In this report we’ll look at a strange Rube Goldberg-esque device, a jet powered railway snow blower, used to clear out compacted ice that has accumulated between the rails. Surprisingly that material can be quite hazardous and can even cause a train to leave the tracks. This odd piece of...
In this adventure we got “lost” under Mount Yamnuska. It’s our first wilderness hike of 2014 and we wander about aimlessly, as though adrift, going here and there, sometimes on trail, other times off. It looks at though we were lost but in the end we only loose ourselves in...
Boxcars: the rolling of two sixes in a dice game, specifically craps, or it could refer to an enclosed railway car used to carry general freight. When retired from service the latter are sometimes sold to be used as sheds and the like. Farmers are known for their thrift and...
What the heck is going on at the Alberta 2005 Centennial Railway Museum in Beiseker Alberta? Their website is gone and the grounds appear as though abandoned. The old train station, what was to be the organization’s centrepiece, sits on blocks, as it has for a couple years now. In...
Presenting another Calgary Transit then and now – we hope you do not tire of them. Then: a trolley bus on the South Calgary (#7) route turns north onto 14th St from 33rd Ave SW. Now: do some quick research to find where the original photo was captured and then...
For this urban hike we’ll follow a series of pathways in the community of Okotoks, just south of Calgary. Our chosen route was roughly 8km long and encompassed a loop with a little out and back at the beginning and end. Always paralleling the Sheep River, the pathway is paved...
Today’s subject is the CPR train bridge found in Okotoks Alberta. Spanning the Sheep River, it carries that railway’s Calgary to Lethbridge line. Damaged in the spring of 2013 due to flooding and out of service for a time, the structure is back in use but almost a year later...
The Brokeback Mountain shot we’ll attempt to duplicate, which shows a motel exterior, appears only briefly in the movie. In spite of its short time on the screen, it’s an important and powerful few seconds which helps set the mood for the scenes that will follow. Let’s take a screen...
This year, in respects to Boler spotting, has started off slow. The trailer seen here, found in the Calgary community of Brentwood in April, is the seventh we’ve documented in 2014. Of course, once the warmer weather arrives, we’ll likely see a lot more of them as they and their...
The name of this post: “Calgary then and now – Stampede Parade”, is I guess, technically incorrect. While the first image shows that event, making it right in respects to that, the second does not, and it could not. You see, first we shot our “now” photo in the depths...
They’re done. They’re finished. They’re gone. RIP 2014: Calgary Transit Fishbowl buses – so long, and thanks for all the rides. Once the mainstay of the fleet, they have finally run out of time. After all that hard work, after all those millions of kilometres and millions of passengers, it’s...
The first photograph in this “then and now” report shows a circa 1992 railway scene captured in the small town of Irricana Alberta. We see a row of grain hoppers sitting on a side track not far from an elevator, perhaps waiting to be loaded there, or maybe having already...
The Trillium is the most common of the Boler-like trailers. We see them quite often and in fact they are more likely to be encountered than a Boler itself and while the later has not been made for decades, the Trillium is still in production to this day. Included in...
About a hundred years separate the two images seen in this report. Both show the old Shouldice Bridge (now the John Hextall Bridge) in the community of Bowness in western Calgary. In the first picture, a tram, with two proud crewmen posing for the camera, can be seen in front...
Join us for this urban hike where we circle the Glenmore Reservoir. It’s an approximately 16km loop, a path with many personalities. We’ll travel through dense wooded areas and pleasant green spaces. We’ll at times be on roads or beside roads (one very busy and noisy) and we’ll pass by...
For this railway themed “then and now” post we find ourselves in Cochrane Alberta, along side the CPR’s east/west mainline. The first image is from thirty years ago and shows an eastbound freight at the edge of town. We’ll return to that location to see what it all looks like...
This lily white Boler was seen peeking out behind some shrubs and a house and was found in the southwest Calgary community of Lakeview near north Glenmore Park. This one is the sixth we’ve spotted this year but with the coming of spring we are sure to see many more...
We present to you a photo, dated 1971, showing a street scene in Calgary Alberta. A trolley bus passes by and in behind we see various buildings, the most prominent one being the the Eaton’s Department Store. Fast Forward to today and we return to that same location to document...
At just over a century old, the Milnes Block in Claresholm Alberta appears to be in fine shape. In this then and now report we look at this handsome structure, first in 1911 and again how it appears today. As can be seen, it has changed little. For this building,...
Chris rushed in excitedly and showed me this comparison, but after a short pause, his look changed. It's that confused expression one gets just before the face-palm, when they realize something they did just doesn't add up.
One year shy of a century separates the two images but as it turns out, they're not even of the same building. The top is Westmount School and the bottom McDougall School, both in Edmonton and not far from each other.
It took this long to realize we'd been shooting at the wrong place all this time! The two schools were built in the same year and very close in design, so it's still an interesting comparison. We had a good laugh and we'll give Chris a mulligan on this one.
Looks like we're going have to head back for a do-over.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photos: 1924 and 2023. Submitted by Connie.
It's amazing how many of these Canada Centennial Maples Leafs still exist out in the wild across the prairies. We could fill an album with the ones we've photographed. It seems rural folks embraced patriotism with more fervor than their urban counterparts, but that's just an observation.
This example was found in a small Saskatchewan town. When they placed this up above the community hall there was a certain optimism that's not seen now. Today, only a handful of people call the community home, and it's that close to being a true ghost town. Almost sixty years in place and this memorial to a 100 year celebration is still here.
If our readers have found any of these while out exploring, please share in the comments. We'd love to see them.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2014. Submitted by Connie.
Billy Clark’s Cabin in Meadow Creek BC and it dates back over a century. Now at the local museum it formerly stood in a valley a little to east and on the shores of Duncan Lake (now Ducan Lake Reservoir).
Billy was a trapper, hunter, and woodsman. All he had was this tiny log house, a small plot of land, the surrounding wilderness, and his wits for survival. Nothing more. That spirit of self reliance seems to be a lost art today.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2022. Submitted by Connie.
Both Chris and I both grew up in the malaise era for cars and get giddy when we spot one from that time out in the wild. It's like meeting an old friend. This '80s beauty was found out in a hiking area of Kananaskis and by all appearances, looks to be driven regularly.
The malaise era is marked by cars with uninspired design, quirky traits, hobbled performance and often questionable quality. Depressing stuff. This Cutlass is probably one of the better GM cars of the time, and both Chris and our son Will have owned examples in the past.
Have a malaise era story or photo to share? Post it in the comments!
Out in nature with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2023. Submitted by Connie.
We come over many rises on a the prairies and on doing so surprised by many interesting things. This one caused a double take.
This lonely locomotives sits at the then very end of track outside Leader SK and was out of service at the time. Guess they socked it away out of sight to forget about it. We found photos showing it in service the year before our visit but here it was cold and dead.
Since this photo was taken, the Great Sandhills Railway has extended the track across the road and set up some kind of transloading operation. In years passed, the track (under CP ownership) continued west all the way into Alberta, but that's a distant memory.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2014. Submitted by Connie.
The messages have been coming fast and often. No, the book we produced a couple years back is not being published after all, in spite of appearing on many websites recently. Oddly some are showing it with the cover from another volume altogether. Please don't order and it must be a glitch.
The other two books shown in our capture are available however (and are awesome) and were produced by some friends. Interestingly, Chris contributed to each and those you can order.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Submitted by Connie.
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