These days, tour buses are a common sight on Vancouver's streets.
But decades ago, another type of vehicle was also used to take visitors on a tour of Vancouver's sights.
BC Electric, the precursor to BC Hydro, ran the electrified streetcar system in Vancouver for decades. That system included sightseeing streetcars (or observation cars) which ran on the city's rails. Locals sometimes called them "rubberneck wagons."
The two open-air streetcars look more like small theatres than vehicles, with the back seats raised, seats that look like park benches, arches of lights, railings to keep people in, and the conductor standing at the front.
According to signs visible in archival photos, a tour was $0.50 (roughly $10 in 2025 dollars) and lasted two hours. Trips left from different spots over the years, including Robson and Richards streets.
The city's transit streetcars ran on rails installed in city streets, with some routes running from the downtown core to Kitsilano, Marpole, and Burnaby. There were also interurban routes that went further.
The rail lines were used to move people about, but the network the rails created meant sightseeing tours could be taken around the city's central neighbourhoods in the specialized sightseeing cars.
They ran for several decades (the earliest photo is from 1912 and the last is from the 1940s). Some conductors became well known, like Thaddeus "Teddy" Lyons and Dick Gardiner.
The electric railway was replaced in the 1950s with electric trolley buses, which are still in use now. The sightseeing cars rolled off into the sunset in 1950.
In all, it's estimated the two cars moved 1.5 million people over 576,000 miles (93,000 kilometres).
