Ex-Alberta Midland/CNoR Calgary

Amazingly one can find the remains of long abandoned railway lines deep inside the city of Calgary. And here’s a most interesting section. There’s the old roadbed, grassed over and a dumping ground for things unwanted and most fascinating to the railway archaeologist, telegraph poles, cross-bucks and all still standing alongside. The latter are true anachronisms and it borders on the incredible they’re still here so many decades after last being used.

We’re along a section of the Alberta Midland, a paper railway owned and operated by transcontinental carrier Canadian Northern (aka CNoR). Built in the early 1910s, the track ran from a point near Vegreville way up north all the way down to Calgary. It entered the city at its southeastern border, before doubling back a bit to reach the edge of downtown in what today is the Mission District. The old train station at the end of the line still stands as does the bridge over the Elbow River, now supporting a walking path.

Canadian Northern and it’s subsidiaries, always on the edge and near bankruptcy, were folded into Canadian National Railways in the early 1920s. Competing carrier, Grand Trunk Pacific, also served Calgary and most places the CNoR went and was another line added to the network. The track here was witness to passenger trains up until the early 1970s and for a time after freights serving a number of businesses just south of downtown. Present day Lindsay Park was the location of the CNoR/CNR’s inner city yards. How things change.

The line was cut back over time as businesses left or closed down. The railway came and the railway went. By the early 1990s the track then ended in the community of Ramsay at the old Dominion Bridge site a bit to the west of our position. A year or two later, it was cut back further and the since then the section we’re documenting has been quiet. Present day end of track is not too far away, however, that line serving a scrap yard and some other industries. Movements are infrequent and the trains short and we wonder how long before it too gets pulled up. Lots of track to maintain for those few customers.

The rest of the old Alberta Midland exists in bits and pieces with lots of abandoned sections in between. After amalgamation, the CNR tended to favour the old Grand Trunk Pacific line into Calgary which was better engineered (Canadian Northern tended to do it on the cheap) and with a more direct line between north and south. The Midland became a secondary line afterwards. Many sections were pulled up in the 1990s and 2000s.

Seems people have been using the roadbed as a dumping ground, odd, since it would mean hauling stuff up an embankment to do it. And of course, there’s a chair up there. We always seem to find one.

It also looks like some homeless fellows had an encampment up this way, a fire ring and remains of what looks to be a crude shelter of sorts found in one spot. In many places trees and brush have encroached on the roadbed and the rest is well grassed over. Still, long shallow depressions can be seen in places marking the former location of cross-ties. Once in a while we find an old spike.

A fixture alongside most railways in the old days was the telegraph line. An early form of long distance communication, telegraph services were offered to the general public and would also have been used to for inter-company business too. These lines fell into disuse long ago, the 1960s and 1970s seeing many of them abandoned. Interestingly, a lot of old line poles remain even today and not just here but elsewhere along many railway lines country wide. This speaks of the frugality with which these firms operate. They’d generally only take them down when they become a hazard or a nuisance and not before. The CNR, the CPR, all of the train operators, Canada and US, are tight fisted, so much that it’s the stuff of legends. And the butt of many jokes. Only the poles remain here – the lines they’re all gone.

It’s quiet when we visit, the drone of heavy transports on a nearby road occasionally breaking the stillness. Photos are captured, long exposures, soft cottony clouds, bounce light from the city illuminating the scene. It’s pretty easy. With the work done we imagine the line back in the old days. Train after train passing, a speeding passenger express and work-a-day freights. The smell of smoke and grease, kicking up cinders, gooey creosote staining our shoes. Later it’s diesels on the scene. And business slows. And now today, it’s all gone now. No more trains pass by. We’ve come full circle.

More like this…
Bridges of Cambria – piers in a river.
Starland Alberta – an old rail car left behind.
Troup Junction – ex- Great Northern.

If you wish more information on what you’ve seen here, by all means contact us!

Date: November, 2018.
Location: Calgary, AB.
Article references and thanks: Author Geoffrey Lester, Glenbow Archives.

Along the old Alberta Midland Railway.

A place to dump junk.

The old line poles remain.