Canadian National Railways Nordegg – 1997

These images, scanned from 35mm prints taken in 1997, show a little bit of the rail line in and around the old coal mining town of Nordegg Alberta. Some pictures from this series have gone missing in the years since, however you can still get an idea of what the area is about.

Rather than go into too much detail on the town and mine, neither of which are seen the photos, we’ll concentrate on the rail line only. Perhaps in the future we’ll revisit the area to make further reports on the other bits I mentioned. It’s a wonderful historical place and I’ll be sure and try.

The abandoned rail line into town was once the Canadian National Brazeau branch. Built by predecessor company Canadian Northern, the rails arrived here in early 1914, The line was built to tap the coal mines in the area and there was one large underground mine in Nordegg, the Brazeau Collieries, and a number of smaller ones further east down the line in Saunders and Alexo. The Nordegg operation appears to be both the largest and longest lasting in the area.

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The pictures seen here cover a spot just east of town to a point just before the mine surface plant. In this distance there are a couple trestles, the location of the train station, a small yard before the mine and other bits and pieces. The rails remain in place, at that time of our visit anyway, to a point a kilometre or so east of town. Beyond that the rail bed appeared bare and is used by qauders and snowmobiles. We did not go from east to west on our visit bur rather we started midpoint and initially went east, then turned around at the end of steel and went west to the surface plant (gated and fenced and an historical site).

Between the two trestles sits the location of the former train station. In some pictures the station says Nordegg and in others Brazeau, but I have not found solid data regarding when the change happened and why.

Near the station site at the time of our visit was an old CN railcar, a former Manitoba Buffalo boxcar actually. These cars, the last grain hauling boxes on the entire CNR system were used on lightly built grain branch lines (covered hoppers were generally too heavy for these and they damaged the infrastructure). They were only for unloading in either the Churchill Manitoba or Thunder Bay Ontario grain terminals.

This car was built in the mid 1950s and was rebuilt into it’s current form in the mid 1980s. By the mid 1990s these cars were no longer needed, many branch lines having been abandoned at that point, and they were retried and scrapped. Except for this one of course.

So what was a grain boxcar doing here? The Brazeau Collieries surface plant and mine is an protected historical site as I may have mentioned and the car was to be placed there and repainted to represent a traditional coal hauling boxcar. Funny, since this car never was used for coal service and was built after the mine closed. When we visited the site in 2001 the car had been moved to its permanent location within the plant.

Moving west from the boxcar we come to the second trestle. You’ll see it has shifted a bit, but otherwise seems solid.

Just beyond that is an small yard to service the mine – it’s still intact and the rails and even switch stands remain in place. Off to the side there was an old rail car, minus its wheels. The cupola may have you think it’s a caboose, but actually it’s a maintenance of way car. More specifically, a flanger which is used to clear ice and snow from between the rails – build up of these can derail a train. The car appears quite old, but I could not find a number on it (or perhaps saw it but have since misplaced that). So for now, I don’t know it history and why it was here.

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Perhaps it was retried and later used as some kind of office or crew shack. It seems logical, since we are near the mine and switching crews would be working in the area. The current state of it is pretty bad so I doubt it has much time left and since it is outside the historical site, it may not get any attention. There was an old pot-bellied stove seen near the car.

Just west of the flanger is the fence and gate for the mine site. There are frequent tours in the summer but not on the fall day we were there. Outside of these tours, people are not allowed in (reasonable since its a huge and potentiality dangerous place for one).

After world war two demand for coal was waning and throughout the province the mines were closing. The Brazeau Collieries lasted until the mid 1950s and with the resultant loss of coal traffic, the rail line followed suit right after. Or so it would seem – oddly, I’ve been told the line wasn’t officially abandoned until the mid 1980s. It’s not sure why this was and what happened to the line in the interim. Perhaps it was being rail banked in case demand for coal returned or maybe was used to store excess cars – who knows (see update below)?

I hope we’ll return to the area to further document the town of Nordegg, the mine and others interesting bits around it. Writing this article has (re)piqued my interest.

An update October 2012 – taken from the book “Small Moments in Time: The story of Alberta’s Big West Country” by Anne (McMullen) Belliveau”. According to the chapter “Bright Spaces, Special Places”, trains were running on the line after the mine closed. In 1961, the only date given by the author, it was stated that the CNR was running weekly pulpwood trains. There is no mention of when this practice started, when it ended, where the wood originated from and where it was going. However it at least confirms that the line was not fully abandoned immediately after the mine closed. In addition to this I am still suspect that the line was rail banked in case coal mining made a comeback. There were and still are huge reserves in the Nordegg area and perhaps CNR felt (for a time anyway) that there may be some future traffic yet to exploit.

To see what this place looked like in 2001, follow this link…
Nordegg revisited (or 2001 a Nordegg Odyssey).

To see some other rail line articles, follow any of these links…
Unfinished Canadian Northern Railway line Fort MacLeod.
Princeton BC train station and rail yard.

If you wish more information on this place, by all means contact us!

Date: September 1997.
Location: Nordegg Alberta.

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Train trestle Nordegg AB

The CNR trestle near the mine.

Trestle Nordegg Alberta

The trestle from the top.

Nordegg AB train trestle

The structure has shifted a bit over the years.

Railway switchstand

A switchstand in the small yard near the mine.

CNR Nordegg branch

Looking west down the CNR Nordegg branch just before town.

Boxcar Nordegg AB

A boxcar comes into view.

CNR Buffalo boxcar

A CNR Buffalo boxcar for grain loading (see post for why it’s here).

CNR flanger

An old railcar, sans wheels, sits near the rail line.

Railway flanger

This car was a flanger used to clear snow and ice that builds up between the rails.

Relics Nordegg Alberta

And old stove seen nearby.

15 responses

  1. I wonder if that Buffalo boxcar is still there? That is a rare type of boxcar that isn’t around much anymore on the prairies.

    • It’s now inside the coal mine museum complex by the briquette plant, to represent a coal boxcar. The most recent photos found show it look much as it did when we documented it but I suspect they might have plans for a repaint at some point.

      • Jason Paul Sailer says:

        Good to know, thanks, Chris! If I ever get out that way, I’ll have to look for it. Thanks.

        • Our friend Rob just built a cabin in Nordegg which gives us a good excuse to get out that way now. Free accommodations! Ain’t life great when you get to mooch off friends? And of course one visit we hope to hit up the mine museum there. Believe it or not, we’ve never been.

  2. Butch Whiteman says:

    My Grandparents ran the hotel at Alexo in the late 40’s. I spent a couple of weeks with them in 1948 at their place during the summer and remember watching horse-drawn coal cars being pulled out of the mine shaft. One old grey mare had been put out to pasture that I tried to ride all day, but she’d walk under a steam line that was just high enough for her to walk under which brushed me off her back. The cars coming out of the mine were either loaded with coal and went in one direction and finally into box cars parked in the siding about a 1/4 mile down the hill or to another track where the tailings were dumped and eventually covered over with dirt. In about 1980, I took my mother and her sister up there and did find my way back to where the old town was (about 3 miles west of where Saunders was), but there is virtually nothing there to indicate there was a hotel, cook house, post office, bunk house and houses there at all. I found my way down to the track okay and could see some holes in the ground which we thought might be basements of the houses, but nothing to indicate where the mine entrance nor where the tailings were dumped was. If there’s any record of who was who at the time, my Grandfather’s name was Homer Dempsey. He ran the hotel but didn’t own it.

    • Wow, great story. I’ve heard of Alexo, but have never been. So sad that it just disappeared. I might be up that way this fall or in the spring and may check it out.

      • Mike says:

        There’s actually a very small cemetery at Alexo as well. Very close to the huge tailings pile Very old graves. If I remember correctly

  3. Bert Baumgartner says:

    I would imagine any pulpwood would of been hauled to Hinton, AB as there is a large papermill there and I’ve never encountered a paper mill that didn’t have rail access.

    • I was not able to dig any info, but that certainly could be a possibility. That mill, I understand, dates from the 1950s. I concur about rail access and paper mills. Seems the two went hand in hand. Thanks for commenting.

  4. Richard S. says:

    I was in Nordegg recently and could not find any signs of farroequinarcheology. Please tell me more about the old rail line and its whereabouts. Thanks.

    • Once in town, head directly south and you’ll bump into it. Not all of it is accessible now, but there’re still lots of obvious remains.

  5. Elaine Monroe says:

    My husband and I toured the mine a few years ago. You’d like it and you should go.

  6. Lisa1888 says:

    Wow, these pictures are amazing. My husband is a train buff and really enjoyed the train themed subjects on your blog. Keep up the good work.

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