The Roundhouse complex in Victoria West was built in 1913 to provide the Esquimalt and Nanaimo (E&N) Railway, which was acquired by Canadian Pacific in 1905, with a large and up-to-date yard facility. The complex serviced steam locomotives as well as passenger and freight cars for its expanding services on Vancouver Island.

The E&N Roundhouse complex features five principle buildings and structures, including a 10 - stall Roundhouse, with a steel turntable, for locomotive storage and maintenance; a large Backshop for heavier repairs; a Carshop for rolling stock maintenance; Stores Building for storage; and ancillary structures, including an oil tank, sand house, section house, tool sheds, and other smaller buildings. A water tower was added later.

The structures remained essentially unchanged through the E&N’s steam era, except for the addition of better lighting and concrete flooring. In 1949, when the arrival of diesel - electric locomotives brought an end to the use of steam locomotives on the E&N, only minor modifications were made to the structures. The E&N was the first part of the CPR across Canada to be fully converted to diesel motive power.

With dieselization, fewer locomotives were needed. Some of the stalls were used for storage but others continued in daily use. In 1955 Rail Diesel Cars (‘Dayliners’) were brought to Vancouver Island to replace the obsolete wooden passenger coaches used for decades. Smaller buildings were removed, but even through the 1970s, four stalls of the Roundhouse and the Backshop were in regular use. By this time the water tower was demolished and the sand house was scrapped.

As freight traffic declined in the 1980s and 90s, servicing of most equipment was diverted to either Nanaimo or the Lower Mainland. In recent years only the Dayliners, now operated by Southern Rail of Vancouver Island, use the facility on a routine basis. Freight trains no longer run to Victoria.

The site, including the Roundhouse, Backshop, Carshop, Stores Building and Turntable, has been designated a National Historic Site by the Government of Canada, on the recommendation of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada. The designation recognized that the complex of structures remain largely in original condition and are a rare survivor of a type of facility that was once widespread and very important to transportation services across the country. The complex has also been designated a Municipal Heritage Property by the City of Victoria.