Monthly Archive: April 2013
Queenstown Alberta is a tiny little hamlet in the proverbial middle of nowhere, a town no bigger than its dot on the map, and while on an oil field hotshot run (my job at the time) I took a little time out to photograph some of the few things left...
Scattered about in a haphazard fashion these abandoned coal mine cars soak up the sun in the early fall of 1992. A gorgeous setting for a gritty industrial subject, the turning trees add splashes of colour to an otherwise brown and grey scene. Having sat here since the mid 1950s...
Being located in the dry belt region of southeastern Alberta, Scandia was a relative latecomer on the scene and it was only the promise of irrigation that brought settlers in. For without that life giving liquid, there could be little hope of future development and growth. And so the water...
One of the very last steam locomotives purchased new by the CPR, Selkirk 5931 was set aside upon retirement and now sits at entrance to Heritage Park in Calgary Alberta. This engine and her sisters were the most powerful locomotives on the entire CPR system and they could be seen...
In our first report on the ghost town of Mitford Alberta, we took a look at the town site itself (what little is left), the faint remains of the logging railway, and the jewel of that trip, the still extant cemetery. For this second report, we examine two buildings that...
Today we’re looking at the elevator row in Arrowwood Alberta. The date is 1997 and I’m doing some hotshot deliveries on the backside of the Siksika First Nation, not that far away. There are pump jacks inside the boundaries of the reserve and my load, spare parts, needs to be...
If you look at a section of track along a rail line, you’ll see various markings and some lettering. I am sure most people think nothing of it, after this is a pretty boring and uninteresting subject. On closer examination however, these can tell us a lot about who made...
In the summer of 1989 I was working in Vancouver BC and had finally accumulated enough cash that I was able to take a full month off, time which I used to explore my world. It was my first solo road trip! In the process I travelled all over BC...
It’s the fall of 1992 and I’m exploring the area northeast of Calgary in search of grain elevators and other interesting bits to photograph. I make a stop in Carbon Alberta and am pleased to find four prairie sentinels in a row (plus annexes, including older elevators), and some of...
Hanna Alberta was once a divisional point along the CNR secondary line between Calgary and Saskatoon and because of that the location required some specific facilities for that purpose. Which is what we see here, a turntable for what else, the turning engines around and a roundhouse to service them....
Admittedly, this was one trip I did not prepare for as well as I could. Partially at least anyway and while the subjects shown in this report are Bow City’s later coal camp along with the train loading area of Kitsim, I did not do my research properly when it...
This day in 1989 found me wandering along the riverfront in New Westminster BC. At that time the area was still mostly industrial, with gritty old dockyards and such. Even by that time however, gentrification of the area had already started and some former factory lots were being converted to...
There is no town here, nor do I believe there ever was, just a former rail siding with the name of Oberlin Alberta. Its claim to fame, at least at the time of our visit in the spring of 1997, were the two grain elevators that still stood along the...
Connie and I really like visiting abandoned farms just like any other history explorer, but at the same time we find them horribly frustrating. Not because they are in any way hard subjects to photograph, they are usually a delight, but rather there are rarely any clues to tell us...
If you are a regular reader of this blog you no doubt know about our fascination with old trucks. In particular we like the larger ones, medium duty or tractor trailer sized. These hold our interest, over say a pickup truck, as they are less common and were always made...
In this, our second of hopefully many Brokeback Mountain then-and-now articles we’ll do, we take a look at two separate scenes from the movie. In the first, the characters Ennis and Alma are getting married in a quaint little church and in the second setting they are seen at the...
Some days when we’re out exploring we’ll simply pick a random road to see what curious and interesting things we’ll find. Some times we’ll see nothing and on other days we’ll hit the jackpot, discovering something that is just so incredibly cool. This day was the latter and near the...
While on a hotshot run to Saskatchewan I was able to make a quick stop in Coronation Alberta and snapped off a single picture of the town’s grain elevators. This was late 1997 or early 1998 and while there was no snow on the ground, it was cold and frosty....
In 1990 I was living on the west coast and on days off (few and far between) you might find me poking around rail lines and industrial areas looking for adventure. On this day I headed to North Vancouver to check out the action at the BC Rail yards. You...
Although set in the US, much of the 2005 movie Brokeback Mountain was actually filmed in and around Alberta. This province is a such great choice if you wish to make a western themed film. It has so many wonderful locations and settings and a film maker can find everything...
In the 1990s I was doing oilfield “hotshot” trucking and in my travels I’d pass through many interesting places. Always under time pressures (the nature of that business), I rarely had the opportunity to stop and take in any sights. Once in a while though, things worked in my favour...
In our continuing quest to recapture locales from the movie Superman 3, we take a look at the bridge scene where we see a truck dangling precariously over the river. Not long after the crash the Man of Steel shows up but due to negligence fails prevent a tragedy and...
These “then” pictures from the 1976 movie Silver Streak aren’t that terribly interesting and normally we’d ignore them as being not worth a report. However, with the discovery of some behind the scenes shots taken by ex-CPR employee Larry Buchan while they filmed these scenes, it takes on a whole...
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