Oak Street a rough rural road in 1950?
Channel: BC History
Date: 2023-08-27

Vancouver has changed a lot in the last 75 years.  This film follows the #17 Oak Street line from Victory Square downtown to Marpole.   The film was made in about 1950.

The streetcar line was operated by BCER (British Columbia Electric Railway).  The line was operated until April 1952.   The nature of Oak Street as a road changed shortly thereafter with the construction of the Oak Street Bridge, originally called the New Marpole Bridge.

I am astonished that Oak Street was not much more than a goat track south of King Edward.   This is filed 15 years before I was born.  I have memories of Oak Street in about 1970.   Hard to believe how undeveloped it was.

It is also interesting to see how often the service ran.   Even with a single track, they could have ten-minute headway.

This was filed by Kenneth Hodgson.  He was a rail enthusiast and amateur filmmaker.   This is one of five of his films that are in the City of Vancouver Archives

The film footage is public domain.
The music is Acoustic Groove from AudioHero

You can find the raw footage at this link:
https://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/oak-st-car-line

A version with a voice over annotation for a former driver:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQqftZqiNok