Sitting along the highway in the little rural community of Ryley Alberta, it’s a most curious structure. Could that be an old…railway station? Indeed, or so it used to be, and while still looking the part the trains don’t stop anymore. It’s not even beside the tracks. Last home to the Ryley Grand Central Roadhouse and Pub, the building is a tad run down but it almost appears as though someone is working on it. We don’t know to what end.
The town of Ryley (named Equity early on) was founded about a hundred and ten years ago with the arrival of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. This line is still used by Canadian National and runs a bit to the north (with the town in behind). There used to be a station on 50th and 50th there in downtown, looking much like this, but it was moved to a “private museum” down the road in the 1970s. Could this be the same building repatriated? Or if no, where did it come from? A search turns up nothing.
If you know more, please speak up.
Every town served by the railway once had a depot like this, but their day is long gone and those few left can mostly be found at museums. Every once in while, however, you can find one out in the wild as we did here. Wished it open so we could have stopped in for a beer…
Short Subjects: reports that are short and sweet in nature. It’s stuff interesting enough in itself, but not deserved of the full on BIGDoer.com treatment. Think silly little snippets, vignettes and likewise things of that sort and you’ll be in and out in no time.
This structure is definitely a GTP Type E station, their standard design for small towns. The second floor bay window gives it away.
Citing info from Charles Bohi’s “Canadian National’s Western Depots”, this site claims that the station currently at Ryley is originally from Dinant, which was the first station north of Camrose on the GTP’s Tofield-Calgary branchline. Nothing remains there today.
rrshs.org/Alberta/abrrstruc.htm
railways.library.ualberta.ca/Maps-9-1-5/
The former GTP line from Tofield to Barlee (just north of Camrose) became the CN Kingman Subdivision. The southern half through Dinant had already been abandoned by the time of the 1977 Hall Commission’s review of prairie grain transportation, as only the Kingman-Tofield section was mentioned in their report. This report noted that the line had last handled revenue freight in 1974, and recommended it for swift abandonment.
We knew of Bohi’s book and even searched it out, as we knew it probably held the answer, but didn’t find a copy available to us in the little time we had. The latter has been lacking lately. In any case, that website did the job and thank you for sharing it. It’s not well indexed by search engines, which could explain why we missed it, but does hold some interesting info! I recall reading that government publication (on paper) long ago. It’s a fascinating look back and really helps explain the reasons behind all those abandoned lines. Once again, thank you for adding to the story.
We used to do something called the "pointless challenge" 🤪 and miss those days. It was so much silly fun and often frustrating as heck. In these we'd invite people to send in random photos of obscure locations, but not give any information, and then we'd track where it was and shoot something similar.
Most of these came from old family collections, as was the case here. Anyone up to resurrecting the series?
In hindsight, why didn't we pose someone in our shot?
Pointless: “Devoid of meaning (or) senseless” Merriam-Webster.
If you like what we do and want to support this ongoing project (12 years now), go here: https://www.BIGDoer.com/help-the-society/ Thanks to Connie for making this post possible.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: ca1970 and 2014. Posted by Connie.
Captured on a cold, cold day many years ago. We've been passing this old house for decades and it's little changed in that time. At some point we expect to drive by and it'll be gone.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2017. Posted by Connie.
When retired old railway cars usually get cut up for scrap. Sometimes, however, they find their way into the hands of the general public or whomever. Flat cars make good bridges, and boxcars can be transformed into storage buildings and the like. Case in point here. We see them used like this often enough and in this case, it's part of a corral.
Incidentally, this boxcar dates from 1950 and this was found by tracing the old road number, which is still visible.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2017. Posted by Connie.
This central Alberta racetrack was never a commercial operation but instead just a fun place for car enthusiasts in the area to get together. Early '70s or thereabouts and it only lasted a few years. Even thought it's been abandoned for that long, there is no doubt what was here.
You know we like the the obscure stuff and this one fits the bill perfectly. Found by accident while backroad cruising and the history comes thanks to local car guy Mike.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2022. Posted by Connie.
On top of little Myrtle Mountain in the Kimberley (BC) Nature Park.
There's some good wilderness fun to be had here and nice views as you can see, but the real reason we came is mining history. The whole area near the ski hill was extensively worked over a century ago and we were looking for evidence of this. We didn't find much in the area searched, but it's a big chunk of property and we hope to return to cover more ground again soon. Of all the subjects we cover, mining related is a favourite.
Still, it was a good hike and that can't be bad. Look to the comments for more info 👇.
Exploring nature and history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2022. Posted by Connie.
It's a strange curiosity in south Kananaskis, there on a hillside and we have no idea who created it. We asked around and no one's completely sure about its history. In the past it showed the Canada 100 logo from 1967 but in 2017 someone changed it to reflect the country's 150th.
That's our friend Emily from DanOCan.com having a look.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2017. Posted by Connie.
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Makes me think of the station in my home town which was saved and made into a tea house.
Viking? It’s similar in look to this one.
This structure is definitely a GTP Type E station, their standard design for small towns. The second floor bay window gives it away.
Citing info from Charles Bohi’s “Canadian National’s Western Depots”, this site claims that the station currently at Ryley is originally from Dinant, which was the first station north of Camrose on the GTP’s Tofield-Calgary branchline. Nothing remains there today.
rrshs.org/Alberta/abrrstruc.htm
railways.library.ualberta.ca/Maps-9-1-5/
The former GTP line from Tofield to Barlee (just north of Camrose) became the CN Kingman Subdivision. The southern half through Dinant had already been abandoned by the time of the 1977 Hall Commission’s review of prairie grain transportation, as only the Kingman-Tofield section was mentioned in their report. This report noted that the line had last handled revenue freight in 1974, and recommended it for swift abandonment.
publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2016/bcp-pco/CP32-26-1977-1-3-eng.pdf
We knew of Bohi’s book and even searched it out, as we knew it probably held the answer, but didn’t find a copy available to us in the little time we had. The latter has been lacking lately. In any case, that website did the job and thank you for sharing it. It’s not well indexed by search engines, which could explain why we missed it, but does hold some interesting info! I recall reading that government publication (on paper) long ago. It’s a fascinating look back and really helps explain the reasons behind all those abandoned lines. Once again, thank you for adding to the story.