the 1st Ave overpass https://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/c-n-r-steam-royal-train
by the mid 1960s, 50 year old dreams of rail empire were long gone, and neither station was very busy. GN asked the city for a property tax break, but were denied, and so the GN station was demolished. GN moved next door. http://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/wrecking-great-northern-depot-vancouver https://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/great-northern-depot
I'm going to bed, but tomorrow we shall finish out with my favourite lost station
