Lorraine Railway Bridge Remains

These concrete piers, seen off in the distance, are all that remains of the Canadian Pacific’s Lorraine railway bridge. The line it supported dates back to the mid-1910s, but didn’t last long and everything removed roughly four decades later. In the railway business that’s the blink of an eye and interestingly, for much of that time the track through here didn’t see regular service, except for the very early years.

Lorraine Alberta, as a town, never really took off and while long term plans were in place to extend the line further to Alliance, and in the early 1930s the rails laid, it never officially opened. It was a stretch of dead track and other than the bridge remains plus the roadbed leading through the valley, nothing much is left today. The Lorraine railway bridge was plate girder design and with an open deck.

Before the extension the track dead-ended just a little left of the structure. Lorraine itself was somewhere in the back in our photo (old maps are unclear), but the lay of the land meant the siding for town had to be a little distance away.

Getting in and out of this valley was no doubt an expensive exercise, but sometimes things don’t work out, even for conservative firms like railways. Clearly, even from the start, the intent was to continue on past here, but it didn’t play out that way.

These concrete monoliths are on private property but easily viewed from a public road. We’re hoping to get a closer look sometime, however, and are working to make this happen as we speak. There’s nothing left of the old townsite, but we’d like to explore it as well and maybe connect further with the past. Here in the scenic Battle River Valley, it all came and went quickly and that’s a story we like.

From the same card dump…
Jessie’s – Royal Cafe – Golden Crown, Foran Grade and Train Stations: Viking Alberta.

Short Subjects: Reports that are short and sweet in nature. Think silly little snippets, vignettes and things of that sort. You’ll be in and out in no time.

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Date of adventure: May, 2022.
Location: Central Alberta.

All that remains of the Lorraine railway bridge.