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Post by Northern Exploration on May 16, 2011 8:10:02 GMT -8
Here's a photo of the PRINCESS OF VANCOUVER from a slide sold to me from an antique vendor. This is of her loading rail cars aboard her Main Deck in Vancouver on March 24, 1979. This facility was located west of Pier B-C. You see the ramp that led cars to the upper car deck. Her stern was flat at the end, as opposed to rounded on regular ferries, so she could land at rail slips. This one had a road for road vehicles with rail tracks embedded. Her Main Deck had rail tracks embedded. In her CP Rail days, she was geared for transporting either rail cars or rubber tire cars or both. As you can see, the ship had the same logo as on those rail cars. Typical modern CP Rail colours. Definitely shot from the Guiness Tower. Seeing these photos sure brings back memories from when I was a kid living on the island. A buddy of mine used to work on her for a few years until passenger server ended. I second that. From one of the top floors higher than I was familiar with. As I am sure some are tired of hearing, that was my Saturday morning view. The accounting firm my dad worked for was mid-building. A favourite way to spend the day was in the Managing Partners corner office watching the ferry load, if lucky the rail ferry load, and sea planes land. None of the latest land fill was done and nothing in the way. You could see from the old cruise/passenger terminal/rail station right over to coal harbour clearly. Shortlived but super cool was the hovercraft arrival and departure in the early 70's.
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Post by princessofvanfan on May 24, 2011 18:21:59 GMT -8
I remember the interior of th P.O.V. quite well. It was a pastiche of typical 60's and 70's kitschy colors and styles-lots of Harvest Gold, Burnt Orange, etc. When you walked into the forward passenger lounge, you almost felt like you were on an acid trip-the upholstery on the seats were a mixture of bright orange and blue, with crazy psychedelic designs 0n them. The dining room was also typical 70's. The bar, called "The Princess Lounge", resembled one of those seedy little bars from any 70's cop show (Starsky and Hutch, etc,), and even had the bartender dressed in black slacks, a white dress shirt, and a red vest. The outside decks were painted green (!), for some reason. A one of a kind, she was.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Jul 1, 2011 8:01:21 GMT -8
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Post by lmtengs on Oct 4, 2011 19:41:55 GMT -8
So, do we think it's safe to say that the MV Pearl of South China Sea (aka Princess of Vancouver) no longer exists? I just made yet another 45-minute long google search, and didn't come up with much more than a mention of her IMO number (5284998) plus some other basics. No photos, no blog mentions, no news, no nothing. The last I heard, she is (was?) registered in Panama.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Apr 28, 2012 19:00:59 GMT -8
From a 1969 publication by the Vancouver Real Estate Board, “Through Lions Gate.” General photographs credit in the book is to Ted Czolowski. I purchased the book for $3 at a local Rotary Club book sale, just for the interesting “back in the day” photos.
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Post by princessofvanfan on Oct 11, 2012 9:56:40 GMT -8
Found out an interesting tidbit the other day about the P.o.V. Apparently, she originally carried both rail cars and passenger cars on her main deck, which had four lanes. The rail cars were parked down the two center lanes, passenger cars on the two outside lanes. This would make sense, seeing as how the main deck stairwells were on the sides of the ship, rather than down the center-line. It was in the late 60's that the car deck was moved upstairs to where the passenger lounge used to be, which solves the mystery as to why you had to go through the car deck to access the forward lounge and aft cafeteria/dining room. I'm wondering, though, did the passenger cars have to back off the ship's main deck?
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FNS
Voyager
The Empire Builder train of yesteryear in HO scale
Posts: 4,948
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Post by FNS on Oct 11, 2012 11:20:34 GMT -8
Actually, the PRINCESS OF VANCOUVER never had passenger ladderways on the sides as she had the usual access and mechanical casing running along her center line. That's what I remember of her in my August 1974 afternoon ride aboard her from Nanaimo to Vancouver. As for cars boarding the Main Deck, you would board through the stern and do a "U"-turn at the bow and get off at the stern at your destination.
When she operated for the BC Government, I think they added tween decks like you see aboard Spaulding's BC single wheelhouse forward ships for added car capacity as the upper car deck was reverted back into a passenger lounge. As said before, a side door was added on her port side in 1987 for vehicle traffic at Pier 69 in Seattle when she was the VANCOUVER ISLAND PRINCESS on the Victoria run. When the Seattle terminal was moved to Pier 48, sharing the same slip with AMH ferries, cars did the "U"-turn at the bow as they did on the Nanaimo run. Also, she got a rounded stern when the BC Government got her for Powell River service ending the loading of rail cars aboard her. The bow was cut, and forward loading was possible, but was restored before going on the Seattle run.
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Post by princessofvanfan on Oct 11, 2012 21:04:36 GMT -8
Hmm. I remember going down to look at the train cars on one of our voyages on her and I swear we took stairs down the side, or maybe towards the bow. I was only a kid, maybe 8 years old at the time, so maybe my memory is a little foggy. I do remember that boat was a bit of a maze inside. Maybe I'm thinking of the QPR.
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Post by EGfleet on Nov 6, 2012 15:06:33 GMT -8
Just added to the collection-- Princess of Vancouver at Yarrows, 1981.
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Post by Mike on Nov 6, 2012 16:15:59 GMT -8
Just added to the collection-- Princess of Vancouver at Yarrows, 1981. And a soon to be lifted V-class behind her.
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Post by EGfleet on Dec 1, 2012 14:38:07 GMT -8
Neat cutout diagram of the Princess of Vancouver in a 1955 British Comic.
