Meeting Creek Railway Station

We’re visiting the restored Meeting Creek Railway Station in central Alberta and shooting a slight variation on our popular Then & Now series. It’s a perfectly delightful spring evening, we’re here all alone and since we’re shooting a general historic piece on the building anyway, let’s have a little more fun. We found a postcard inside the building and in a click moment, thought of ways to put it to use.

Might as well mix it up.

While we didn’t ace it in terms of lining the subject in this post, as well as we hoped anyway, still there’s some potential in the method here. I’m sure we’ll try again with some new subjects as the opportunity presents itself.

The station goes back to the 1910s and built on this very spot with the arrival of the Canadian Northern Railway. It’s of a standard design and one of hundreds of similar stations out west connected to the railway. A few of these still remain and this one’s been lovingly restored by the Canadian Northern Society and one of several they own.

To know more about these stations, go here: An Evening in Meeting Creek, Big Valley’s Train Station and Camrose Heritage Railway Station & Park.

CNoR was folded into Canadian National Railways about 1920 and the station remained in use into the early 1980s. By this late point, it was in service of a Via Rail Dayliner running from Drumheller to Edmonton and back. It was self propelled railcar, looking like an overgrown bus on steel wheels, that served the needs well enough. They could fly down the tracks and well suited for local assignments.

When this run ended the station fell into disuse and for the most part forgotten. Near the end, it was never really used, except as the platform, for the scant few people using the service out of this small town. How passenger service lasted as long as it did on this backwater line is something amazing and we can thank this fact for its survival.

Later the station was acquired by the society and fixed up as you see it now. For a time in the 1990s, it was witness to Steam Train Tours out of Stettler, and concurrent, freight movements along the line. All this ended later that same decade and the track soon after pulled up. Except out front of the station, which was thankfully kept in place and helps completes the illusion that the line is still sees use.

There’s a couple historic grain elevators across the tracks that are quite photogenic and you can see them in this post: An Evening in Meeting Creek.

This take on the Then & Now theme required a bit of change in the technique, but nothing much really. As always, it’s simply a matter of finding suitable reference points in the then photo and matching them up in the viewfinder. So a few steps left, one or two back, a little spin to the right and viola, it’s there. Well sorta and I think we could have done better in hindsight.

Looks like a manicure wouldn’t hurt our presenter.

We didn’t see a date on the postcard, but think it’s of fairly recent vintage. The society has these in their gift shop, but it’s doubtful many people send postcards through the mail anymore. Instead they’re generally keepsakes and become part of someone’s personal collection.

One final photo to round out the piece, showing the station all lit up as though still in use. Imagine the train is due and from this angle it’s easy to go back in time. You can hear the distant horn, a few people mill about waiting its arrival and the station agent’s busy with last minute paperwork. It feels real and you don’t even have to close your eyes.

Know more: (new windows): Canadian Northern Society and Canadian Northern Railway.

Make it point to stop often for new and interesting content posted regularly.

They’re saying…

”They have no fear when it comes to searching in remote areas, and they have an artistic eye for picture taking. It’s a very enjoyable site.” James Robinson.

More train stations…
Train Stations: Viking Alberta.
Coutts Sweetgrass Train Depot.
Manyberries Alberta railway station.

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Date of adventure: May, 2021.
Location: Meeting Creek, AB.
Article references and thanks: Rich and Shawn @ Canadian Northern Society, plus Canadian Trackside Guides.

Meeting Creek Railway Station – a new twist on the theme.

Waiting on a train that’ll never come…