Prairie Sentinels of Oberlin Alberta

It’s just a former rail siding, and nothing more, with the name of Oberlin Alberta. No town here. Its claim to fame, at least at the time of our visit in spring 1997, were the two grain elevators that stood along an abandoned railway line. Like so many other prairie sentinels, they are now gone, but at least there’s a record of them from this visit. Few other photos of these exist, so we present a rare treat.

It’s a day of exploring random backroads with the family and in the area southwest of Stettler Alberta. We managed to stumble across these by pure chance and random finds, at least to us, are the best kind. There we were following some backroad south of Erskine Alberta and out of nowhere, they came in view. A bit to the east and poking out above the trees. Over there, it’s two strange curiosities from the past and we must investigate.

On this trip we discovered historic and abandoned places then unknown to us, but the highlight became the two grain elevators seen here. It’s a dark time and so many of these structures were lost that same decade. Finding disused ones like this, along a former railway line like this, is something extraordinary and the experience a sombre one. We knew time was ticking.

Oberlin Alberta is along a former Canadian National Railway’s branch. This line extended from a junction at Warden Alberta (a point just east of Oberlin) and all the way to the Brazeau coal fields of Nordegg. Constructed under the charter of the Canadian Northern Western Railway Company and almost immediately upon completion amalgamated into the line’s parent company. We’re speaking of the Canadian Northern Railway here, a transcontinental often times near insolvent and teetering on the edge.

They had the ambitions, but seemed short on leadership and funding.

Construction of this line commenced in 1911 and finished up a couple years later. Not long after, early 1920s, the CNoR, along with a number of other struggling railways were folded into the giant CN system we know and love today.

Initially this line proved fairly busy with coal, grain, merchandise and passenger trains travelling its length. At that time it got served out of nearby Big Valley Alberta, an important division point along the CNoR’s north/south Alberta Midland line.

Rival Grand Trunk Pacific became another railway consolidated into the CN system and with that came new operating plans for this section. Soon after joining up a (former) Grand Trunk line to the west was used to funnel most traffic off the Brazeau line. More direct and better constructed, it became the natural choice.

Subsequently and almost overnight the portion through Oberlin became redundant. Some coal traffic from the west continued to move at times, and local grain, but mostly things were quiet. It reverted to branch line status and the only online traffic sources were a few elevators, including those in Oberlin.

Abandoned and pulled up by the early 1980s, the line may have been out of service for some years prior. Traffic was a mere trickle near the end and no doubt it became a money losing proposition.

Oddly, but good for us in this case, the grain elevators seen here were spared. A local farmer used at least one for grain storage for a while but the other seemingly abandoned and forgotten the whole time. Around our visit the one in use ceased to function in this capacity and therefore like it neighbour living on borrowed time.

There were grain elevators in the nearby community of Erskine, along a Canadian Pacific branch and even with the end of service, farmers weren’t greatly inconvenienced. The two places are only a few kilometres apart and anyway, the CPR line saw more frequent service. Not a big blow compared to other times lines were abandoned and so it ended without much concern. Few noticed anyway.

Along the stretch between Warden and Alix (so through Oberlin) the two competitors were always close by. Sometimes even within sight. The rival could readily and would happily take up the slack. This Canadian Pacific line remains in operation as far as Stettler and continues to handle grain traffic from the area.

The first of the two elevators belonged to Parrish and Heimbecker and dates to 1918. A local told us it closed sometimes in the early 1970s but we’ve not found a written record of this date. Nor is it mentioned if this specific one was reused like the other but a hunch suggest no. It looks like it had been disused for quite some time when we poked our heads inside.

P&H was one of the smaller players in the Canadian grain industry and are still in business to this day. Just not here. This elevator wore metal cladding which were sometimes used as a fire mitigation measure.

The second elevator belonged to the Alberta Wheat Pool and displays the traditional mineral brown colours used in the old days. No Pool blue/green for this one. It dates from 1928 and for a a short while carried the Brooks Elevator Company banner, before being acquired by the Pool. A farmer owned cooperative, the AWP traditionally functioned as the largest grain firm in the province. Every rail-served town in the grain belt of Alberta had a Pool elevator…or so it appeared.

These two were gone by 2000 and now only a memory. Our source mentioned a third grain elevator located in Oberlin, built sometime in the latter half of the 1910s and torn down at some undetermined date, but no additional information could be found.

The Team has seen a photo from Oberlin captured sometimes 1970s-ish and so around the time service ended. It’s taken from the top of the P&H elevator and looks towards the other. The rail siding appears in place, albeit weed-choked, but none the less still there. Oddly, the through track is sans rails or maybe they’re just too overgrown to be seen.

This west portion of this line, by the way, is still in use by the CNR and only the short section from Warden to Alix, and through Oberlin pulled up.

Oberlin was never a town in any real sense and just a name for the siding along this railway line. There were and are farms nearby but that’s about it. Still, we walked the area by the elevators in search of foundations or others signs of buildings that may have been located here but came up empty.

The woods that surrounded the elevators, by the way, made things feel more remote than they actually are. There’s open fields and pastures all around, but the old rail line in many places is a wooded belt. As such it’s easy to spot on Google Earth, for the most part, and we followed it for much of its entirety from Warden to Alix. It’s fascinating that the roadbed built so long ago and later abandoned is otherwise so untouched by time.

It sad these elevators are no longer here but let’s all celebrate that we were able to capture them at this time. Dumb luck or however it happened, it’s all good.

These images were scanned from 35mm slides that were packed away for the better part of a decade before being rediscovered. This article has appeared before but retired as outdated a while ago and only now brought back. The info’s been updated, the text rewritten and things tidied up. Twenty seven years after being photographed and we’re presenting them again for you approval.

The Oberlin elevators are gone, our kids who accompanied us on this adventure have little ones of their own and we’re still reminiscing about this fun little outing. We love looking back on our adventurous past and happy it’s still happening.

Normally we’d include an info link to the direct subject of this post but data is scarce. It’s non-existent! As such why not read up on the railway line through Oberlin, a fascinating subject in itself. Here (new tab): Canadian Northern Western Railway Warden to Brazeau

They’re saying…

“Unsung heroes of the internet!” Leonard O’Brien.

Random awesomeness…
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A Few (Frigid) Minutes in Trochu Alberta.
Catonio’s Groceteria.
Craigellachie Kid.

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Date of adventure: .
Location: Oberlin, Alberta.
Article references and thanks: Canadian Trackside Guides, historian Paul Pettypiece, the landowner whose name we lost long ago who allowed access and Bill from Erskine.

The grain elevators of Oberlin Alberta (1997).

This one is marked for Parrish & Heimbecker.

Once an Alberta Wheat Pool property.

Both were demolished soon after our visit.

Standing on the old railway line, pulled up in the 1980s.