The Team’s out in Big Valley Alberta and having stupid fun in a downpour photographing some elderly motorhomes. What’s not to like? At any rate, it was being done for a project that ultimately got shelved (long story), but at the time we didn’t know it and jumped in with full gusto. That’s in spite of the challenges presented by the unexpected rain. Seems cameras and water don’t mix all that well…we got soaked to the bone too.
Still, we’ll posed the rigs in interesting locations about town and make the best of it. Some odd looks from the locals will follow, and we’re certain one did the screw-loose finger motion thingy, but we’re used to being called crazy. It was not only a deluge and every one of us fully drenched, but that it was still spring, meant it came down icy cold.
Vintage RVs Big Valley Alberta: decrepit old campers 🙂 and interesting backdrops. With Chris Doering & Connie Biggart (BIGDoer/Synd)
Thanks to the “Canadian Northern Society” for helping make this post possible.
This is not a serious post in any sense, and sometimes for us this is just the medicine needed. Banging away on the keys at full throttle is tiring at times and here we can coast. With the project these images were destined for later cancelled, we sat on them for some time and unsure what to do. Heck, let’s post them!
Scroll down for photos and to comment.
Our home for the weekend was the Canadian Northern Society’s Big Valley Station. It was nice and convenient too. We’ve been blessed to stay there a couple times and were using it as a base of operations for other photography projects. For example, we shot another CNoR station (the society has many BTW) that very weekend: Meeting Creek Railway Station.
The depot, the little blue church* (here: St. Edmund’s Church Big Valley Alberta) and Big Valley’s grain elevator* (here: Prairie Sentinels – Big Valley Alberta) all became background scenes. There’s many other historic buildings in town that would have been suitable and used similarly, but we were beyond waterlogged and called it an early evening.
Had the weather cooperated, we could have gone all night if need be, but here had to admit defeat. Sometimes it all comes together and other times, case in point this day…well…not so much.
The campers were to become part of a vintage RV rental fleet, and the shoot to help introduce them, but due to unforeseen circumstances things later didn’t work out. They’re both Triple E Class C campers from the latter part of the 1980s and mostly original. Both were in surprisingly fine shape and their age belies their overall good condition.
Class C motorhomes are built on cutaway van chassis (Ford in this case) and while those big V8s probably don’t get the best mileage, remember they are pulling around a fair bit of weight.
These pics were shown to the manufacturer Triple E out in Manitoba (who are still in business) and they seemed proud of their old warriors. Still on the road and looking good! Motorhomes can often have a short service life and many are beat up and falling apart by the time they’re retired.
Even if this ended up being a bust project, we still have fun photos to share and the fond (wet) memories of the capturing them. Truth be told, we like adverse conditions at times.
The station dates back to the 1910s and is original to the location. A tour: Big Valley’s Train Station. While we’re at it – remains of a locomotive servicing facility nearby: Big Valley Roundhouse.
The building’s been restored and features prominent in the Alberta Prairie Railway tour trains out of Stettler. We’ve taken the train couple times and here’s a write up from one of those trips: Alberta Prairie Railway Tours Ride Along.
The rain lulls us to sleep and ends sometimes well into the night. The morning is clear, relatively, and crisp but it looks like the clouds might regroup. That it’s early in the season means the town’s all quiet and pretty much our own. In the summer, especially on train days, it can be busy with visitors, but here we saw no one. It was the height of the pandemic, after all (our visit was spring 2021), so we suspect that was a part of the equation.
A discovery in the trunk of the mighty BIGDoer-mobile when packing to go – a vintage model locomotive given us by one of our kids and thought missing in action. So that’s where it went? We were using it as a prop in a shoot sometime earlier and lost “track” of it. Thanks goodness it turned up because otherwise we’d have some explaining to do and that would be complicated.
We found a postcard showing an excursion train in front of the station and for fun attempt a Then & Now. That didn’t work out well and so we’ll have to try again.
Later that day, a quick stop in Stettler to see what’s happening down by the rail line. There’s nothing much going on at the APRE base, as it turned out, but it’s hardly a surprise. Our visit was from 2021, recall, and the trains didn’t run at all that year (nor the previous year, of course) due to the pandemic. So we capture a few photos of the idle equipment and wonder if they’ll ever seen action. Trains indeed are running again but at the time, the future looked grim.
We said this was going to be a quick post and here we are still endless blabbering away. Sorry, it went long. Enjoy the pics and be sure to stop by often.
*These are rather old posts and deserve a reshoot and updated information. You know, we really should go back for a revisit.
”Fascinating in depth historical information about people and places in Alberta that I didn’t even know existed. It is a true learning experience and enjoyable too.” Bernadette S Finzel (today’s post is more lighthearted in nature).
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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