The Route of the Vancouver and Nicola Valley Railway

The route of the Vancouver and Nicola Valley Railway covers tracks owned (at various times) by the Canadian Pacific Railway, the Canadian Northern Railway (now Canadian National Railway) and the Great Northern Railway (now Burlington Northern, Santa Fe).

Discussion of these routes is broken into two sections:

Historical Lines:

• New Westminster Southern Railway
• Victoria Terminal Railway
• Vancouver, Westminster and Yukon
• Vancouver, Victoria and Eastern
• Nicola, Kamloops and Similkameen Railway
• Kettle Valley Railway
• Canadian Northern Railway

and

• The Merritt lines -
• The Coquihalla Line -
• The Shared Main -
• The Valley Lines -
• The Vancouver Lines

Timetables

Thanks to an acquaintance met through the store I work at (Central Hobbies) I have come into possession of copies of the GNR timetables covering the area I am modeling. When time permits these will be listed in a new section VV&E Time Tables

Sources

The sources for the above information (besides my fertile imagination) are:

• McCulloch's Wonder by Barrie Sanford. Whitecap Books.
  While primarily a history of the Kettle Valley Railway, the history of the VV&E was so intertwined with the KVR that this is a good source of information on the VV&E.
  This book has been rereleased this year (2003) in a revised, 25th Anniversary Paperback edition.

• Kettle Valley Railway Mileboards by Joe Smuin. North Kildonan Publications
  This excellent new book on the Kettle Valley Railway will inspire many updates on the VNV Coquihalla, and Merritt subdivisions.

• A Statutory History of Railways in Canada 1836-1986 by "The Canadian Institute of Guided Ground Transport", revised edition 1987.
  A compilation of all the statutes relating to railways in Canada, when they were passed and in which legislature.

• Terra Server a source of satellite images of the Fraser Valley (and many other portions of the world). Many portions of the VV&E route are still visible on these images.

• The Railway Era in Surrey 1887 to 1910 is useful for early information about Surrey.

• The Great Northern Railway in BC's Fraser Valley has interesting information on railways in the Fraser Valley.

• Neil Roughly (see above: 'The Great Northern Railway in BC's Fraser Valley') pointed out to me that the book: The Victoria & Sidney Railway 1892-1919, Darryl E. Muralt, BCRHA 1992 has information on the Victoria Terminal Railway.

• Railway Mile Posts of British Columbia Volume 2 provided information on the Coquihalla and Nicola Valley Routes.

• Mr. D. Davies has provided me with copies of early GNR timetables covering the Fraser Valley.