Rural Crossing

Time was you could drive down any back road in this part of the world and come to a railway level crossing. Until fairly recently the tracks went everywhere, be it main line or branch, and these rural intersections of steel and pavement or gravel commonplace. Some crossings were protected by lights and others lights and gates and also perhaps signage. It all depended on the the frequency which trains would pass, their speed, the amount of vehicular traffic and other factors. Less busy roads often had nothing more than a cross-buck, like what we see here. This one also has a stop sign* due limited visibility down the tracks. You may not see a train till it’s almost upon you.

And now with so many railway lines abandoned, these are less and less seen, especially one lacking any kind of warning lights.

The track here belongs to Alberta Prairie Railways, their spur line east of Stettler Alberta and what’s left of the CPR’s former Lacombe Subdivision. They don’t run their excursions trains along this section but rather use it to serve a grain terminal every now and then (switchstand seen is for their siding) with the remainder being used for the long term storage of surplus rail cars. So they’re not just a passenger carrier. These side gigs help keep the lights on.

The broom seen is used to clean snow from switch points. An accumulation there could gum things up. Till next winter it stands there on guard.

*One would think stop signs at all lesser used crossings would help save more lives. Often people just blow through them without looking and sometimes the inevitable happens.

Interesting railway remains…
Troup Junction.

Short Subjects: reports that for any number of reasons are brief in nature. They might be updates to older articles, previews of posts planned or not yet published, brief snippets of things that don’t fit in anywhere else or subjects that are so obscure that information on them can’t be found. Or sometimes we just ramble on about Lord knows what.

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Date of adventure: June, 2018.
Location: Near Stettler Alberta.

This rural railway crossing.

Broom and switchstand and a spectacular sunset.