The Victoria and Sidney
Railway
The Railway Did you know that the Saanich Peninsula actually had
three railways running from Victoria to North Saanich all at the
same time? The Victoria and Sidney was the first and was a vital
connection on the peninsula since there were little or no roads
yet. The railway was unique since railways usually follow flat
grades but the V&S had to tackle some pretty extreme slopes.
This was due to the fact that the route had to follow the chain of
urban centres (Royal Oak, Keating, Saanichton, Sidney).
It would have been a picturesque ride starting in downtown
Victoria at Fisgard at Douglas and then heading north over Mayfair
Mall (there was a quarry there at the time so they had to build a
big trestle over it as to not interrupt their work.
It then went over the Lochside trail and down the Pat Bay
highway and climbed the Royal Oak hill. This climb was so slow that
people hopped off and went to the pub while the train climbed.
It then went along Elk Lake where the trail is now and skirted
Bear Hill through the farm fields. From there, it went along the
current Veyaness Road (V&S, Veyaness, get it?) and through
Saanichton past the Prairie Inn.
The route then descended sharply to the waterfront and went
along Lochside Drive to Sidney.
The Downfall
There were three causes of the fall of the railway:
1.) The Interurban Line and the CNR (Lochside Trail route) were
built and they essentially suffocated each other.
2.) The equipment aged and the trains got more and more off
schedule.
3.) Finally, people turned to cars and trucks, and that was the
nail in the coffin for these three routes.
The Legacy
There are a few remnants you can see today but most parts have
been developed or are on private property.
1.) Veyaness Road
2.) The trestle footings in the ravine when biking the
Lochside/Galloping Goose
3.) The trail on the west side of Elk Lake.
Elk Lake as a Water Supply
Elk Lake Water Supply When Victoria first was established, they
either got their water from backyard well or a small pond which has
since disappeared under downtown.
Over the years, Victoria continued to grow and the small water
sources were no longer sufficient so the planners instead looked to
Elk Lake. A pipeline, 8.5 km in length, was built in an almost
direct route south from the lake, along today’s Pipeline
Road, to downtown Victoria.
The water quality drawn from this lake was never optimal, mostly
due to the fact that Beaver Lake was a flooded swamp and the intake
was located in Beaver Lake as opposed to larger, deeper Elk Lake.
At least this source was more reliable than the previously used
wells.
As the city grew, more and more pipelines were built and the
water got drawn from the lake at an unsustainable rate. As the
water level decreased, mud and silt got drawn in through the
intake. Turbidity, bad smells, and amphibians arriving with the
water were common occurrences. The draw eventually became so great
that vast amounts of silt were being pulled out with the water so a
system of filter ponds needed to be built. This, however, was only
a stop-gap measure and it was not long before Sooke Lake was viewed
as an excellent source for water.
