– by Tyler Woolley –
Who would ever have expected that a small area 33 kilometres in length and averaging four kilometres in width would be serviced by three railway lines, albeit, all operating during the same time? The place: the Saanich Peninsula. The railway lines: the Sidney & Victoria (1894 – 1919), the British Columbia Electric (1913 – 1924); and the Canadian Northern Pacific (1917 – 1935). In this short piece, the story of the Canadian Northern Pacific Railway (CNPR), the last surviving band of steel to transverse the Peninsula, will be reviewed.
The CNPR was incorporated in March 1910, partly on the basis that the company would construct a railway from Victoria to Port Alberni for passenger and freight service. The Company received its charter on February 18th, 1911. The agreement with the provincial government stated that a ferry service to Port Mann would be included. By the time work had begun on the line, a decision had been made to include a Victoria to Union Bay line with a ferry service to Port Mann.
By December 1912, the CNPR had acquired 250 acres of land at Union Bay, (which is now known as Patricia Bay, being renamed after Queen Victoria’s Granddaughter, Princess Patricia of Connaught). The reasoning behind the renaming was so there would be no confusion with the shipping port at the Cumberland Colliers. At the time, the owners of the CNPR had plans to develop the Patricia Bay area by building their wharves for passenger and freight business, repair shops, the setting out of railroad yards and sidings. Even the thought of laying out a townsite was being considered. “The Canadian Northern is here to stay,” announced the Sidney Review.
The construction of the Patricia Bay line started in September 1913 when crews arrived in the Saanichton area to begin clearing and grading the line. This was completed by November 1914; however, it took three years for the rails to be laid because of the needs of World War I. With the completion of the ferry dock at Patricia Bay, (more than 2,200 feet in length), a 74-seat electric/gas passenger motorcar was transported from the mainland to the Island to be used on the line. An order was placed with a Quebec firm to build a ferry for the line. This was christened the Canora, an anagram for CAnadian NOrthern RAilway.
On Dec 20th, 1918, the CNPR was absorbed by the Canadian National Railway (CNR), who decided not to provide passenger service from Vancouver Island to the mainland, but only to ship freight. Thus when the Canora arrived in Victoria, it immediately went into refit and by 1919 the ferry was in service for the Patricia Bay line for freight. During the same year the electric/gas motorcar passenger service discontinued on the Pat bay line.
In 1919, the CNR purchased the Victoria and Sidney Railway’s line from Bazan Bay to Sidney which they had been leasing since January 1918 to provide service to the growing industries of area. By 1932 the S.S. Canora was withdrawn; two years later the Sidney Mill caught on fire and was closed down. In 1935 the track was abandoned and removed.
The stations on the line were as follows: Alpha Street near Burnside, Junction (near the present Town and Country Shopping Centre), North Quadra, Cordova, Sayward, Martindale, Michell, Saanich, Bazan, East Road, Range Road, and Patricia Bay.
Today, most of the Lochside Galloping Goose Trail is along the CNPR right-of-way.
For further information concerning the Railways of the Saanich Peninsula, please visit: www.sidneymuseum.ca.
Tyler Woolley is a volunteer at the Sidney Archives.
