Passenger Trains > What to do in Coutts, Alberta?

Some of you may wonder where the charming town of Coutts, Alberta is located. It's on the US-Canada border, at the northern end of Interstate 15. It's the interchange point between BNSF and CP. There is very little to this town besides a few homes and the border crossing. There is a grain elevator on the American side with an SD-9 switcher, in addition to a few tracks to allow for the interchange of cars between the two railroads. In usual railroad fashion, there were five trains in Coutts, but only three tracks in which to store them. Tioga Pass got caught up in the mess and wound up waiting over 36 hours to travel the short distance to Shelby, Montana and its connection with Amtrak's Empire Builder. What does one do with nearly two days in the middle of nowhere? It was 10 degrees and windy outside, so that must mean it's time to polish the silver... Time to lean, time to clean as they used to say at McDonald's.

Norman Orfall
Helendale, CA
TIOGA PASS, a private railcar

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Tioga Pass is well over four hours late headed for Portland. They spent quite a bit of time shuttling crews around east of Spokane. Adding Tioga Pass in Shelby turned into an ordeal after the switches could not be lined due to ice and snow.

Norman Orfall
Helendale, CA
TIOGA PASS, a private railcar

I hope the diesel & water tanks are being kept topped-off, and hopefully there's a way to discharge what needs to be discharged...

Desmond Praetzel, "4451 Puff".

I see Smuggler's Saloon and Coutts Diner.  Really exciting.........

Norm:

I thought you and others might enjoying seeing a few photos of our visit by train to Coutts back in 2001. It was a royal trip, literally, as we were riding a Royal Canadian Pacific rare mileage charter. We backed up to within a few feet of the border to lay claim to as much mileage on the line to Coutts. 
Based on the recent satellite photography, the border facilities have been beefed up immensely since our visit.

#1 A view of the last few feet of the Canadian side of the border with the BN yard in Sweetgrass just across the border.
#2 How we arrived in Sweetgrass
#3 Our power being wyed

Those were the days
WP17

aronco Wrote:
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> Some of you may wonder where the charming town of
> Coutts, Alberta is located. It's on the US-Canada
> border, at the northern end of Interstate 15. It's
> the interchange point between BNSF and CP. There
> is very little to this town besides a few homes
> and the border crossing. There is a grain elevator
> on the American side with an SD-9 switcher, in
> addition to a few tracks to allow for the
> interchange of cars between the two railroads. In
> usual railroad fashion, there were five trains in
> Coutts, but only three tracks in which to store
> them. Tioga Pass got caught up in the mess and
> wound up waiting over 36 hours to travel the short
> distance to Shelby, Montana and its connection
> with Amtrak's Empire Builder. What does one do
> with nearly two days in the middle of nowhere? It
> was 10 degrees and windy outside, so that must
> mean it's time to polish the silver... Time to
> lean, time to clean as they used to say at
> McDonald's.

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I wonder if the side streets of the 2 towns ever ran through. Some of the north-south ones seem lined up.

joemvcnj Wrote:
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> I wonder if the side streets of the 2 towns ever
> ran through. Some of the north-south ones seem
> lined up.

Ahhh ….the Border.

Once upon a time those streets probably did cross….a much simpler time when everyone just got along! Go east and look at this. The centre-line of this street is the border. Houses on the left are in Quebec and those on the right are in Vermont.

https://goo.gl/maps/VydMS3SvJmD2

How things have changed. Now you have groups such as the Girl Guides suspending trips to the US do to border concerns.

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/03/13/girls-guides-suspend-trips-to-us-citing-border-concerns.html

And the LA Times is calling it the Trump “Slump”:

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-travel-slump-2017-story.html

But here is Canada it’s being called the Trump “bump” with tourism numbers way up. On your election night....Canada’s Immigration Web site crashed from the number of hits

http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/04/travel/cape-breton-island-canada-trump-bump/

I know about that town in Vermont. Customs of both countries has now put that town into permanent recession.

Some inaccurate rewriting of history in this thread.  There have always been border issues between the US and Mexico and the US and Canada.  They were often driven and still are by illegal smuggling--booze, drugs, illegal immigrants (I consider illegal immigration as a form of smuggling, with the illegals being the commodity), etc., plus various thugs and criminals crossing the borders to avoid prosecution in their home country.  Add international terrorists to the mix makes border security a necessity, whether people in any of the affected countries like it or not.  Blaming Trump for wanting to increase border security is like blaming the bank president for installing a safe after the bank gets robbed.

I do have some family-based knowledge about all of this, going clear back to the 1930's.  One of my parents lived on the US-Mexico border and traveled into Mexico frequently during that time and the other lived fairly close to the US-Canada border and traveled into Canada for work purposes fairly often.  It is true that border areas of both US-Mexico and US-Canada around small towns used to be much less formal for the same reason that small towns were/are much less formal than big cities--in the small towns, people tend to know each other (even across the border) and know when strangers or unusual activity is occurring.  That has changed significantly with faster transportation and mobility, greater transience among the population, and a decreased respect for law and authority in all of the countries involved.  And, until those trends change, border security is going to have to get tighter and tighter.  That is unfortunate for the border towns like Sweetgrass and Coutts, but it is the consequence of a changed society.

As for "What to do in a place like Sweetgrass-Coutts?"--being a small town person, I would go find the local gathering place (cafe, coffee shop, etc.) and talk to some locals.  In any town where I do that, I always find out all kinds of interesting things about a place that I would otherwise never have known.  

Rimrock Stages/Trailways used to run a Great Falls, MT - Coutts, AB Border bus. It ran through Shelby, MT, where you could get to by Amtrak. Greyhound Canada met that bus each way at the border and took you to Calgary. Rimrock's patronage dropped to about 15 - 20 people per trip, which was below cost, and they killed it. Sometime later, Greyhound killed their side of it. Rimrock service then began to collapse from lack of connecting business to their other routes. Due to safety issues after a couple of fatal wrecks, leading to inspections, US DOT shut them down

Jefferson Lines ran between Fargo, Grand Forks, Pembina and Winnipeg. They got disgusted with the whole Customs situation and dropped the service.

Today, you cannot cross the border by bus between The Soo and Blaine , WA. Yet, we are not a bit safer from the terrorists with security theatre.

Well shucks, somebody has to do the silver! One of the little known international and career changing incidents at CPR occurred when the biz car Van Horn train that I was riding inadvertently crossed the border in a switching move. Do not assume for one moment that Coutts, AB, is a little noted wide space on the railway! 

What happened to the fellow on baord ?

We had to hand test a for a defect right on the border when I was on a Sperry car on CP Rail. It took until 2011 for me to get to Montana but my booty had already visited in 1997. And yes customs officials on both sides were passively watching to make sure we didn't make a run for it, or something, I guess?

Jim

Watch a few trains, then look for the nearest liquor store and buy a bottle or two
of "Alberta Springs" Canadian Rye Whiskey and head back to the states.
Alberta Springs Rye Wiskey is Top-Notch stuff and is NOT SOLD
in the U.S.A.