Monthly Archive: April 2014

CNR Essco Snow Jet

Jet powered snow removal

In this report we’ll look at a strange Rube Goldberg-esque device, a jet powered railway snow blower, used to clear out compacted ice that has accumulated between the rails. Surprisingly that material can be quite hazardous and can even cause a train to leave the tracks. This odd piece of...

Yamnuska and Goat Mountain

Lost under Yamnuska

In this adventure we got “lost” under Mount Yamnuska. It’s our first wilderness hike of 2014 and we wander about aimlessly, as though adrift, going here and there, sometimes on trail, other times off. It looks at though we were lost but in the end we only loose ourselves in...

Boxcar in a field

Boxcars!

Boxcars: the rolling of two sixes in a dice game, specifically craps, or it could refer to an enclosed railway car used to carry general freight. When retired from service the latter are sometimes sold to be used as sheds and the like. Farmers are known for their thrift and...

Calgary Transit #7 route

Calgary Transit then and now – 33rd Ave SW

Presenting another Calgary Transit then and now – we hope you do not tire of them. Then: a trolley bus on the South Calgary (#7) route turns north onto 14th St from 33rd Ave SW. Now: do some quick research to find where the original photo was captured and then...

Railway bridge Okotoks AB

Okotoks pathways – Sheep River Valley loop

For this urban hike we’ll follow a series of pathways in the community of Okotoks, just south of Calgary. Our chosen route was roughly 8km long and encompassed a loop with a little out and back at the beginning and end. Always paralleling the Sheep River, the pathway is paved...

Okotoks train bridge

Bridge hunting – Okotoks Alberta

Today’s subject is the CPR train bridge found in Okotoks Alberta. Spanning the Sheep River, it carries that railway’s Calgary to Lethbridge line. Damaged in the spring of 2013 due to flooding and out of service for a time, the structure is back in use but almost a year later...

Motel 9 Beiseker cropped

Brokeback Mountain then and now – motel exterior

The Brokeback Mountain shot we’ll attempt to duplicate, which shows a motel exterior, appears only briefly in the movie. In spite of its short time on the screen, it’s an important and powerful few seconds which helps set the mood for the scenes that will follow. Let’s take a screen...

Calgary AB Boler RV

Brentwood Boler

This year, in respects to Boler spotting, has started off slow. The trailer seen here, found in the Calgary community of Brentwood in April, is the seventh we’ve documented in 2014. Of course, once the warmer weather arrives, we’ll likely see a lot more of them as they and their...

Calgary Stampede Parade

Calgary then and now – Stampede Parade

The name of this post: “Calgary then and now – Stampede Parade”, is I guess, technically incorrect. While the first image shows that event, making it right in respects to that, the second does not, and it could not. You see, first we shot our “now” photo in the depths...

Calgary Transit scrapped Fishbowl bus

Calgary Transit GMC Fishbowls – postscript

They’re done. They’re finished. They’re gone. RIP 2014: Calgary Transit Fishbowl buses – so long, and thanks for all the rides. Once the mainstay of the fleet, they have finally run out of time. After all that hard work, after all those millions of kilometres and millions of passengers, it’s...

Grain elevator playground

Irricana then and now – CNR tracks

The first photograph in this “then and now” report shows a circa 1992 railway scene captured in the small town of Irricana Alberta. We see a row of grain hoppers sitting on a side track not far from an elevator, perhaps waiting to be loaded there, or maybe having already...

Tarped-up Trillium trailer

Tarped Trillium

The Trillium is the most common of the Boler-like trailers. We see them quite often and in fact they are more likely to be encountered than a Boler itself and while the later has not been made for decades, the Trillium is still in production to this day. Included in...

Calgary blue skies

Glenmore Reservoir loop

Join us for this urban hike where we circle the Glenmore Reservoir. It’s an approximately 16km loop, a path with many personalities. We’ll travel through dense wooded areas and pleasant green spaces. We’ll at times be on roads or beside roads (one very busy and noisy) and we’ll pass by...

Richard Hart CPR Cochrane

Canadian Pacific Railway then and now – Cochrane Alberta

For this railway themed “then and now” post we find ourselves in Cochrane Alberta, along side the CPR’s east/west mainline. The first image is from thirty years ago and shows an eastbound freight at the edge of town. We’ll return to that location to see what it all looks like...

Calgary AB Boler trailer

Lakeview Boler

This lily white Boler was seen peeking out behind some shrubs and a house and was found in the southwest Calgary community of Lakeview near north Glenmore Park. This one is the sixth we’ve spotted this year but with the coming of spring we are sure to see many more...

Trolley Bus Calgary

Calgary Transit then and now – Eatons

We present to you a photo, dated 1971, showing a street scene in Calgary Alberta. A trolley bus passes by and in behind we see various buildings, the most prominent one being the the Eaton’s Department Store. Fast Forward to today and we return to that same location to document...

Claresholm Milnes Block

Claresholm then and now – Milnes Block

At just over a century old, the Milnes Block in Claresholm Alberta appears to be in fine shape. In this then and now report we look at this handsome structure, first in 1911 and again how it appears today. As can be seen, it has changed little. For this building,...

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