Old Schedules - photos & discussion

[Low Light Mike]

This new thread is just what the title suggests.
- and anything older than the current printed schedule is what this thread is for.....

To start things off:

A Sannie Transportation Company pax ferry schedule for Bowen Island.
- 1953




And a Bowen Island water-taxi schedule for just-in-case re the 1977 BC Ferries strike


Both of these are from the summer-2011 ferry exhibit at the Bowen Island museum.

[Low Light Mike]

More from the Bowen Museum's summer-2011 exhibit:

Black Ball's summer-1957 schedule:



- and a museum note explaining a triangle-route


--------------

Fast-forward to summer 1958 for Captain Peabody:



- a close-up of the important stuff

[Neil]

Lions beat the Eskimos 36-1, and Flugel Horn posts some wonderful old schedules. A fine Friday night. Plus, I had a pretty decent burger in the Thatch pub, after an arduous day putting roofing on the little cabin I just completed.

I notice the 'passengers only' note on the '57 Bowen schedule. I think '57 was when the car ferry berth opened in Snug Cove... I guess it was later in the year.

I note also 'dining service' on the Bainbridge, Smokwa, and Quillayute. Those were not large boats- I wonder what the dining was like.

The Sannie schedule for Bowen was neat- I've never seen one of those, but I've always liked the look of those little passenger ferries.

Thanks, Mr Horn.

[Low Light Mike]

Aug 19, 2011 20:16:55 GMT -8 Neil said:

I notice the 'passengers only' note on the '57 Bowen schedule. I think '57 was when the car ferry berth opened in Snug Cove... I guess it was later in the year.

I might have some information on the delayed opening of the car-berth at Snug Cove.
- I'll find it (if I have it) when I crop & post my last batch of photos from last week's trip to the Bowen Museum. I recall reading something in the display about the delay.

Glad you enjoy this new thread.

[Low Light Mike]

The explanation of the late introduction of car service to Bowen Island in 1958.



- from the Bowen Island Museum's summer-2011 exhibit.

[EGfleet]

I probably should have posted these earlier...but here's what I have...













Have no idea why this one is green...


And I believe this may be the last Black Ball schedule..



And these I believe are two of some of the first B.C. Schedules.



I have some early BCF I'll scan later. Anyone wanting a much, MUCH larger scan of these, send me an email and I'll email the scan to you.

[KE7JFF]

I love old schedules!

I have a question, did the Black Ball always depart from Horseshoe Bay? Was the Tssawssen Terminal a BC Ferries development?

[Mike]

Aug 20, 2011 14:31:17 GMT -8 KE7JFF said:

I love old schedules!

I have a question, did the Black Ball always depart from Horseshoe Bay? Was the Tssawssen Terminal a BC Ferries development?

Yes, Black Ball operated out of Horseshoe Bay, the Tsawwassen terminal was a BC Ferries development. They received a lot of criticism for choosing such an open location.

[KE7JFF]

Ah ok! I'll need to read up on that.

Its interesting the Black Ball brochures make Horseshoe Bay sound like it's somewhere hard to find...but yet easy now thanks to the Upper Levels Thruway...

[Low Light Mike]

A few Union Steamship schedules, seen by me at the Campbell River Museum in July 2011.

[Low Light Mike]

From the book "Princess Marguerite: Last of the Coastal Liners"
- published in 1981 by Robert D. Turner, Sono Nis Press

[Low Light Mike]

Various old schedule brochures seen by me in glass-cases at the Royal BC Museum in Victoria.
------------------

A wonderful display of schedule brochures from various companies:




The top portion



The bottom portion


-----------

Canadian Pacific's Motor Princess schedule brochure uses a ship-profile as a shield to enclose the route info.
(pardon my blurry photo)




Another "pardon the blur" item, but I thought you'd like to see it.



This is Neil's kind of winning poker hand. Full House. ;D



Another "pardon the blur"



...too bad that I couldn't reach into the glass-case and open a few of those brochures to read the insides ;D

[KE7JFF]

Here is the section about the ferries mentioned in the 1950 CPR Timetable.

[Low Light Mike]

BCFC did an information pamphlet for their 35th anniversary in 1995.
- it had a fleet chart, some photos; nothing that we haven't seen before.




