You are standing on the railbed of the former New Westminster Southern Railway. The railway started at the US border and terminated at Brownsville, opposite to New Westminster. From this point, the line headed NW to where the CN tracks are now, and SE towards 192 Street at the Highway 1.

New Westminster Southern Railway Survey

In January 1885, the editor of the Mainland Guardian fretted over Canadian Pacific Railway plans to run from Port Moody along the shore of Burrard Inlet to Coal Harbor,  bypassing New Westminster,  which considered itself the rightful terminus for the national railroad.

“Such a trick would isolate us forever. What we want is connection with Port Moody, and when we get the railway to Bellingham Bay, the circle will be complete, and we shall be the centre of the Province.”

A proposal had been made as early as 1882 to build a short-line from Port Moody to New Westminster, and in May 1883 the New Westminster Southern railway was incorporated to construct a railroad from Brownsville to the United States boundary line.
The only shareholder common to both these corporations was Ebenezer Brown.  However Brown died in June 1883 and attempts to organize the lines ran into stiff opposition from the CPR and failed to gain federal approval.

Routes to the boundary were disallowed (1884).