An interesting piece of track was built exactly 100 years ago.
In 1913, the Canadian Northern Railway built a line with a dock at Patricia Bay. This natural harbour was in the shelter of Saanich Inlet. It was strategically located just north of Victoria.
If you start at Victoria and head north ... pass through Elk Lake ... and find the big bay to the left of 'Sidney' on the map ... that's Patricia Bay.
Between Port Mann (on the mainland) and Patricia Bay, the CNoR operated their first coastal shipping and ferry service. With the financial failure of the CNoR, Canadian National Railways took over these operations.
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| from: CNR system map, published between 1929 and 1949. |
The undated map above shows the Canadian National Railways line in green. The line to Kissinger was completed in 1928. Lumber and logs were products carried by the railway from the interior of the island and their export was accomplished by ship or float from Patricia Bay.
... However, the CNR decided that the railway route all around Saanich Inlet to get to Patricia Bay was unnecessarily long. After the CNR created an alternate harbour, it pulled up the line to Patricia Bay in 1935.
... This alternative harbour was built by the CNR between Deerholme and Cowichan Bay ... the Tidewater Subdivision. For your convenience and pleasure, both Deerholme and Cowichan Bay are shown in red print on the map above.
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Here's an older map ...
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| from: Atlas of Canada; 1915; Government of Canada. |
The Government Atlas above pre-dates the previous map and shows data from 1915.
... As a matter of cruel historical fact, the Canadian Northern had not completed the line northwest of Lake Cowichan to Alberni, and it never would. Apparently, the grading had been done as far as Alberni. Some of this prepared roadbed was eventually put to good use by logging company railways.
And, in the map's 'Canadian Northern territory' (very light green) you can see the (pre-Tidewater Sub) line to Patricia Bay ... It swings around through Victoria and up through Elk Lake and Sidney ... to the harbour at Patricia Bay (not labelled).
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| from: Atlas of Canada; Henry W Castner; 1981; Reader's Digest. |
The CNR built the Tidewater Subdivision in 1925 and it was formally abandoned in 1987. You can see some YouTube videos showing that some of the rails are still in place in 2025.
On the map above, railways are shown in faint grey, with the railway initials beside the line. You can see how the CNR was located from Lake Cowichan ... descending along the valley of the Cowichan River.
Then, in 1925 ... in topographical triumph ... the final stretch of the Cowichan River valley was followed between Deerholme and the ocean at Cowichan Bay.
I've posted an enlarged, unaltered section of the same map, below, to show that the Tidewater Sub can still be seen on this crowded 1981 map ... It is shown running east from that grey railway junction east of Koksilah and runs east through the red dot with Cowichan 9 on it.
When one spends at lot of time looking at atlases, one often finds that First Nations reserves were established at particular points. On this map, they are shown by red dots and pink shading.
... Then ... with the First Nations reserves established ... years later ... someone finds a compelling commercial case to take advantage of the underlying industrial geography and 'something' is built which permanently alters the land originally set aside.
... Examples which quickly come to mind are ... here at Cowichan Bay, or at Depot Harbour near Parry Sound, or along most of the the riverfront at Kahnawake where the Seaway was constructed.
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Cover of the Tidewater Subdivision profile:
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| from: Westward Go Young Man; John L Charles; 1978; Canac Consultants. PDF via Google search from cgs.ca. |
Westward Go Young Man, Volume 1
Westward Go Young Man, Volume 2
The author of the book, John Charles, was born in the UK where he obtained his civil engineering qualifications. His British training/western Canadian railway career path, are somewhat similar to those of Sandford Fleming, JHE Secretan, and P Turner Bone.
Here's a very brief overview of his Canadian railway experiences: He migrated to the Canadian west, where he worked on the locating surveys for the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway and both periods of construction of the railway line to Churchill, Manitoba. I've only skimmed parts of his book ... He also had military service in World War One.
End of digression, back to the profile of the CNR Tidewater Subdivision.
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- At Deerholme, you can see that the station is west of the west switch of the wye. (G = grade crossing)
- The Deerholme station is at Mile 0.0 of the Tidewater Sub and Mile 58.25 of the Cowichan Sub. You could picture the Tidewater Sub as a 'port spur' of the Cowichan Sub.
- The track is laid with 60 pound rail and gravel ballast.
- For most of the route from Deerholme to Tyup there is a down grade, often reaching 2%.
- At Mile 3.8 there is heavy curvature, including one at 10 degrees.
- There are many bridges from Mile 4 to Cowichan Bay.
- The longest trestle is just before Tyup - 799 feet in length ... at the bottom of the grade.
- Just before Tyup, the CPR passes under the line - but does not interchange.
- Tyup is a well-equipped station: water tower, 4000 feet of siding, wye, telegraph office.
- East of Tyup are more sidings, with a total capacity of almost a full mile.
- In total, 208 cars can be stored between Tyup and Cowichan Bay.
- This would have been an expensive bit of railway to build.
- It would have been challenging to operate with heavy trains of lumber.
- It was built to accumulate and move a large number of cars for a busy port.
- Presumably, this railway 'storage/surge capacity' made it possible to completely load a ship with lumber without delay ... as fast as cranes could place the lumber in its holds.
- Trains going east to Cowichan Bay are travelling 'timetable north'.
- Retainers (to slow the release of the air brakes during recharging/releasing cycles) must be set while standing on the slight upgrade at Deerholme.
- A single-occupancy manual block system on the heavy northbound descending grade Deerholme to Tyup is controlled by telephone by the operator at Deerholme - on duty 24 hours per day.
- Fuel and water are available at Tyup.
- The whole subdivision is within yard limits so all movements must be prepared to stop within half range of vision.
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| from: https://youtu.be/6b5GBPmwoZo?si=yNJycXEGFfPO2Mxv I will link this excellent YouTube account below. |
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| from: Vancouver Island Railroads; Robert D Turner; 1973; Golden West Books. |
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| from: https://youtu.be/6b5GBPmwoZo?si=yNJycXEGFfPO2Mxv |
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| from: Google |