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Post by Ferryman on Jul 16, 2009 23:24:53 GMT -8
Montague Harbour wasn't anything special. It was one of those terminals where you would drive down a two laned road, and then come around a corner, and bam, there's a Ferry terminal. Traffic would just line up on the side of the road, and await for the traffic light to turn green, to begin loading.
On the Satellite map above, the terminal was located just to the left of the "Montague Harbour" label. You can see the little road curve towards the water, which is what used to be the holding lanes. There's no remains of the dock there. Just a concrete baracade right where the road would have transitioned from the pavement to the ramp, which is now just a complete drop off into the water.
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Post by Scott on Jul 17, 2009 6:34:09 GMT -8
It would have offered some good ferry viewing opportunities, that's for sure:) The ferries coming and going would have passed pretty close to land.
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Post by Curtis on Jul 17, 2009 11:34:46 GMT -8
Though when you think about it, it looks like the biggest you would get there is the Mayne Queen. That's probably why they decided to scrap Montague Harbour. Sure the Mayne Queen and other small SWB-SGI vessels wouldn't have to transit active pass, but when larger vessels arrived they would have to transit active pass anyways. Sturdies Bay had more potential than Montague in the end. (plus it saved the cost of running two ferry terminals that did practically the same route)
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Post by Nucksrule on Jul 17, 2009 20:49:46 GMT -8
Another problem with Montague was the leisure boat traffic. As well as seaplanes coming in. Somewhat a lack of space to operate a ferry terminal, especially nowadays.
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Post by hullnumbers on Jul 18, 2009 19:27:07 GMT -8
Those seem to be good reasons. i have been asking my self the same thing every time but i couldn't come to my senses to believe it. So what about the date when it closed because i'm in the dark not know the date
Note.
i noticed theres all ready a Terminals page so this sites for the question. Sorry for the title change.
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Neil
Voyager
Posts: 7,172
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Post by Neil on Jul 19, 2009 9:58:56 GMT -8
As I posted in the Terminals thread, Montague opened in 1957 and served Gulf Islands Ferry Company's Motor Princess (later named Pender Queen), and the Cy Peck. It may also have been used by Coast Ferries' Island Princess, but I think they used Sturdies. BC Ferries used it as their route 5 stop on Galiano. From '65 through '82, except for refit periods, the Mayne Queen was the only vessel to use it. In '83 BC Ferries added Quinitsa to route 5, and she also stopped at Montague. The Expo summer, '86, saw Queen of The Islands and Queen of Tsawwassen on route 5, but the 'Tsawwassen used Sturdies Bay, while the Mayne Queen did a very rare stint away from home on Jervis Inlet, sailing with the Powell River Queen. BC Ferries closed Montague in '87, consolidating their Galiano operations at Sturdies Bay.
Wettcoastkid has a photo of the Mayne Queen at Montague in the other terminals thread.
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Post by Curtis on Jul 19, 2009 11:56:39 GMT -8
Wettcoastkid has a photo of the Mayne Queen at Montague in the other terminals thread. I was wondering where that was... Say WCK, is it possible you could re-post the photo to your photobucket account? The link Neil mentioned isn't working for me.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Jul 19, 2009 12:32:04 GMT -8
Wettcoastkid has a photo of the Mayne Queen at Montague in the other terminals thread. I was wondering where that was... Say WCK, is it possible you could re-post the photo to your photobucket account? The link Neil mentioned isn't working for me. That same photo is in this here thread too (reply #4), just look back a few posts.
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Post by Curtis on Jul 19, 2009 14:07:15 GMT -8
Whoops, I'm thinking of the wrong photo. For the last while now I've been looking for a certain photo of Montague Harbour. It was posted here by a member a few years ago and it showed the Mayne Queen in the dock at Montague Harbour with the entire berth structure in view taken from a short distance from the dock on the road. It might have been a postcard but I doubt.
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Mill Bay
Voyager
Long Suffering Bosun
Posts: 2,886
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Post by Mill Bay on Jul 19, 2009 19:10:05 GMT -8
As I posted in the Terminals thread, Montague opened in 1957 and served Gulf Islands Ferry Company's Motor Princess (later named Pender Queen), and the Cy Peck. It may also have been used by Coast Ferries' Island Princess, but I think they used Sturdies. BC Ferries used it as their route 5 stop on Galiano. From '65 through '82, except for refit periods, the Mayne Queen was the only vessel to use it. In '83 BC Ferries added Quinitsa to route 5, and she also stopped at Montague. The Expo summer, '86, saw Queen of The Islands and Queen of Tsawwassen on route 5, but the ' Tsawwassen used Sturdies Bay, while the Mayne Queen did a very rare stint away from home on Jervis Inlet, sailing with the Powell River Queen. BC Ferries closed Montague in '87, consolidating their Galiano operations at Sturdies Bay. Thanks for the detailed info, Neil... there certainly seemed to be a much greater variety of ships operating around the islands back then. Also, interesting that the Quinitsa was used on route 5 in 83 as she might not technically have been within the BCFerries fleet at that time prior to the takeover of the Ministry of Highways saltwater division. Also... the berth at Montague was left in place until long after the service ended, even up until the mid-90s, I believe.
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Post by northwesterner on Jul 19, 2009 21:43:07 GMT -8
Also... the berth at Montague was left in place until long after the service ended, even up until the mid-90s, I believe. The berth was definately intact circa 1995.
