Interwar Rail Construction in Saskatchewan and Alberta, Part 2

This post is the second which looks at the ideas presented in the following paper:

Interwar Rail Construction in Saskatchewan and Alberta: An Evaluation

by Charles W. Bohi, Leslie S. Kozma

Presented at the Annual Meeting of the

Prairie Division, Canadian Association of Geographers in 2007

(Mr Bohi noted my interest in the area and emailed a copy.)

*  *  *

The link to my first post is below:

Interwar Rail Construction in Saskatchewan and Alberta, Part 1

I actually found a link so you can download the research paper itself in PDF form:

Interwar Rail Construction in Saskatchewan and Alberta: An Evaluation

The images I insert are not from the paper.

Square, indented paragraphs contain only my ideas or comments.
My brief account will only skim over some key elements of the paper.

*  *  *

Previously, the authors examined information related to the 1932 Duff Commission:

1. Why the Interwar branch lines were built.

2. Whether the CNR was the aggressor.

*  *  *

This post looks at the third and final question from the paper:

3. Was building these [Prairie branch] lines a 'Disastrous Mistake'?

Generally, the Interwar branch lines were constructed to serve Prairie farmers.
They were growing wheat - an important Canadian export.

As noted previously, a few of the branch lines were built for the purpose of providing transportation services to coal mines in the southern Prairies. As coal was a convenient fuel for space heating in the Prairies during this era, some of the branch lines shortened the distance it had to be moved - saving money for Prairie coal customers, including the wheat farmers.

Continuing with the theme of serving wheat farmers:

These Interwar branch lines included 605 locations
where the railways built sidings and other facilities to receive freight.

By 1936, 57 of these locations were incorporated as villages (50 people),
with 2 communities incorporated as towns (500 people).

In addition, 143 locations had permanent depots
(i.e. station buildings - with 'agents' to conduct local railway business).

The fact that almost one quarter of all locations saw station buildings erected
suggests that a significant amount of local commercial activity took place on these lines.

*  *  * 

A stretch of track we drove along ... as part of a vacation, and shown in another post ... the Fife Lake Subdivision, between Assiniboia and Big Beaver ... is examined in The Weyburn Region - see the References section of the 'Interwar Rail' PDF above. I could not find this Weyburn section in a readable form on the internet. Here are some of the authors' ideas on the Fife Lake Sub ...

from: CPR employee timetable; April 1950.

Atlas of Canada; 1981; Reader's Digest.

Considering the Fife Lake Sub example:

The Interwar branch lines were built to serve Prairie farmers. However, life for the farmers and their families had to consist of more than simply growing and transporting wheat. Using the Fife Lake Subdivision as an example ... the line brought in the essentials of life for those living in this area of Saskatchewan. This line also fostered social institutions and activities - and a sense of community - which softened the often harsh realities people faced in this area of the Prairies.

 In 1960, 68 cars of coal were delivered to the 8 stations on the Fife Lake Sub which had coal dealerships.

In 1969: 10 locations had post offices; 6 had general stores; 7 had gas stations; and Rockglen, the largest settlement, had a grocery store. Farmers could obtain bulk oil deliveries at 7 of the locations (farms often maintained their own bulk tanks with hand pumps for refueling tractors, combines, etc). Rockglen and Coronach also had lumber yards.

The communities on the Fife Lake Sub were also social centres - 6 had elementary schools, and Rockglen and Coronach had high schools. Churches were located at 5 settlements, and 5 settlements had a total of 8 ice rinks.

The following passage is taken from the research paper
and it portrays a time when the train was central to this community ...

*  *  *

from: Canada, A Geographical Interpretation; John Warkentin; 1968; Methuen.

If the railway branch lines had not come closer to the farmers, the farmers would have had to transport their grain by road using their own horse-drawn wagons ... or early rudimentary trucks - for the few who could afford them. Depending on the state of the grain market, this could have had a major impact on farmers' incomes.

As noted previously, the rural (often unimproved, dirt) roads were poorly maintained in the 1920s and 1930s and winter snow clearing was not provided until after the Second World War. (One source I read suggested that the Dominion Land Survey and its system of road allowances left farmers with an inefficient grid of too many roads which exceeded the local government's ability to maintain them.)

In the 1920s, the cost for a farmer moving a bushel of wheat 10 miles to an elevator was about 8 cents. 

Today it may seem that farmers were being pampered with expensive branch lines if they only had to travel 10 miles into town.

Keep in mind that 10 miles is the 'ideal maximum' distance which is often cited in historical accounts ... See the maps above. Horses at a walk, pulling a loaded wagon, travel at about 4 miles per hour. A 20 mile round trip would ideally take about 5 hours of travel time. 

... This would not include harnessing/unharnessing, resting or feeding the horses ... or waiting in line at the elevator ... or any delays or detours due to road conditions ... or time lost climbing steep grades at a slower rate which called for a brief rest of the horses at the summit.

In 1923 (a year of low prices), 8 cents per bushel for transportation to a local elevator was significant because the market was offering about 65 cents per bushel. Consider all the costs faced by the farmer to produce the wheat, and any debt and debt costs, plus clearing enough money from the crop to feed a family for the year, etc.

In the Interwar years, the Canadian government made the decision to assist farmers, and their efforts to produce wheat for export, in a reasonably economical way. The government supported the building of more railway branch lines through areas where farmers faced long road hauls to get their grain to market.

Eleven CNR branch lines (cited in a Senate debate in 1924) cost $9.5 million ... for 397 miles of line. They would carry about 10 million bushels of wheat and 2755 cars of other freight per year. It was calculated that they would save farmers on the lines $1.3 million per year.

Before changes to federal regulations which allowed the railways to abandon branch lines holus bolus in the 1990s (I believe) only a certain percentage of each system could be abandoned in a given year. Regularly, there was the solemn-faced submission by CNR and CPR officials of the following figures to the regulators ... for the branch lines they wished to abandon that year. 

GROSS REVENUE minus EXPENSES equals NET LOSS ... for the branch line.

... In conjunction with evidence presented to the Duff Commission (for 1923-1930) the CNR showed significant net losses for 10 specific lines. 

... However, the authors point out that the 'branch line freight cars' usually travel over the system OUTSIDE of the isolated branch line ... out where a railway's cost per ton-mile is lower. When one considers the whole freight movement ... which includes the more efficient sections of line (longer trains, heavier traffic per mile of track ... transportation 'in bulk') ... the net loss associated with the traffic originating or terminating on the branch lines is considerably less. 

... So, instead of being a 'disaster', the cost of the lines was more reasonable ... if the point was to encourage farmers to contribute to the nation's economy by growing wheat which was mainly for export. And that's what the government had been trying to do.

*  *  *

The Interwar Lines in 1935

When the last lines of this planned network were eventually completed ... in the middle of the Depression ... ecological problems (droughts, grasshoppers, topsoil loss), crop failures, and the Great Depression, itself, killed any enthusiasm for building more branch lines on the Prairies.

The authors provide these points for readers to consider:

• The lines constituted 30% of the rail network in Alberta and Saskatchewan. 
• The country elevator system reached its peak in the 1930s - about 29% of total grain delivery points were on the Interwar lines. 
• In Saskatchewan and Alberta, 27% of all competitive points (where two or more elevator companies had country elevators) were on Interwar lines. 
• From the 1931 census it was found that about 73% of all farms were within 10 miles of a railway station ... only 2% were more than 25 miles away.

In spite of the criticism levelled at the Interwar lines in the Duff Commission report, the authors point out that no wholesale abandonment of the lines was prescribed by Duff - i.e. to avoid throwing good money after 'bad'. In fact, these lines were subsequently key in the transportation of western grain for decades.

Abandonments for some of these lines were as follows:

1950s ... 115 miles

1960-1963 ... 370 miles

1963-1975 ... 525 miles

... As Prairie branch lines were being abandoned in the 1980s and 1990s, I remember a lot of local concern expressed that the infrastructure cost of transporting grain was being shifted from the abandoned lines to the municipal/provincial public highway system ...  as farmers preferred larger and larger trucks (not horse-drawn wagons) as the most economical short-haul method to the nearest surviving railside elevator.

Addressing some of the conclusions of later historians, the authors note that much of the rhetoric surrounding these lines during the 1930s originated from the general climate of bitter political animosity between the Conservatives and Liberals. The conventional wisdom was that the Prairie branch line system was overbuilt because of the actions of the CNR. In particular, Sir Henry Thornton (by then deceased) had been a cheap and easy target for the Conservatives.

Yet, in the face of this conventional wisdom, the Interwar lines continued to be useful ...

In 1963, using the 10-year average of 465 million bushels: about 25% of grain was still originating on the Interwar lines. 

The authors close with a nice (almost poetic) descriptive passage from a Queen's University economist in 1934 ... and I encourage you to download the PDF to have a look at it. 

*  *  *

End of my summary of

Interwar Rail Construction in Saskatchewan and Alberta: An Evaluation

by Charles W. Bohi, Leslie S. Kozma

PDF here:

Interwar Rail Construction in Saskatchewan and Alberta: An Evaluation

*  *  *

Inspired by that last quotation, today, I purchased a copy of the 2015 biography of economist W.A. Mackintosh (1895-1970). Here is a passage from 1935 in which he describes the realities of farmers in the Canadian 'Wheat Economy' on the Prairies.

"The wheat farmer in western Canada is engaged in a business subject to unusually sharp fluctuations, imposed on it in greater or less degree by pronounced variations in rainfall and the other climatic conditions of wheat growing, and by the necessity of competing in a far distant world market for the sale of a raw material. In these facts of a commercial agriculture in which a high degree of variability is inherent will be found the centre of the economic problems of Western Canada."

*  *  *

from: Canada, A Geographical Interpretation; John Warkentin; 1968; Methuen.

from: Profitable Grain Trading; Ralph M Ainsworth; 1933; (Traders Press).

from: Profitable Grain Trading; Ralph M Ainsworth; 1933; (Traders Press).

from: The Canada Year Book 1934-35; Dominion Bureau of Statistics.

from: Canada Handbook, 1935; Dominion Bureau of Statistics.

Interwar Rail Construction in Saskatchewan and Alberta, Part 1

Once I was on a VIA train to London with my boss as we headed for a hospital site visit. The director of another department happened to be on the same train and came over to sit with us. I commented about a 'stop and inspect' because we had tripped a hotbox detector ... and it turned out that the other director had had a relative in the running trades at Chalk River. 

Furthermore, she had just completed her master's degree and her thesis had examined the question:

Could the American west have been opened up without the invention of the railroad?

She said the answer was: 'Yes, eventually it would have been settled, but it would have taken longer.'

Railway building was/is capital intensive. Railways were the first major users of legal incorporation to facilitate raising that capital - and so they could securitize that investment back to investors. 

While a railway generally required low gradients, once the roadbed was prepared, the railway track structure provided an all-weather route on which one could pull long strings of self-steering wagons.

With the weight of the load distributed longitudinally over steel rails, and laterally over sturdy wooden ties ... railways were ideal for moving high-tonnage trains of bulk commodities in all seasons ... and anything else that would fit through the most narrow bridges, cuts and tunnels of its right of way.

Working to understand Canadian railways and how they have connected with the agricultural, economic, financial, political, social and technological elements of Canadian history can be a life-long pursuit. So much has been written and documented that one's knowledge will never be complete.

*  *  *

I was really pleased when my brother, Eric Gagnon, forwarded a study which Charles Bohi thought might be of interest to me:

Interwar Rail Construction in Saskatchewan and Alberta: An Evaluation

by Charles W. Bohi, Leslie S. Kozma

Presented at the Annual Meeting of the

Prairie Division, Canadian Association of Geographers in 2007

*  *  *

... I will attempt to outline some of the interesting information it presents ...

Indented paragraphs contain my own thoughts in passing.

The images inserted are not from the research paper.
I'll apologize in advance for my failures to relay key points precisely.

*  *  *

About 4600 miles of new railway lines were built in the Prairie Provinces between 1919 and 1935. More than 90% of this mileage was constructed in Saskatchewan and Alberta. 

In 1932 a Royal Commission on Railways and Transportation, referred to as the Duff Commission, was set up, under Chief Justice Lyman Duff (1865-1955). Its conclusion was that the construction of these lines was 'a disastrous mistake'.

Duff was the first Canadian to read the government's Speech from the Throne - March 12, 1931 - as the new Governor General, John Buchan (Lord Tweedsmuir), had not yet arrived. Buchan wrote The Thirty-Nine Steps and is credited with conceiving and promoting the idea of the famous 1939 Royal Tour of Canada. When Buchan died in office of a head injury, Duff again performed as Administrator of the Government until Buchan's replacement was sent over from Britain. Before becoming a lawyer, Duff had earned a double-barreled BA from the University of Toronto - this was in mathematics and (essential when dealing with the politically-tinged task of presiding over Prairie railway branch lines) metaphysics.

This blog post's alternate title could be: The Duff Commission: Math and Metaphysics

Consistent with the Duff Commission's conclusions, many historians studying railway lines of the Interwar period have blamed Henry Thornton and Canadian National Railways for the ruinous overbuilding of Prairie rail infrastructure.

To examine this consensus, the research paper analyzes:

1. Why the Interwar lines were built.
2. Whether the CNR was actually the aggressor.
3. Whether building these branch lines was 'a disastrous mistake'.

Including the lines built by the Northern Alberta Railway, the new lines constituted almost 30% of the Alberta-Saskatchewan rail network.

It was after 1928 that 40% of these Interwar branch lines in Alberta and Saskatchewan were built. 

Here are some key dates relating to this review:

Mackenzie King, Prime Minister of Canada (Liberal) 1921 to 1930.
RB Bennett, Prime Minister of Canada (Conservative) 1930-1935
Duff Commission 1931-1932
Mackenzie King - second term as PM: 1935-1948

Sir Henry Thornton's term as President of the CNR: 1922-1932
Edward Beatty's term as President of the CPR: 1918-1943

*  *  * 

We when all get the time, we can actually read Duff's report ...

Report of the Royal Commission to Inquire into Railways and Transportation in Canada, 1931-2 / Lyman P. Duff, chairman
 (link to PDF for download)

The website above may sometimes be down on weekends.

*  *  *

Duff noted that the Saskatchewan branchlines lines were through thinly populated areas (compared to the US, and Canada as a whole) ... Saskatchewan had 108 people per mile of line constructed.

In general, the Interwar branch lines constituted 41% of the Prairie's rail network but carried only 4.3% of all traffic.

There was 'no doubt as to the disastrous effects of this [branch line] competition'.

In 1932, to a large extent due to the Duff Commission's conclusions, most new construction of lines in western Canada stopped. 

As you know, after Conservative RB Bennett took power, the political knives were out for the Liberal-hired CNR President, Sir Henry Thornton and he was forced to resign - dying of cancer shortly afterwards in 1933 in New York City.

*  *  *

Question 1: Why were the lines built?

Political Pressure

In the west, farmers were increasingly focused on producing wheat for export and this constituted one of Canada's top exports through the 1920s and 1930s. Canadian-produced tariff-protected industrial products, including steel and farm equipment, were seen to benefit eastern Canadian business interests. Free trade with the US - for example to obtain cheaper farm equipment - would have benefitted western farmers ... and a Progressive 'protest' party developed in the 1920s (also running candidates in provincial elections) to promote policy changes. In the Commons, Mackenzie King required the support of these often free-voting Progressives to remain in power.

The restoration of the 1897 Crowsnest Pass Rate and the completion of the Hudson Bay Railway were both policies brought about through the pressures exerted on Mackenzie King's government by the Progressives elected at the federal level.

Economic Concerns

In the years before World War I, the opening of the west and the growing of wheat for export had had a strong effect on Canada's economic growth rate. After the war, as the result of a recession in 1921, wheat prices had dropped from $2.32 per bushel in 1919 ... to $0.76 per bushel in 1921.

33 bushels per short ton ... $0.76 in 1921 = $10.52 in 2018 dollars. 

King thought that continuing to encourage investment in railway and grain handling infrastructure would revive the economy. Farmers would have shorter distances to haul their grain harvest ... and domestic industries, such as steel making and BC's forest industry, would benefit.

Beyond lumber and steel, you can imagine all the diverse business and government activities which would be necessary to support such an economic expansion ... banking, farm equipment, tools, hardware, household goods, construction materials, retail services, religious institutions, schools.

The authors refer to the 'wheat economy' and much of this was driven by high immigration rates from Europe and the US. Many of these newcomers took up farming on the Prairies because of railway and government incentives.

from: Canada's Five Centuries; W Kaye Lamb; 1971; McGraw-Hill.

