Background

My Background:

I was born in 1969, in Peace River Hospital while my family lived in the remote community of Rainbow Lake Alberta, in the far north west corner of the province. From then until 1975 we lived in Fairview and High Level. Frequent visits to family and friends were made during that time period to the Peace River region as my mother's family was in the St. Isidore area and my father's from Donnelly.

In 1975 our family moved to Quebec for 5 years but continued to visit the area every summer, usually for a month at a time. In 1980 we moved back west, and our visits to the Peace country grew more frequent. First to Kindersley Saskatchewan and then, finally in 1988, we ended up back in Alberta, at Red Deer.

During this entire time my memories filled with images of the railroads of northern Alberta. I was linked to them in several ways: My great grandfather (father's side) had come to Donnelly when it was the end of steel from the Morrinville area and installed his lumber mill there. Contracts with the railroad and associated businesses for lumber were common and many members of the family still remain in the area farming and conducting business. My father's father was the Case farm implement and Studebaker dealer in Donnelly and he had many stories of equipment and vehicles arriving by rail on flats and in boxcars to be assembled on the side ramp. My father even spent some time working the elevators there and in Falher. My grandfather (mother's side) worked seasonally for years on N.A.R. section gangs out of Peace River (his yellow motor car being called a "putt putt machine" by myself and my sisters). Farming was his prime vocation and continues to be for my uncles and cousins in and around the area. While living in Fairview I could watch the trains from the living room window switching cars at the elevators and, while in High Level, the locomotives of the Great Slave Lake Railway passed just east of my father's shop, with long strings of yellow ore cars and gondolas in tow. Trips through the Peace River valley were punctuated by the views of the wondrous bridges and scenery that presented themselves to the child peering out the car windows to catch a glimpse of the great machines rolling down the tracks.

More connections to the railways came as an adult after 1995 when I moved to Falher and bought an old house directly south of the UGG elevator there. Sunday nights were spent with my sons watching the switching taking place through the back door window, my 3 year old so excited that he wouldn't sleep until the "do-do's" were done their chores. In 1997 I purchased my own truck and began a 4 year stint hauling grain, my parking spot visible in the upper picture on page 146 of Keith Hansen's book "North from Edmonton". In that time I had the good fortune of hauling loads to and from most of the elevators along the western N.A.R., north-eastern BCRail and GSLR rights of way before they were erased from our collective scenery by that unfortunate thing called "progress". The rails behind my house changed hands and went from CN to Railink, to Mackenzie Northern and then back to CN so we got to see some unique equipment in those days; SD7's, lease units of all kinds and even Railink's F unit which, when I pointed it out, my boys did not believe was an actual locomotive!

N scale model railroading was also in my blood. My father had been fascinated by it when he first saw the models in the late 60's which began decades of collecting magazines and models for an eventual layout (most of which I still have). Unfortunately, he has never had the chance to realize his visions as time, money and space have never aligned to allow it. As a child, I was enamoured by these models, as any child is, and hoped that one day they would come to life.

Disclaimer: Throughout this blog there may be photos used that are copyrighted. If you have an objection to these images being used for the purpose of this blog please let me know and the offending photo(s) will be removed or properly accredited, as you wish.