Empress Alberta at the 4th Meridian

The images used in this comparison were captured less than two decades apart and in all frankness, they don’t show much change. Except that the railway is history. The location is Empress Alberta and we’re right on the 4th Meridian at the Alberta-Saskatchewan border. There’s the old railway line that once passed through town and it’s gone now.

In that first photo, we’re witness to (what research suggests) is the last run on the soon to be abandoned branchline in 1998 and after 85 years it’s all done. It shows an enthusiast organized “speeder” outing (more in a moment), and today that same roadbed, sans track is seen. In both images, the Border/4th Meridian marker is in clear view.

This article (from 2016) is one of those lost to that big crash from a couple months back. There is a backup, but rather than simply restore as is, we felt it could use a bit of do-over anyway. Here you go – original photos plus a few supplementary ones from other visits, updated info and a rewrite – enjoy! The light was not good for photography the day we shot the Now photo, but sometimes you have to make compromises. Apologies!

The village of Empress is not seen in the photos but is not far way and off frame to the right. It sprang to life with the coming of Canadian Pacific Railway just over a century ago. They envisioned it as a major railway hub and for a time it was a busy place. Things soon settled down, however, and it became the sleepy little burg you see today.

Around one hundred and fifty people call Empress Alberta home, but in the early years, there were far more. Interestingly, the town butts up against the provincial border and a couple residents live on the Saskatchewan side. The population of Empress when we visited in 2016 stood at about 135 so it hasn’t shrunk in that time.

The immediate area is a dry belt and almost desert-like. Cacti are common.

This railway through Empress ran all the way from Bassano Alberta to Swift Current Saskatchewan and connected with CP’s transcontinental mainline at both ends. Empress was about mid-point. This track comprised the Bassano and Empress Subdivisions (built 1911-1914).

The main commodities hauled include grain and from the 1920s on, up until the early 1960s, domestic heating coal coming in from a connecting branch out of the Red Deer River Valley. That traffic headed east into Saskatchewan. That this branch met with the CPR’s mainline at both ends meant it could function as a bypass route in times of trouble or congestion. Still, much of the time is was an often quiet stretch of steel.

There used to be a large yard here (bigger perhaps than needed – but they thought it’d be busier), a row of grain elevators, a roundhouse and turntable. All were just behind the photographer’s position. The town’s historic station, also in that same direction, managed to survive and is worth a visit. We’ve included a photo of it in this post, but everything else mentioned is gone.

The line diverging left in the original photo comprised the west leg of a “wye” and that’s a triangular arrangement of tracks used to turn around locomotives or maintenance cars. Or in the case of the original photo, a speeder. This was the end point for that touring group (made up of many speeders), and after this photo they were soon heading back from where they started. So somewhere east of Bassano, but not explicitly said.

The run was half over here and when they left, many, many decades of use ended. It’s a bit sad and done without fanfare.

Both photos were shot from Alberta, but most of the wye track was actually in Saskatchewan. The railway planned a separate line to points north off the tail end of the wye, so to the left off frame, but construction never commenced. It seems they were serious for a time but crossing the Red Deer River nearby proved a big and perhaps too costly obstacle.

The track heading right was a continuation of the line east to Swift Current. Soon after leaving town it dropped down and crossed the mighty South Saskatchewan River on a spectacular deck bridge (now gone except for the piers). The railway abandoned the track east from Empress and on to Leader Saskatchewan around 1990. The section beyond Leader remains in use today and is the Great Sandhills Railway.

The Bassano to Empress line lasted a few years more with the final freight visiting town in late 1997 or early 1998 (conflicting reports). In the summer of 1998 a group of speeder enthusiasts organized a run on this section of the line and that’s just before the railway pulled it up.

Speeders are little self propelled cars formerly used by railway maintenance crews but mostly now in the hands of enthusiasts and museums. Now the railways use pickups modified for road and rail use.

Speeder owners will often band together as a group and arrange runs on little used lines or those pending closure. Most branchlines are history now and the options limited. Typically anywhere a few to a many dozen speeders will participate and each typically holds two to four people. Some can pull small trailers for added capacity and that’s demonstrated in the Then photo.

They keep well spread out while in motion, for safety’s sake, and on big convoys can sometimes stretch to the horizon. We’ve seen it first hand – more in a moment.

This particular speeder group hailed from Alberta, but seemingly disbanded long ago. In the late 1990s they kept busy travelling threatened lines in the southern half of the province. With most branch lines now history, I guess they don’t have anywhere else to go and perhaps this explains why they disappeared.

Interestingly, a US based speeder group, a couple years back, travelled the still extant eastern section of the Bassano to Swift Current line in Saskatchewan. We had the honour of touring with them in 2017 on a different line, but in a southwestern portion of province. Here: and.

A large cross-shaped sign marks the border of Alberta and Saskatchewan – it’s hard to miss. Empress is just on one side, the Alberta side, the good side. Joking! The arrow straight line dividing the two provinces is also the 4th Meridian and it’s a major geographic reference point.

Notice the lower sign-boards are reversed now. In the old photo, they told you the province you were entering, but now tell you the side you’re on. They’re now in agreement with the upper boards.

The rails are gone and the trees are larger but otherwise this scene it little changed between the two images. The pipe, the hill in back, the fence and the railway cuts, are all as they were. Time moves more slowly out in rural parts and that’s demonstrated here.

We stopped Empress the year as the speeder people and have included a couple photos from that visit. The tracks were still in place but gone soon afterwards. The train station was in a derelict state then, but thankfully some locals fixed it up. In 1998, the town had a population of about 185, incidentally.

The then photo comes thanks to a reader and this person mentioned being part of that speeder group. They provided few other details and asked for anonymity. Some of the old photos used in these then and now series come from people just like you. If you have something similar in your possession (yours or public domain) showing a scene (railway, street, town) that you think we should recreate, please message us. We’d love to hear from you.

Our approach to these comparison photos is rather straightforward. We compose in-camera using a grid system and an old photo (printed out and marked with a similar grid) for reference.

It’s perhaps the long, hard and labourious way to do it, given all the powerful software out there that could make the lining-up task super easy, but it’s more fun as a challenge. It’s one we fail at more than you know and many comparisons don’t see the light of day. Just because they look good in camera does not mean they’ll be fine on a bigger screen.

Team BIGDoer has visited Empress many times over the years and we always long to return. We connected with the town back when we first stopped by in the late 1990s and we still look forward to visiting. The history is accessible and there’s lots of solitude

Know more (new tabs): Empress Alberta and Dominion Land Survey 4th Meridian.

They’re saying…

“Chris and Connie have a unique way of documenting the places they visit, not copying the style or technique of others, but making it their own.” Alex Craig, Filmmaker.

Railway archeology…
Railway Barge Slip Rosebery BC (1989).
Down by the Tracks in Coronation Alberta.
An Evening in Meeting Creek.

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Date of adventure: ~1998 & 2016.
Location: Empress, Alberta.
Article references and thanks: Our photo contributor, Researcher Geoffrey Lester, railway historian Larry Buchan (RIP), the books “Golden Jubilee Empress, 1914-1964” and “Echoes of Empress (Alberta) Through 75 Years 1914-1989”, plus Canadian Pacific Railway Employee Timetables.

Empress Alberta at the 4th Meridian, 1998 and 2016.

Left: west leg of wye. Right: line to Saskatchewan.

2014

The 4th is also the Alberta – Saskatchewan border.

The restored train station.

1998

Standing about where the speeder is – derelict station in back.

The west leg of the wye with tracks still in place.