More soup

In this “soup” post we look at a couple of old cars, an abandoned and burnt out caboose, a CPR train station and a cave in the Crowsnest Pass gushing water. Each soup posting will showcase random pictures taken from our adventures.

1) The yellow car shown in the first image is a Sunbeam Alpine. Manufactured in the UK and sold mostly in the US, over 70 000 examples of the this little two seater were built between 1960-1968. Our model, based upon it’s grill and other spotting details, appears to be an early 1960s variant. A similar looking model, called the Tiger was also produced, and the main difference was that is was powered by a V8 instead of the Alpine’s four cylinder model. Spotted in Calgary in May 2013.

2) If you’ve driven down highway 541 into the south end of Kananaskis, you’ve no doubt seen the burnt out caboose just before the Eden Valley reserve. Brought here in the early 1990s, it was for a time used as cabin, but at some undermined date was abandoned. Over the years it’s been vandalized and and torched and it sags in the middle no doubt due or the heat from that event. According to the number still visible on it end, it’s a former CNR caboose. This picture was taken in May 2013.

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3) The huge building seen here is the former CPR Bassano station. This old train depot was moved to Beiseker Alberta a couple years back and sits on some beams waiting to be placed on a foundation, its final resting place, at the Alberta 2005 Centennial Railway Museum. The building was constructed in 1911 and was formerly located along the CPR mainline. The Beiseker railway museum sits alongside the abandoned CPR Langdon Subdivision branch and has a modest selection of vintage railway cars. Work on the museum seems to proceed at a snail’s pace and I have never seen it open. Photo taken in May 2013.

4) The nice car seen in picture four is a 1954 Studebaker Commander four door V8. A new model for 1953, this daring design was to be the salvation for Studebaker who was suffering from sluggish sales. The model was not well received and it did little to stem the tide of losses at that car company. Early examples suffer from poor build quality. US cars were built in South Bend Indiana (shut in 1963) while Canadian models were made in Hamilton Ontario (closed in 1966). This car was seen in Drumheller Alberta in May 2013.

5) Seen gushing water, Low Sentry Cave is located right beside old highway 3 right next to Emerald Lake in the Crowsnest Pass. Nothing more than a crack in the cliff, the cave has been explored for over a hundred metres. Based upon the maps this author has seen it’s a claustrophobic place, as caves are apt to be. Water does not always pour form the entrance and later in the season it’s often dry. This cave is one of many in the area, some of them very extensive. Across the valley at the base of a ridge in the Crowsnest Lake cave, which also gushes water (almost year round). The picture dates from June 2013.

Soup is made from an interesting mixture of ingredients. Our soup will be a random medley of images taken from our adventures. These are not duplicates from other posts but rather interesting single and one off images that don’t fit in anywhere else.

If you liked this post, these others may be of interest to you…
Riverside Iron Works.
A rugged Pacific truck.
Mishmash.

If you wish more information on any of these pictures, by all means contact us!

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Sunbeam Alpine

An early 1960s Sumbeam Alpine.

Abandoned caboose

The abandoned caboose on highway 541.

CPR Bassano Station

The CPR Bassano Station moved to Beiseker Alberta.

1954 Studebaker Commander

A 1954 Studebaker Commander.

Low Sentry Cave

Low Sentry Cave gushing water.

8 responses

  1. Sean Thomas says:

    Where the caboose is was a rail line there at one point?

  2. Dan Overes says:

    Cool. I have a Geocache (http://coord.info/GC16N8V) hidden along that stretch of old Highway 3 but I have never been there when the cave was pouring water. To be honest, I don’t even think I knew there was a cave there.

    • ChrisBigDoer says:

      There are actually a number of caves on Sentry Mountain. Unless the water is flowing, you’d be hard pressed to know the one I wrote about is there. I’ve explored many mines but no so for caves. It sounds crazy, but they seem a bit scary to me (ie tight spaces and rappelling down). I’ve seen the map for this cave and it’s been explored for some distance back.

  3. House of Lund says:

    I’ve been watching that caboose over the years, becoming more and more vandalized. Sad.
    My father had a Studebaker, an early 1960s I think. He kept it until around 1970 as I recall. I remember it being a pretty plain car, almost boring.

    • ChrisBigDoer says:

      Yea, it’s slowly been made a mess. How long does the caboose have? Studebaker seemed to have a stigma of being a dull unexciting car, an image that may have hurt sales. My Mom also had one, a 1950s model as I recall her telling me.

  4. Train Geek says:

    I tried contacting the museum to ask about the train station, but the email bounced. Is the organization in trouble?

    • ChrisBigDoer says:

      I wondered that too. I tried contacting them and the email came back as yours did. I plan to stop by the site sometime soon, so see first hand.

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