Take The Backroad Home

Occasionally when an adventure ends we have no choice but to rush home. But if we can, and it’s something we work hard towards, we’ll take it easy and doddle. Do the backroads, the byways, the side streets and take in places (wait for it)…”Off the Beaten Path”. The journey should be part of the adventure. And in keeping that spirit, here’s a trip that if done direct should be two hundred kilometres or so, that account of our meandering ways, added an extra hundred to the odometer. For your enjoyment, it’s random things seen coming back from a gig photographing a railway museum near Wetaskiwin Alberta (link further below).

1) In Ponoka, our home base for the weekend, it’s a southbound CPR local. It’s a on a “milk run”, a trip generally done at an almost leisurely pace that takes in all or nearly every rail served industry along the way. It’s the lowest of all, moving from town to town gathering up and dropping off rail cars where ever needed. You might hear them being refereed to as “way freights” by train buffs. Ponoka is along the CPR’s moderately busy Edmonton to Calgary line. The other trains we’d see this today were along it.

2) Our dive motel has a games room, stark white and uninviting. And what’s this, a pinball? C**p, out of order I’m afraid. This is an old a Gottlieb “Volcano” from way back in 1981. Played it as a teen! Don’t recall it being particularly great on the fun scale. Around that time Williams “Barracora” was my then go to – much faster and exciting. While a pin powered up is about the most pretty thing ever – all those magical lights – when off they’re far less photogenic. It looks so lifeless and…and well…dead.

Here’s why we were in the area, by the way: Wandering The Alberta Central Railway Museum. What a great place and a load of fun for the entire family. It’s train heaven and entry can be had for a song. Tell them we sent you!

3) At a car wash in Lacombe, it’s an old fire truck from Hairy Hill Alberta, a small town a fair bit north of where the vehicle sits today. The truck is a first generation Ford F Series from the period 1948-1952. We paid Hairy Hill a visit many year ago, here: Stops Along The Way.

4) Okaaay. Here’s a dressed up pump (we call him Jack) in the quaint little village of Markerville. There’s an historic creamery there, that you can tour seasonally, but it was closed and we didn’t want to photograph it in that state. We do hope to go back thought. A lot of settlers from Iceland (land of Ice and Fire, as the T-shirt explains) came to live in the immediate area in the old days.

5-6) Here’s Markerville Lutheran Church, over a hundred and ten years old. And looking pretty good too! It’s still used for services, and can be toured when the town is “open” in the summer. It’s a popular place for weddings. The Lutheran faith is the most dominate in Icelandic culture.

7-8) Our bridge addiction satisfied. This one’s just outside Markerville and probably dates from the before the 1930s. This through truss span design was the go-to at the time and there’s hundreds of similar spindly-looking structures just like it across the province found on little travelled township or rural roads. As with most found in this vast part of the world, it comes from maker Dominion Bridge. The company had factories all over the country, making all manner of steel work and not just what their name suggested, but most bridges in the west came from their Winnipeg Branch. The old plaque is nice to see. Here’s the Calgary Dominion Bridge plant seen some fifty to sixty year apart: Calgary then and now – Dominion Bridge. Cool eh?

9-13) This vintage Kenworth garners a lot of our attention. It’s a rule here that old trucks can’t be passed by, doubly so if they’re big ones, no matter the urgency. Screech…take all the time you need. This is one at the entrance to a farm – fortunately there happened to be someone exiting the property, who graciously gave us permission to photograph it up close. Otherwise we’d have had to shoot from the fence. They said it’s perhaps a 1933 or 1934 model but seemed a tad unsure. That seems about right and we found many pictures of others that were identical from that period.

Kenworth dates back over a hundred years and is and was a prolific maker of heavy duty trucks for vocational (so dump trucks for example) or highway use (so big rigs). Flakes of paint suggest this one was one brightly painted up in a blue/green shade. We did not get any backstory given the person was in a hurry. But we’re thinking we should pay it a revisit when we have more time.

The engine runs on gas. Interestingly about the time this one was made, diesels were being offered by the firm and soon became the dominate, and not long after the exclusive power plant used. This one’s quite large and no doubt loud and thirsty. Top speed was likely not much more than what a person could run. That it was built in the heights of the Depression makes it rare. Not much of anything was manufactured in those bleak times. Now take into account its age…it’s a survivor!

14) Up until the 1990s and perhaps a bit beyond, one could see a lot of “Cab Over Engine” (so COE or “Cab Over” in trucker-speak) out on the road. They made for a more compact overall footprint which was necessary when there was length restrictions, most of which have been greatly relaxed. Still from time to time, one can be spotted out on the highway. Mostly though, they’re used in lighter duty trucks that do city work in tight spaces. This one’s a Freightliner, one of most prolific makers in the day (and still in business) and dates from the late 1980s/early 1990s period or thereabouts.

It sits today, long retired outside a scrap yard in small town Alberta.

15) Snapping photos of train and this damn jogger gets in the way. Hey, we’re trying to take pictures here! Don’t smile at us!

16) Outside Olds Alberta, here’s a southbound freight about to pass an old (but not too old) grain elevator. That structure speaks of a change in philosophy and while sharing many design cues of old, wood cribbed construction for example, it was clearly a move forward when it came to size. And location too. It was much bigger than those before it (even if it’s small by today’s standards) and putting it outside of town allowed a longer siding, a plus when loading more cars. We documented it some years back: Prairie Sentinels – Olds Alberta.

The train is lead by almost ten year old General Electric ES44AC. Canadian Pacific Railway has hundreds of them. This train was moving at a pretty good pace.

17) Last for the day, another local train, this one northbound at Carstairs. Leading the way is CPR #2255, an EMD GP20C-ECO from the early 2010s. While classified as rebuild (so they could have relaxed emission standards), they are in most ways a new locomotive even if some parts from older retired units were reused. Well, just enough of them. Sneaky. A space for lease sign is common in small prairie towns. There’s often more buildings to let than businesses to fill them. Such is life on the dying prairies, a lament you’ll hear us repeat far too often.

And soon we’re home. What an enjoyable afternoon wasted. Till the next “road home” piece, it’s happy travels and have a fantastic day. We do these for fun only.

They’re saying…

”I always love your articles and pictures. Keep up the good work please !!” Juanita Gill.

Coming back from here…
Wandering The Alberta Central Railway Museum – a COOL place!

From the same file dump…
Retro Service Stations: Lakeview Husky – the oldest in Calgary.

More like this…
The Road Home – the journey’s part of the adventure.
A Stop or Two Along The Way – no need to rush.

If you wish more information on what you’ve seen here, by all means contact us!

Date of Adventure: October, 2018.
Location: Ponoka, Lacombe, Olds, Carstairs Alberta and others.
Article references and thanks: Canadian Trackside Guides (our bible), Internet Pinball Database (ditto), HistoricMarkerville.com, TrucksPlanet.com, Hanks Truck Forums.

1) The milk run.

2) A 1980s pin (out of order) at our dive motel.

3) Say “Hairy Hill” three times fast.

3) Land of Ice & Fire.

5) In historic Markerville.

6) Markerville Lutheran.

7) Our bridge addiction satisfied.

8) Dominion Bridge made most.

9) What’s this now?

10) A tough old 1930s Kenworth.

11) No nonsense comes to mind.

12) Not always rust coloured.

13) The engine’s huge.

14) A style of big rig little seen today.

15) We’re trying to photograph trains!

16) A fast moving freight and a prairie icon.

17) A northbound at Carstairs.