A Few Minutes in Foremost

Here’s a stupid just-because post about nothing much in particular. While passing through a small town, some cool trucks are spotted and vintage grain elevators are their backdrop. To that we say yes and YES! We have a timed appointment with a very special building in the area (more in a moment), but still we have to stop, even if the clock is ticking. Ahead, it’s a few minutes in Foremost Alberta and nothing more, then it’s go time.

The town: Foremost sits a remote corner of Southeastern Alberta, and with a population of about five hundred and fifty, is the largest community in the general area. This is farming and ranching country, but I’m being Captain Obvious here given most of the southern half of this huge province could be so described. And we all know it.

Foremost came to be on account of the railway, a Canadian Pacific branch that came through in the early 1910s, that today operates as 40 Mile Rail. The trains and the towns came concurrent back then and this was how it played out during the settlement phase. 40 Mile = the name for the county, in case you’re curious. The track runs west from here to a point south of Lethbridge but not much was going on the time of our visit with the line mostly being used for tanker storage.

When the trains run into town, they usually haul out grain and for a period brought in turbines for a local wind-farm. Freights are short and infrequent at the best to times and surplus rail car storage (given the shortage of available spaces) is a profitable side-gig when nothing else is happening.

The grain elevators: There’s three in Foremost (there used to be more) and these date back to the 1910s (the grey one – altered much over the years), the 1950s (first photo) and the 1980s (in the distance with a blue oval half way up).

Only the latter structure, we believe, is still used to ship out grain. It’s an interesting experimental design and only three were made, with two still standing today. We visited the other one a while back, in a little community called Lyalata, and spent the day. Here: Buffalo 2000. We got to go inside and look at the (for the time) cutting edge inner-workings.

Interestingly, we’ve never documented the Foremost grain elevators before in any formal fashion, but think in 2022 might have to come back and take a closer look. It’s always been a time thing, or lack thereof, but perhaps we’ve put it off too long. It’s not like they’re getting any younger.

The trucks: There’s a couple here and both quite are interesting. One’s a Canadian Kenworth LW series – we think mid-1970s example (corrections welcomed) – used as a farm hauler. This heavy duty model was made in the 1960s-1980s period and were popular as vocational trucks (loggers, dumps and extreme service tractors). This example is a wide-hood model with a huge capacity radiator, so there’s no aerodynamics going on here.

What’s with that fire truck? Well, a local walking by said it’s sometimes seen with the ladder up and against one of the grain elevators (which, we failed to ask). It sounds plausible and suggests it’s being used in a maintenance capacity of some sort. A make-shift man-lift? If you know more, you know what to do, or if it’s yours….just saying…invite us for a closer look (wink-wink).

This truck earlier belonged to the Vancouver British Columbia Fire Department, last as as Ladder 22, before coming here. A firm called Anderson made it, out of Langley BC and they were a smaller manufacturer in business from the 1970s into about 2000. This example is from 1994 and a quint model, that is it functions in many capacities, including that of a pumper and aerial truck. Wikipedia defines it like this: “Quintuple refers to the five functions that a quint provides – pump, water tank, fire hose, aerial device, and ground ladders.” Think of it as a Swiss Army Knife of fire trucks.

That cable seen between the truck and tracks was for moving railcars at the grain elevator in back.

The road calls: These piece was born out a busy day and here’s where we came from before stopping in Foremost (Ghost Towning with Radio Canada’s Vincent Bonnay), and here’s that building we spoke of earlier, an historic grain elevator, to which we were headed (Ogilvie’s Wrentham). There’s no sitting still when you’re a volunteer.

We had no plans to share these photos, as they don’t really provide an in-depth look, but on reviewing them recently liked how they turned out, so here you go. We shoot a lot just for us and are not always sure if others would find them interesting, but sometimes on second thought, end up posting them anyway.

Know more about the town: (new window): Foremost Alberta

They’re saying…

”The photos made by Chris and Connie are exceptionally good. Their research is very well done and they are happy to share their work with others. They are preserving our visual history. I highly recommend “Off the Beaten Path”…” Marion Kelch.

Random fun…
Nelson and Fort Sheppard in Under a Minute – A little railway, end to end .
Sonic Prospector – Pinball time!
Fossil Prospecting @ Dino Provincial Park – There’s bones everywhere!

Something to say and no one to say it to? Go here: contact us!

Date of Adventure: June, 2020.
Location: Foremost, AB.
Article references and thanks: Alberta Register of Historic Places (Hermis.Alberta.ca), the Village of Foremost and Fire.Fandom.com.

A few minutes in Foremost (Alberta).

That’s a Buffalo 2000 back there.

Ex-Vancouver (BC) Fire Department.

The pump controls.

The big question – what’s it doing here?

Old grain elevator…old farm truck.