Canadian Railroads > CPR station on the move

I spotted a large CPR depot building loaded on a building mover's rig parked at the old westbound scales on Hwy. 1 near Strathmore, Alberta, tonight. Unfortunately it was too dark for photos. Does anyone know where it came from or where it's headed?

It is the CPR Station from Bassano AB on its way to the Beiseker Railway Museum in Beisker Alberta. The plans are to refurbish it over the next few years and open it as a museum.

Neil Compton
Calgary, AB

There is more info and a couple of photos here:

http://www.okthepk.ca/news/2012071901.htm

Will MacKenzie
Dundas, ON

A little more info here:

http://www.globaltvcalgary.com/video/historic+bassano+train+station+moves/video.html?v=2258087006&p=2&s=dd#video

I kind of figured it was to big to be off of a branchline somewhere. Thanks for the info.

Well I'll be danged. One of the few I managed to capture during my one visit to eastern Alberta in July, 2005.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/19/12 14:30 by aussiehinz.

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The stations on the Brooks Sub. east of Calgary were late survivors because this part of the main line was ABS/trainorders until the late 1970's. CP even went to the effort of replacing some of these train order stations with small metal buildings for the last few years before CTC.

CP had brave plans for this semi-arid area east of Calgary, building the Bassano Dam and the Brooks Aqueduct to provide irrigation for new farmlands south east of Calgary. There is a commercial building just north of the Palliser Hotel in Calgary with the title of the CP land development subsidiary cast in concrete in the cornice beneath the roof.

For many years, some passenger trains went through Strathmore, on a line slightly to the north , returning to the main at Gliechen.

In addition to eminence_grise concerning the Brooks Sub:

http://www.canadianrailwayobservations.com/docs/CPR-BROOKS-PART3.pdf

Most significantly, Gliechen was a Division Point when the original main line was built. When the C&E (Calgary and Edmonton) was built, Alyth Junction was chosen by a pioneer rancher Burns for a packing house. Gradually Calgary became more important, and about 1900, there was a change in the original crew points. Gliechen, Canmore, and Laggan (Lake Louise), and Donald BC were eliminated as crew change points. The Calgary-Medicine Hat Brooks Sub. was the longest main line subdivision in Canada in steam days (177 miles). A relic of the amalgamation of crew districts was the fact that until the 1990's, it operated with Calgary engineers but Medicine Hat train crews.

> A relic of the amalgamation of crew
> districts was the fact that until the 1990's, it
> operated with Calgary engineers but Medicine Hat
> train crews.

Up until 2002/03 to be exact.

Locotrol2

If I'm not mistaken, the original mainline was the Gleichen-Strathmore-Langdon alignment, with the current line via Indus-Dalemead-Carsland built later on. The original line was abbndoned in segments, the Strathmore-Gleichen portion went first, the Shepard-Strathmore portion lasting into the mid-80's.