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Post by northwesterner on Jul 19, 2009 21:44:09 GMT -8
The Expo summer, '86, saw Queen of The Islands and Queen of Tsawwassen on route 5, but the ' Tsawwassen used Sturdies Bay, Is this the last known operation of the Queen of the Islands?
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Post by Dane on Jul 21, 2009 10:35:27 GMT -8
Montague, if not used since '87, was maintained until at least fiscal '93.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Jul 29, 2009 7:34:07 GMT -8
Some current photos of Gulf Island ferry landings: Nice new yellow paint at Crofton: Vesuvius, Salt Spring Island: Fulford Harbour, Salt Spring Island: Long Harbour, Salt Spring Island: Painting by C.J. Edwardson in the footie terminal at Long Harbour: Video of Mayne Queen arriving at Long Harbour: View My Video"]http://tinypic.com/r/2m5z2h0/3]View My VideoLyall Harbour, Saturna Island: Village Bay, Mayne Island: Sturdies Bay, Galiano Island: Otter Bay, Pender Island:
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Post by hullnumbers on Jul 29, 2009 9:04:49 GMT -8
To flugel, when did you take the sturdies bay terminal picture.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Jul 29, 2009 9:46:00 GMT -8
To flugel, when did you take the sturdies bay terminal picture. The Sturdies Bay picture was taken from Georgina Point, on Wednesday, July 22, 2009, at 12:29pm. I had just eaten a turkey sandwich that I had purchased from Tru Value grocery at Miners Bay. (too much information?) ;D All the photos that I just posted here were taken between July 21 and July 27th, on a vacation trip.
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Post by hullnumbers on Jul 29, 2009 13:11:58 GMT -8
Were you on the coastal Celebration because i was on that ferry going to Maple Ridge for the BC Disability games. i was on the top deck photographing the scenes. did you see the mist covering the islands.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Jul 29, 2009 15:58:11 GMT -8
Were you on the coastal Celebration because i was on that ferry going to Maple Ridge for the BC Disability games. i was on the top deck photographing the scenes. did you see the mist covering the islands. No, I was on the Queen of Cumberland for a while, and then later was driving my car around Mayne Island. I wasn't on C-Cell. ============= How did you do at the games? What sport, or what event where you in? I did some volunteer work at the 2005 BC Disability Games in Nanaimo, and got to watch a lot of the events.
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Post by hullnumbers on Jul 29, 2009 16:36:35 GMT -8
I did great. I did horse back riding at the Maple Ridge Equi-sport Centre. There were four challenges. On the first day the first challenge I got a gold in driscosh. On the second day I got a bronze in obsticle on the second day of challenge one. the other two were ribbons. It was really hot but i had fun.
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Post by Retrovision on Oct 22, 2009 14:54:43 GMT -8
I'm sure, I know, that it's been discussed ad nauseam in the past, but what of possible Village Bay Terminal expansion anyways? Why was the current primary berth constructed in order to accomodate 2 levels of vehicle traffic?
For that matter we should talk about Langdale, etc., but I'm curious of your opinions about Mayne.
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Post by Kahloke on Oct 22, 2009 15:32:38 GMT -8
Why was the current primary berth constructed in order to accomodate 2 levels of vehicle traffic? Am I missing something? Village Bay only has single transfer spans at both of its berths. Was the main berth constructed in such a way as to allow it to be retrofitted with an upper ramp? Is BC Ferries even interested in bringing larger vessels into Mayne?
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Post by Retrovision on Oct 22, 2009 16:47:07 GMT -8
Why was the current primary berth constructed in order to accomodate 2 levels of vehicle traffic? Am I missing something? Village Bay only has single transfer spans at both of its berths. Was the main berth constructed in such a way as to allow it to be retrofitted with an upper ramp? Is BC Ferries even interested in bringing larger vessels into Mayne? Village Bay certainly does only have single transfer spans at both berths. The main berth was constructed with a mind to expand, its similar to Berth 4's construction of Tsawwassen Terminal. I'd guess that today expansion of their Village Bay terminal would be the last thing on their minds, but that being said I wonder why they even built it that way in the first place. It certainly does work well as an emergency half-way berth for Route 1 however, so I only ask because BC Ferries has never been forthcoming enough to explain.
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Post by Ferryman on Oct 22, 2009 18:46:18 GMT -8
Good idea.
I can only assume it was done with the potential idea of having a V-Class dock there. The age of that berth certainly lines up well with the time when a V-Class would sometimes stop there to help out with Route 9 traffic. However, these days it's almost completely unlikely we'll see anything like that happen again. The New West is really the only other vessel I could ever see attempting to dock there. Just like everything else, that dock only has only a certain number years of life left over I'm sure. So with the mentality BCF has these days, and IF (big if), BCF decided to double deck that berth, they would rip it down and rebuild it.
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Post by Retrovision on Oct 22, 2009 19:02:58 GMT -8
Thank you, Ferryman. Yeah, totally with a 'V' in mind eh. The notions planners have eh.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Nov 22, 2009 19:41:10 GMT -8
Waiting room at Long Harbour: (photo poached from Alec of Securidy) My own photo of the painting on the wall: Painting by C.J. Edwardson in the footie terminal at Long Harbour:
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