The E&N Railway Station near downtown Ladysmith was built in 1944 to replace an earlier railway station which had burned down. It was added to the Ladysmith Community Heritage Register and the Canadian Register of Historic Places in 2014.

Here is a map showing the location of the former E&N railway Station near downtown Ladysmith:

Description of Historic Place

The Ladysmith Railway Station is a modest, one storey cottage style building located between the railway tracks and the highway in Ladysmith. The historic place is confined to the building footprint.

Heritage Value

The Ladysmith Railway Station is valued as a tangible reminder of the crucial role of rail transportation in early Ladysmith. For  decades, the local economy was dependent on rail transportation to move its primary export products, coal and later logs, to breakwater.

The railway also provided important passenger service between island communities. By the 1940s, better roads led to increased use of truck transportation and increased ownership of automobiles led to less dependence on the railway for passengers.

The Ladysmith Railway Station’s modest size and detailing symbolize the waning of what had once been the most significant mode of transportation in the area.

Built in 1944 to replace an earlier, more elaborate structure that included living quarters, the Ladysmith Railway Station is a simple-cottage style building. The Ladysmith Railway Station features typical functional elements such as a projecting central block which provided unobstructed views of the track and an attached freight shed. Simple and functional, the building remains substantially intact.

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the Ladysmith Railway Station include:

• – all of the elements of the station’s cottage-style, design including the stucco cladding, low hipped roof, low massing punctuated by a gable roofed projection facing the tracks, decorative belly bands, decorative half-timbers in the gabled projection and large freight shed doors
• – the location of the building in a historic industrial area, adjacent to the railway tracks and other industrial buildings

We will add more historical information in the near future.

Here are links to pages with more information about the E & N Railway Station:

• Take5.ca – 2012

Here are some more photos of the Ladysmith E & N Railway stations over the years: