Page 15 - NMRA Roundhouse September-October 2019

Ghosts of the
CPR Stirling Subdivision
Jason Sailer
CP #3015 (GP38AC), CP #3028 (GP38-2) and CP #3060 (GP38-2) on the elevator track at Orion, Alberta in September 1998 - photos by Nick Korchinski
GUEST EDITORIAL
Being part of a railway museum and in charge of the collections and archives a person comes across some interesting donations, such as this series of photos from retired Canadian Pacific Railway engineer Nick Korchinski from Lethbridge,Alberta.This article contains photos from his trip taking empty grain hoppers to the last grain elevator holdout on the CPR Stirling subdivision at Orion,Alberta, on a warm fall day in September 1998. Nick takes photos from the cab of a worn GP38-2 as they head south from Lethbridge onto the 85-pound rail territory of the Stirling subdivision, passing vintage wooden grain elevators, several of which fall from memory within years of his trip.
The Stirling subdivision originally ran be- tween Lethbridge,Alberta and Manyber- ries,Alberta.The subdivision was named after the junction point “Stirling”, where the west running Cardston subdivision and south running Coutts subdivision met. Stirling is named after J. A. Stirling, an executive in a company in England that helped finance the Alberta Railway & Coal Company in their expansion southward from Lethbridge toward Great Falls, Montana, in the 1890s.Years later the Stirling subdivision was reor- ganized to start at Stirling and head east, and the Coutts (now Montana) subdivi- sion was extended to start at Lethbridge and head south towards the US border. In 1915 at Stirling, CPR began construc- tion of a new branch line, heading east- ward and was able to reach Manyberries
in late November, 1916. It wasn’t until 1922 when the ‘gap’ between Manyber- ries and the neighbouring subdivision in Saskatchewan the Altawan was linked together. Trains that operated on this line were mixed, meaning both freight and passenger cars were part of a train, though most times the freight always had priority.
By the early 1960s, CPR began cutting and trimming its branch line operations, particularly the money-losing mixed train operations. Sometimes the federal gov- ernment agreed to their case and some service was dropped in areas, but some- times the locals rallied in support of the mixed train service and the government then denied CPR the chance to drop the service in that area.With the reduction in some of the freight operations includ- ing the closure of some of the older, less efficient wooden grain elevators, the writing was literally on the wall. Finally, in 1965, the last mixed train operated out of Lethbridge, heading eastwards to Shaunavon. After this, CPR was content to operate freight assignments and grain train extras “as needed,” with the crews operating out of Assiniboia in the east, or Lethbridge in the West.
By the mid-1970s and early 1980s, with freight traffic again decreasing, and with the substantial investment required to keep the lines running for another long-
term period, CPR began its cutting pro- cess. By the late fall of 1989, they made their case to the National Transportation Agency (NTA) who approved the aban- donment of a portion of the Altawan
sub between Consul, Saskatchewan, and Manyberries,Alberta.The tracks and rail infrastructure were removed not long af- terwards. In April 1990, CPR applied for and received approval from the NTA for abandoning the section of track between Manyberries and Orion.
The grain elevators at Orion, Nemiscam, and Etzikom continued to receive grain from the local area farmers, though the fate for these last remaining holdouts was questionable and it would not be long before they were gone forever. In August 1996, the NTA approved CPR’s request to abandon the section of track between Orion and Etzikom.
September/October 2019 - ROUNDHOUSE 15