The artwork on the cover:




The anniversary logo

[Low Light Mike]

The 1996 inaugural Discovery Coast brochure/schedule:



A description of the ship:



The route map:
- Finn Bay shows up as a passenger-only access point. By 1998 (perhaps in 1997, but I don't have a '97 schedule) the Finn Bay stop was removed from the schedule.
- however Hakai Pass, just a bit north of Finn Bay, has been a regular informal stop for kayak wet-launches...and never on the printed schedule.


------------------

Original fares:
- passenger fare for main route in 1996 was $94
- passenger fare for same route in 2011 was $180. Increase of 91.5%


-------------

Original schedule:
- I don't like the layout of this.
- original season was from May 26 to September 28 - 4 months
- current season is mid-June to mid-September - 3 months

- all Port Hardy departures were at 10:00pm, regardless of the day.

- the 1996 schedule was an 8-day routine....repeated every 8 days.
- the current schedule is a 7-day rotation, so currently each trip is always on the same day of the week (ie. Klemtu Sunday afternoons).

- therefore for 1996, the set-trips did not start/end on a specific fixed week-day throughout the season. Instead, the start/end date floated, moving 1 day forward for each successive week during the season. So the Monday-Wednesday trip itinerary one week would then be a Tuesday-Thursday trip the next, then a Wednesday-Friday the week after that.....everything advancing 1 day. Weird.....
- For the past few years, the set-trips have been on the same days: ie. the Klemtu multi day trip has been fixed at Saturday-Monday throughout the season.

Northbound:


---

Southbound:


---------

Ignoring the floating day-of-week confusion, the standard trip menu for 1996 was, in sailing-order (I've numbered the trips, for reference):
1- Port Hardy, Namu, McLoughlin Bay, Shearwater, Ocean Falls, Bella Coola
2- Bella Coola, Ocean Falls, Shearwater, McLoughlin Bay, Namu, Port Hardy
3- Port Hardy, Finn Bay, McLouglin Bay, Shearwater, Klemtu, Shearwater, McLoughlin Bay, Port Hardy
4- Port Hardy, Namu, McLoughlin Bay, Shearwater, Ocean Falls, Bella Coola
5- Bella Coola, Shearwater, McLoughlin Bay, Finn Bay, Port Hardy
6- Port Hardy, Namu, Bella Coola
7- Bella Coola, Namu, Port Hardy

Regarding stop-over time at the various on-route destinations:

Finn Bay: 30 minute stop, either in early morning or mid afternoon

Namu: mostly 30 minute stops, but 3.5 hour stops northbound once per week

Klemtu: stopover is always from 5:15pm to 3:00am next morning.

Ocean Falls: 75 minute stop northbound, in mid-afternoon. 30 minute stop southbound in very early morning.

Bella Bella & Shearwater: Northbound was 3.75 hours, southbound was varied. Evidently they thought there would be time for things like taking a canoe from one stop to the other or doing a small shore excursion. Today it's just an on/off stop at both places.

[Low Light Mike]

In comparison to the 1996 inaugural Route-40 schedule shown above, here is the 1998 schedule.

- they started to name the trips by letter......6 of them.

Here's the summary of the trips:
A - Port Hardy, Namu, McLoughlin Bay, Shearwater, Bella Coola
- daytime emphasis is Fitz Hugh Sound area, with 2 hour stop at McLoughlin Bay. Namu stop is in early afternoon, but only for 30 minutes.

B - Bella Coola to Port Hardy (day cruise)
- 6:30am to 7:45 pm. likely a busy day with lots of European tourists with their motorhomes.

C - Port Hardy, McLoughlin Bay, Shearwater, Klemtu, Ocean Falls, Bella Coola.
- very similar in times to the current Klemtu trip. Difference is that 1998 had a 4-hour stopover at Klemtu, now it's only 3 or so.

D - Bella Coola, Namu, Port Hardy
- 9:00am to 11:00pm, so another good draw for the Eurpoean motorhome crowd. the stopover at Namu is only 30 minutes.

E - Port Hardy, Ocean Falls (with 90 minute stopover in evening), Bella Coola.
- this sounds like a good idea. 6:00am to 11:00pm. I'd love to see that schedule again.

