Transportation
IOCO Memories
Chapter 20
Marjory Kingsbury
The Ioco site for the refinery on Burrard Inlet, B. C. was purchased in January of 1914 by Imperial Oil. It was chosen because it offered sufficient deep water anchorage for tankers. My father, William Kreut, (called ”Darkie” by everyone who knew him, because of his dark curly hair) cleared land for the refinery in 1914 and was at that time living in Port' Moody and transported to and from work by boat. There was no road into Ioco at this time, all transportation to Vancouver was by the boats, the ”Delta” and the "Scenic"
H.C. (Bert) Flinn
At the night time, quitting time at Ioco, they’d come down to the wharf and the launch every day and they’d bring them across the Inlet [into the north pier].
Gregory Kingsbury
Yeah the old Delta. It was quite – What you would say top heavy. And it would make about a three quarter roll to one side, until the people got used to it they were quite scared you know. Once they got used to it, it was just a normal thing. If it didn’t roll they would think that something was the matter.
The ferry was running across, back and forth. And the way they got to work was that there was a boat called the Delta and the Scenic, two different types of boat. One would come one time and maybe another the next and they would bring the employees from Vancouver and then they would go into Dollarton and maybe pick up a few there and then go over to Barnet and pick up a few there and then travel on to Ioco and discharge the men to go to work at Ioco.
The Scenic was more steady – built closer to the ground, not quite so high. I know in foggy weather, in Ioco, to bring the boats in, we used to get real fog then, it’s not like it is now. It was really foggy then. We used to have an old railroad track up on a yardarm and we used to have a big sledgehammer and they’d bang on it and make this here sound you could hear for miles. So the idea came from Ioco and they done the same thing at Barnet for the Delta or the Scenic so they’d be able to guide the boats in to the dock.
“Well it used to be – Well when they were waiting for the boat at Barnet there’d be quite a few waiting -so I guess each one would take their turn in the morning or at night and the same thing at Ioco, it would be the watchmen, the dock pump man and the watchman at the end of the dock. He would go out and bang on it to bring the boats in”.
Eileen Walker
The two boats I recall were called the Scenic and the New Delta. The New Delta was just like a big old tub. Very rocky. And one particular time my mother and I were on there I remember, and it must have been Caledonia Sports or something like that that they used to hold out at the- like where the PNE grounds are now. There was always something going on there for time immemorial you know. But this one particular time the Delta was very full of people, you know, it was- the boat was really crowded and when we were in the Narrows, it was a-rocking something terrible. And everybody sort of ran over to one side of the boat, it’s a wonder the thing didn’t tip over. It was terribly scary.
Fred Laidlaw
We thought we were at the end of the world. It used to take an hour and a half to get here from Vancouver, by boat. The inlet was the world.
From 1917 until 1925 when the road to IOCO was built, the way in and out was by boat.
Steamships carried freight and passengers from Vancouver to the hamlets strung along the shore: Belcarra, a popular picnic ground; Barnet, where mill workers lived; Carraholly, a summer resort; Moody, a lumber town; Old Orchard, where the revelers came to dance in a hall amid an orchard planted, it is estimated, in 1860; and the stop before the town of Dollarton: IOCO.
Source unknown
Before the road to IOCO was completed persons wanting to travel from Port Moody to IOCO could take the “Ioco Sports model”. A model T vehicle owned by D. McNary. The car would travel over the rail tracks to get to the Ioco town site.
Marjory Kingsbury
Winters were much colder. Around 1926 the Burrard Inlet froze over and was all wavy but they could walk over the ice to Port Moody.
The first dentist came to Port Moody around 1934. My oldest brother would walk with me on the railway tracks to Port Moody in the evening for appointments with the dentist in his small one—room building. Sometimes we walked home on the road, hoping for a ride but none happened. It was a long walk both ways.
H.C. (Bert) Flinn
Yeah well apparently, according to, according to the Public Works, they were spending something like $10,000 in 1920 on gravelling and preparing a better roadbed for the Ioco Road and that in ’25 they were beginning to blacktop it. In ’26 they were supposed to have finished blacktopping.
Jeanette Machan
They did have buses that came into Ioco and you could take them – But they only came about every four hours so, you know. And I guess they still do go there but I don’t know how often now.
We used to go-I used to go to the dentist all the way into Vancouver so it went from Ioco to Vancouver. With stops along the way of course.
Mrs. Davies
The buses used to leave Ioco at 8 in the morning, 12 noon, and 4 in the afternoon. On Saturdays I believe, there was one that came at 6 o’clock and then the last one home from Vancouver came at 11 o’clock at night. Apart from that there was no local transport at all. You either had a car or else you caught the local bus, or not the local bus but the Pacific Stage Line.
The Ioco Times, October, 1924
The old familiar whistle of the SS “New Delta" is heard no more in the early morning making her way up to Ioco. The Harbour Navigation Co. have had to curtail their running schedule owing to the danger of navigation occasioned by the building of the Second Narrows Bridge. To accommodate the men living in Vancouver, and the residents of Ioco generally, Mr. Sam Smith has started a jitney service which, when the road is ready, will be a great convenience. For the benefit of our readers we give the timetable by which he intends to run:
Vancouver to Ioco, leaving B. C. E. Ry. Station—6.30 a.m., 10.15 a.m., 3.00 p.111. Saturdays extra trip, 9.00 p.111. Sunday, 10.00 a.m., 9.00 p.m.
Ioco to Vancouver, leaving Ioco Drug Store—8.15 a.m., 12.15 p.m., 5.00 p.111. Saturdays extra trip, 10.45 p.111. Sunday, 11.30 a.m., 10.45 p.m.
In addition to this Sammy will run special evening trips for theatre parties, etc., if a carload can be arranged, at reasonable prices.