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Post by princessofvanfan on Dec 1, 2012 23:31:03 GMT -8
Wow. Very interesting. Thanx for posting. It still amazes me that the upper deck lounge was able to be converted into a car deck. I always wondered why you had to go through the car deck to access the forward lounge and cafeteria.
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Post by EGfleet on Jan 1, 2013 6:41:46 GMT -8
Another vintage slide which, as you can see, made it to my signature this month.
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Post by princessofvanfan on Jan 1, 2013 14:13:46 GMT -8
I didn't like the new funnel. Made her look top heavy.
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Post by lselena53 on Jan 1, 2013 21:06:41 GMT -8
An absolutely stunning image nonetheless! A beautiful ship. I remember her on the Powell River route. There was so little vibration from the engines compared to the BCFs of the day. I wish she could be dragged back across the Pacific and preserved here somehow. Do we know if she was scrapped or if she is still laid up in China? I checked the current Google Earth image of Tianjin docks and couldnt spot her there.
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Post by princessofvanfan on Jan 2, 2013 12:01:19 GMT -8
One of the things I liked about the P. of V. was how she retained the old school C.P.R. classiness. A trip on her was a completely different experience than on the utilitarian, utra-efficient BCF ships. You really felt like you were on an ocean going voyage on the Princess (the 2 1/2 hour crossing time may have had something to do with that!).
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Post by lselena53 on Jan 7, 2013 15:14:52 GMT -8
I wish I could have crossed on her when she was in her prime and not as a Ministry of Hwys Ferry but then again, I am glad to have experienced her at all. I agree, she was in a class by herself compared to the BCFs.
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Post by EGfleet on Jan 19, 2013 5:23:24 GMT -8
Here's another of the Princess of Vancouver, dated August of 1971.
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Post by Starsteward on Jan 20, 2013 14:42:29 GMT -8
Neat cutout diagram of the Princess of Vancouver in a 1955 British Comic. Hey all you Princess of Vancouver nostalgia lovers, a word with ya'll if I might? Please scroll up on those lovely illustrations and find section # 32. Notice what is located above # 32? Yup, the RAIL deck!!! If your watch was 19:00 hours to 0:9:00 hours, a.k.a. the Night Watch on the old girl and were all nestled in your bunk after 0:9:00 hours trying to capture some peace, tranquility, serenity, all of these elements, most commonly associated with SLEEP, one was, for the most part, S.O.L. as the joys of tranquility were thundered aside by grinding steel rain car wheels shunting box cars to and fro a mere three feet above one's pillow. Yeah, whilst the old girl had vestiges of the grand old days, that were manifested in all the quirky interior decor, passenger unfriendly companionways, and human 'penguins' that catered to the whims of an eclectic gaggle of passengers, all the aforementioned was neat, cool and kitchy........unless you were a Night Porter that could work seven days without SLEEP.
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mrdot
Voyager
Mr. DOT
Posts: 1,252
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Post by mrdot on Jan 20, 2013 19:22:11 GMT -8
I am fumbling my way thru this new system, This post of the cut-away done by L ashel woods was a great piece of old time graphics, and is a nice download if I can figure this out! mrdot.
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Neil
Voyager
Posts: 7,175
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Post by Neil on Jan 20, 2013 22:03:20 GMT -8
Hey all you Princess of Vancouver nostalgia lovers, a word with ya'll if I might? Please scroll up on those lovely illustrations and find section # 32. Notice what is located above # 32? Yup, the RAIL deck!!! If your watch was 19:00 hours to 0:9:00 hours, a.k.a. the Night Watch on the old girl and were all nestled in your bunk after 0:9:00 hours trying to capture some peace, tranquility, serenity, all of these elements, most commonly associated with SLEEP, one was, for the most part, S.O.L. as the joys of tranquility were thundered aside by grinding steel rain car wheels shunting box cars to and fro a mere three feet above one's pillow. Yeah, whilst the old girl had vestiges of the grand old days, that were manifested in all the quirky interior decor, passenger unfriendly companionways, and human 'penguins' that catered to the whims of an eclectic gaggle of passengers, all the aforementioned was neat, cool and kitchy........unless you were a Night Porter that could work seven days without SLEEP. No wonder people don't like unions. Union members are always complaining. Sleep? Sheesh!
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Post by WettCoast on Feb 18, 2013 21:08:29 GMT -8
CP's Princess of Vancouver outbound from Vancouver Harbour en route to Nanaimo - circa 1978. View is from Prospect Point, Stanley Park. photo © Mr. DOT by Wett Coast, on Flickr
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Post by princessofvanfan on Feb 19, 2013 11:51:15 GMT -8
Great pic! I sure miss the old gal. Glad I got to go on her a couple of times.
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Post by northwesterner on Apr 9, 2013 20:54:00 GMT -8
There are 9 pages and 7 years of discussion on the Princess of Vancouver in this thread. On nearly every page someone says "there must be photographic evidence somewhere of her painted up in the Expo colors" (other than when she was having the fixed bow reinstalled, which don't show much). And then, one of our members posts the following picture to the WCF Flickr, and no one adds it to the board!
(photo removed)
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mrdot
Voyager
Mr. DOT
Posts: 1,252
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Post by mrdot on Apr 9, 2013 21:34:11 GMT -8
:)just have been enjoying scanning thru the old west coast file of Vancouver Island princess and other older ferry material that covers my ferry times, some of this material is similar to shots I've taken at deas and other sites in the past dogwood years! mrdot.
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