F - Bella Coola, Ocean Falls, Shearwater, McLoughlin Bay, Port Hardy.
- similar to the current Friday trip, but the times are different. Ocean Falls is a brief early morning stop. Daylight scenery is Dean Channel, Lama Pass and Fitz Hugh Sound


What's the schedule missing? A direct Port Hardy to Bella Coola sailing (even with a short Namu stop).
- 1996 had this and it was added again for 1999. Not sure why it was dropped for 1998.

Also, Finn Bay is not on the schedule. Whether it was also dropped from 1997, I don't know. It doesn't surprise me that it was unpopular.
- Rivers Inlet is sportsfisherman territory and most of the lodges are fly-in.

------------

- schedule was on a 6-day rotation, compared with the 8-day rotation in 1996 and the weekly 7-day rotation used in recent years.

- season ran from June 28 to September 30th. 3 months only, compared with 4 months in 1996.



Here are the schedules for you to see:

[Low Light Mike]

Here's the 1999 Route-40 Discovery Coast schedule:

The overall pamphlet:



And route-40:



Comments, re 1999, which was year-4 of this route:
- season is 3 months long, similar to 1998 and similar to current.
- this is essentially the same schedule that we have currently, re the same trips on the exact same week-days that we had in 2011. Of course we no longer have a Namu stop on the Monday & Thursday day-tripd. And some departure / arrival times have changed by a couple of hours.

....but it shows that after fiddling with the schedule for years 1, 2 & 3, they finally were satisfied in year-4 and it hasn't really changed since, except for dropping Namu, and also except for 2006 of course.

[Low Light Mike]

A 1995 schedule produced by BC Ferries to market the entire inside-passage as a trip, from Seattle to Skagway.
- 3 transportation companies



Close-ups of the Victoria Line portion of the brochure:







And the 3-line ship image

[Low Light Mike]

1941 Gulf Islands Ferry Co. Ltd. schedule for the MV Cy Peck.
- Seen on a display-board on the wall in Mouat's mall in Ganges.

[Scott]

This is slightly off the "schedule" topic, but I think fits in with old ferry literature. I don't know if there's enough discussion to be had about ferry publications for children. Here are a couple older ones that I have from my collection:

This is my most recent acquisition, from the late 1970's from what I can tell. The image below has the cover and then the front page/introduction to the book which has 16 pages of BC Ferries history, photos, and sections on safety and the different departments within the company. This book is more "educational" than "entertainment"... no coloring pages in this book.




This one is from the early 80's. The route map on the back has a route going from Tsawwassen to Prince Rupert via Port Hardy, and I think there were only 1 or 2 years when that happened. There's a picture of the Queen of the North to color, as well as an unlifted Queen of Esquimalt.





And another one that I think some of our younger members may remember from their childhoods, not too too long ago!

[EGfleet]

I didn't even realize I had this one--it was stuck in with a bunch of other stuff. Would date from the mid-1950's I would think, given that it has WSF operating between Port Angeles and Victoria.

[Ferryman]

Jan 30, 2012 11:50:38 GMT -8 Neil said:

Anyway, here's a summer '67 schedule- note the $1.75 one way fare to Salt Spring for car and driver.

To add to Neil's post, here are some copies of schedules/fare pamphlets that I have of how things changed by the decade.

Fares in summer of 1977



Fares and Schedules in Summer 1988

[Deleted]

Hello- I'm new to the West Coast Ferries Forum and I'm here to ask for help - I'm looking for Horseshoe Bay-Bowen Island ferry schedules from Fall 1981, 1991, and 2001. What I actually need is the total number of departures per week from each port. It's for a university research project looking at the evolution of public transportation service over time in the Vancouver region.

Craig

[Low Light Mike]

Mar 3, 2012 16:31:12 GMT -8 @craigtmontreal said:

Hello- I'm new to the West Coast Ferries Forum and I'm here to ask for help - I'm looking for Horseshoe Bay-Bowen Island ferry schedules from Fall 1981, 1991, and 2001.
Craig

Hi Craig. Just letting you know that I've seen this, but I don't have the information.

"Neil" will likely see this and reply, as he has an almost-complete schedule collection at his ready disposal.

[Deleted]

Thanks - I also left a message with BC Ferries and they have said they will look into it, but it might be difficult because the archived material from the pre-privatization period may be difficult to find and I may have to make a formal request. It sounds like a lot of work, particularly given that the frequency in 1981, 1991, 2001, and 2011 was probably very similar. Craig