Down by the Tracks in Coronation Alberta

We’re down by the tracks in Coronation Alberta or rather on our visit, standing where the tracks used to be. From this angle and observed today there’s nothing left of the railway. Not a thing. Presenting two views captured from the same location but separated by many, many decades.

It’s sobering to see what’s changed and pretty much everything in the old image has been relegated to history. The scene’s not just a little different and pretty much all that was has been swept away.

The Then image comes thanks to our friend Henry Niznik and captured by him in 1977. Henry worked for the railway, although not in this area, but while passing through felt the need to stop and capture this shot. Let’s all thank him!

The old image comes from an Instamatic style camera producing a square format print (so 1-1) which had to be cropped to properly fit our frame. It’s otherwise unchanged and presented as shot.

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Then: The view has us looking east down the line and in the distance a row of grain elevators and a small rail yard are visible. The former is the whole reason for the railway. Grain, coming from these elevators and the others along this line was the reason the line existed. The later is full of cars used to haul the stuff.

This would be a typical view in countless prairie towns back in the day.

The track belongs to the Canadian Pacific Railway and the trains arrived in Coronation during 1912. Shortly afterwards they proceeded east into Saskatchewan and points beyond. This line ran east from Lacombe Alberta and a connection with the CPR’s busy Edmonton-Calgary main and functioned as a grain gathering branch. The section from Lacombe into a point just past Stettler still sees trains but the rest has been abandoned.

Coronation originally functioned as a subdivision point along this section of track, and as such was an operation’s centre plus where crews changed out.

The station dates back to the construction of the line and gone about a decade after Henry shot his photo. The Canadian Pacific and most other railways, built depots to relatively standardized designs, with some variations depending on the size of the town and intended secondary uses.

This example was a rather specialized branchline subdivision depot and a rare design. Only a small number were built across the prairies and interesting in that they didn’t have an attached residence for the station operator. Most stations out in rural parts did, except for those in smaller markets and special cases like this. Typically accommodations would be in the form of a second floor apartment.

In the 1970s view, the station was on borrowed time and we believe served as a crew office. Passenger trains on this line were a distance memory, even at the time, and this service ended in early 1960s.

By 1992 the track through Coronation belonged to a short line firm, Central Western Railway, out of Stettler, but operations didn’t last long. The grain industry was in flux and getting away from the grain elevator in every little town model and consolidating at larger, more centralized locations along busier railway lines. All the grain gathering branches were doomed and there were a lot.

Central Western stopped running to Coronation sometime around 1998. This was not their only line and they had others too, all out of Stettler, and quit every one of them around this same time.

Tour trains of Alberta Prairie Railway Excursions, also of Stettler, used most of Central Western’s network and photo evidence shows they even ventured into Coronation at least once. We don’t believe it functioned as a regular destination, however, and this run many have been one of the last to visit the town. That image is dated 1999.

All that’s left of the old Central Western are some stubs out of Stettler for railcar storage and a section from that community down to Big Valley, for tour trains. All the track is operated by the APRE organization and they handle a little freight to help underwrite operations.

The grain elevators seen in the background date from the 1950s-1960s and lasted until the line closed. At the time of the Then photo the companies represented included the Alberta Wheat Pool (two elevators) and United Grain Growers. Both were big dogs in the industry. These buildings remained pretty much as seen until the line closed. You’ll note the first elevator is getting an annex addition to expand its capacity, back when Henry photographed it.

Interestingly, the two elevator firms mentioned would later join up via a series of mergers (early 2000s), but that’s another story. We noted a reference mentioning Coronation as one of the top grain shipping points on this branch most years.

Now: Everything’s gone. The train depot had been demolished by the late 1980s, the railway pulled up by around 2000 and the grain elevators removed about that time. Now this location is just an empty field and devoid of any signs of having a previous use. If one looks close, however, they can see the old roadbed – sort of – and flat spot marking where the station stood. But it requires a little imagination.

The only element of note left to connected to two eras is that seed cleaning plant off in the distance, and a little right of centre in both photos. That’s all and even it has changed. The complex you see today is different, as proven by old photos, but the difference is not obvious from so far away.

There’s something connected to the railway unseen and behind our respective shooting positions, that’s still here present day. It’s the last connection back to a whole other time. It a house, former company use and standing where built. Once a home for employees, it’s today part of a museum and can be seen here: Coronation Roadmaster’s House Museum.

Since the original photo was captured, Coronation’s population has shrunk and down several hundred. It stands at just under nine hundred present day but something close to thirteen hundred when Henry shot his photo. Then as now, farming and ranching drives the local economy.

Coronation was founded about a year before the railway arrived and named in honour of of George V who became king about that time.

Know more about the town: (new window): Coronation Alberta.

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Date of adventure: 1970s (original) and 2022 (Team BIGDoer).
Location: Coronation, Alberta.
Article references and thanks: Book – In the Beginning, a history of Coronation, Throne, Federal and Fleet Districts, Henry Niznik, ForthJunction.ca and Town of Coronation Alberta.

Coronation Alberta: everything’s gone (orig. Henry Niznik).

The reverse view from the former location of the grain elevators.

A former railway structure right behind our shooting position.