Category: Old Things

Here’s one of the largest pieces of vintage machinery we’ve ever documented. A big-boy, a giant metal monster from the 1920s, a steam driven Industrial Works Company dragline that long ago toiled away in a southern Alberta coal mine. Rescued from an uncertain future not that long ago, it’s today...

We often do work for museum groups. Mostly it’s research related projects or field studies, but every now and then we get to put other skills to work. And you thought all we did was write and photograph – little known fact, we also fix old telephones here, when time...

The General Motors produced New Look, “Fishbowl” to those who know and love them, was the most common transit bus of the 1960s-1980s. There were tens of thousands of them made in the US and Canada and nearly every transit agency, big or small, had some on the roster. Many...

Story and photos by Chris & Connie. The old vehicles seen below were found in a very remote corner of Alberta and date back a long time, the earliest from the 1920s, the newest, the 1960s. Some are complete or mostly so, but the oldest ones are not. They’re just...

All the photos seen below come from our June 2015 foray into west-central Saskatchewan. Odds and ends from that trip, these old vehicles, some going back to the 40s and 50s, some decades newer, were found in an area west of Saskatoon and halfway to the Alberta border. Makers represented include Ford. a number of GM divisions, Internationals, Kenworth, along with rare and strange ones like REO and Hudson.

REO Speedwagon was an arena-filling rock band of the 70s and 80s. But that’s not what we’ll be talking about here. Instead, we’ll focus on a line of trucks of the same name, which preceded the musical group by many, many decades and from which they borrowed their moniker. Not terribly common in this part of the world, the old workhorse seen in this report was found in the East Kootenays of BC.

The Canadian Museum of Rail Travel in Cranbrook BC owns a huge collection of vintage train equipment. Founded in the 1970s, the organization has grown over the years and today occupies a huge tact of land on the far edge the community’s downtown core, just beside an active railway line. On display at one end of the property are two old diesel locomotives and a passenger station.

Pacific and Hayes are arguably two of the most rugged heavy duty makes of work trucks ever produced…PERIOD! Overbuilt and engineered in every way, either could be called upon when the the conditions were not just difficult, but demanding to the extreme. Catering to the logging and mining industries of...

The tiny locomotive documented here was constructed in 1963 by the Canadian Locomotive Company of Kingston Ontario. It was one of the last made by this long established firm, at that time in business for well over a century, and was the very final example produced for a Canadian customer....

Here’s another fantastic collection of vintage vehicles, comprised mostly of 1950s era cars of many makes and models, found deep in the beautiful Alberta Badlands. Shot full of holes, stripped of parts, twisted and crushed, rusted and rotting, these old Fords, Chevrolets, Pontiacs and Plymouths sit beside a crumbling old...

Today’s subject is a wonderful Shasta brand camping trailer found in a Calgary back alley. This retro gem dates from the early half of the 1960s and looks like it came straight out of the Mad Men TV series. Its shape and form, the paint, love that “speed” zig-zag, and...

The back lot documented here is home to a small handful of old vehicles, but two are real gems and include a vintage International heavy duty hauler and the star of the show, a classic Peterbilt. Located in a small town in central Alberta, these forgotten relics languish away in...

We’ll call this motley grouping of vehicles the Badland’s Collection for no reason other then they were found in the scenic Badlands of Alberta, in the Red Deer River Valley near the town of Drumheller. We were on foot wandering about the area, looking for adventure and fun and any...

Making our way down a random street, as we are apt to do, in an industrial section of Calgary, we stumble across an interesting pair of motorhomes not far from each other. Both are pretty darn old, dating from the 1970s or thereabouts, and are known as an Empress and...

The strange beast seen here, basking in the sun on the first day of 2015, is called a locomotive crane and is used in railway maintenance of way service. They are used lift or place what ever needs to be..well…lifted or placed. Self propelled it can travel from work site...

In the final installment in this series we look at broad range of old cars and trucks, dating from the 1920s and up, found on our spring 2014 Saskatchewan trip. The province is that good, a real treasure chest of fun and excitement for those who search out vintage vehicles...

While traveling forgotten back roads, as we are apt to do, we often unexpectedly and completely by chance stumble across some really interesting finds. We’ve discovered long abandoned homesteads or farms, or their remains, vintage equipment and old cars and trucks by the score. Included in the latter category are...

When the subject “what’s the toughest heavy truck ever made” comes up, the name Hayes, of Vancouver BC, is sure to make mention time and again. These over-built nearly indestructible monsters were well regarded by those who owned and operated them, and while you could find them at work nearly...

The world renowned Spruce Meadows equestrian venue operates, via a private contractor, a fleet of guest shuttles, comprised of vintage buses from the 1960s-1990s. These green and white beasts earn their keep taking people to and from parking lots and transit stations to the huge event facility located at the...

The fascinating things we find while out exploring the Alberta plains. Of course there are the ghost towns and abandoned farms, but we also stumble across lots of old, classic and interesting vehicles. Seen here is an odd-couple sharing the same patch of grass between two old wood buildings a...

The two old locomotives discussed in this report, Canadian Pacific Railway #1418 and #1424, once pulled crack passenger trains but today are retired and on display at a riverside park in Medicine Hat Alberta. Their paint is faded and rust is bubbling up here and there, but these fine old...

Time has finally run out for Calgary Transit’s fleet of venerable MCI Classic buses and after some twenty five years of service they are being retired. In the last few years they’ve been used for peak service mostly and the number on the road varied depending on service levels and...

In May 2014 we toured the southwest corner of Saskatchewan on a quest to find grain elevators, ghost towns and abandoned farms. We also came in search of vintage cars, trucks (especially), strange and odd motorhomes, locomotives – anything old and interesting that has wheels and an engine. And guess...

The Diplomat Mine interpretive site is home to two gargantuan mining shovels, built on such a scale that it’s hard to even describe them. Even in person, their size is simply overwhelming. Both are quite old and each toiled away for years at the mine extracting coal and overburden day...

The GMC motorhome, like the example seen in this report which was found right here in Calgary, is a real interesting beast. It’s a futuristic home on wheels built in the 1970s that amazingly looks quite up to date even today. Popular with retro-RV enthusiasts there are a surprising number...

If you like old cars, trucks, farm machinery and equipment, Saskatchewan is the place for you. No matter where one travels within its borders, there is always an endless parade of vintage vehicles to be seen, each begging to be photographed and documented. It’s a literal playground for those who...

You don’t often think of RVs as being sexy but if there ever was one that fit that description, it’s the Vixen Motorhome. Provocative in both name and appearance, this rare model dates from the mid to late 1980s. We’ve been documenting strange and usual campers, motorhomes and travel trailers...

This post has been updated and can be found here: Alberta Prairie Railway Excursions #41. Random railway related posts… Camrose Heritage Railway Station & Park Wandering The Alberta Central Railway Museum. Locomotives of the Great Sandhills Railway. If you wish more information on what you’ve seen here, by all means...

In this article we’ll be looking at two monster draglines, Bigfoot and Brutus, at the Paintearth Coal Mine in central Alberta. The original plan to was to view them up close – boys, even 49 year old boys, love their big machines and I was eager to document these ones...

In this article we look at a number locomotives that work for the Great Sandhills Railway in western Saskatchewan. All these were found, completely by chance, while we explored the area in search of old grain elevators and abandoned places. Some of these engines are old, others are very old,...