Contractor's Engine Houses, Yale c. 1883
BCA Photograph No. 74943
BCA Call No. I-30854
Photo in Onderdonk Album, #5, 20 (BCA Accession No. 98401-006)

Onderdonk's "plant" in Yale was quite extensive. The Machine Shop was in operation before the S.S. Royal City delivered the first locomotive at Emory, the Yale on May 10, 1881. Less than a year later, in March, 1882, a "car shop" had been built, as well as a warehouse which was situated west of the machine shop. In the above photograph, taken some time after 1882, the car shops are probably to the left of the engine house and the warehouse in front, on the left. The turn-table was completed in the spring of 1882. From a small news item in The Inland Sentinel we learn that a fire destroyed the roof of the Machine Shop in mid-July of 1885, but not much damage was done although a few belts were destroyed.

The Government called for tenders to construct roundhouses at North Bend and Port Moody in February of 1885.