A representation of Saskatchewan's 'wheat economy' can be seen in the graph below. The 'oats economy' would have been more geared to the domestic economy ... as this was a key 'fuel' for the horses used in transportation and also for those working as draft animals on farms.

from: Saskatchewan - Its Development and Opportunities; 1919; Government of Canada.

Urban Rivalries

The 'wheat economy' resulted in increased economic activity to provide all the diverse goods and services it required.

With such a demand for goods, there was competition amongst settlements to develop into distribution centres. The ideal outcome was to become a railway junction point - perhaps connected with both railway systems. The classic example of a distribution centre is Winnipeg.

From population centres to settlements farther and farther afield, salespeople fanned out (initially by rail) to contact the retailers and citizens who needed their products.  Freight buildings and warehouses are most efficient when located centrally and when goods can flow out along roads or rail lines to customers in the hinterlands beyond.

The authors cite Camrose, North Battleford, Prince Albert, Estevan and Weyburn as towns aspiring to benefit from new branch lines which might have increased their importance as wholesale distribution points serving larger and larger hinterlands.

One western geography I have been reading suggests that the cities which have grown significantly in the Prairie region were those around its edges: Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg. It was suggested that vast distances and the traditionally light distribution of population engaged in agricultural activity along the railways had produced this pattern  - which has largely remained unchanged.

from: Canadian National's Western Depots; Charles Bohi; 1977; Railfare.

A Canadian Northern Railway train circa 1905.

... continuing to examine why the branch lines were built ...

Vast Areas Not Served

One of the examples the authors cite was the Canadian Northern - which had few branches north of its mainline ... in the area west of North Battleford. Consequently, grain growers north of the North Saskatchewan River had long distances to haul their grain and a river to cross before they reached a country elevator.

Another example related to the CPR - which had nothing south of its existing line between Weyburn and Assiniboia. (This area provided the setting for one of our most interesting vacation trips - when we looked at parts of the Fife Lake and Bromhead Subdivisions ... which had been built into this unserved area.)

We are reminded that after World War I farmers were using horse-drawn wagons or sleds to haul their grain. The 1931 Canadian census noted that 97% of the farms were on improved or unimproved dirt roads. The condition of Saskatchewan's rural roads deteriorated during the Depression. These roads were not maintained in the winter until the mid-1950s.

As suggested above, natural features like watercourses (which often had to be forded), ranges of hills, and valleys were major obstacles for farmers moving their grain.

In the 1920s, citizen-owned cars and trucks began to cut into the passenger revenues of the branch lines' often thrice-weekly mixed train schedules. However, there were only 18,257 trucks in service by 1931, while there were 225,000 farms in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Grain was still moved largely by horse ... even if people often chose the convenience of autos over rail for travel between settlements.

With the reintroduced Crow Rate, farmers had a strong incentive to lobby for country elevators to be as near to their farms as possible.

Consider the 'human experience' of farmers in the 1920s ... You can imagine a team of horses working to pull a heavy steel-wheeled wagon (or sled in winter) of grain over all the obstacles described. The load would have been calculated to just make it to the top of the steepest hill, or through the most difficult ford, based on the environmental conditions of that day.  

From all over the catchment area of a country elevator, each farm would be dispatching these small, slow, inefficient movements of grain over and over with an empty backhaul on the return trip.

... Contrast that system with the efficiency of hauling that same quantity of grain over a newly-constructed branch line: Bridges crossed the watercourses; Cuts and fills carried the grain through the hills and over the valleys; Farmers, their family members, and their hired hands spent less time behind horses on dirt roads.

from: Western Canada, Canadian Pacific Railway; prob 1909; CPR 

*  *  *

Question 2: Was the CNR the Aggressor?

The CNR built into 3570 square miles of CPR territory.

The CPR built into 4500 square miles of CNR territory.

Coal is one type of non-agricultural traffic which both railways were often keen to compete for.

... In addition to being used as fuel for steam locomotives, and for industrial and domestic heating and steam production, coal was also used for the production of town gas and coke. In rural areas of the Prairies, where firewood was not available or economical to use, coal was used for domestic heating. The authors note that many small Prairie centres had coal dealerships.

Probably the most coveted and most lucrative freight was LCL - Less Than Carload. (During my father's work in the CPR Department of Freight Receipts at Windsor Station in Montreal they said 'Less Carload' ... maybe CPR docked employees for lost time if they added 'Than'.) Typically, LCL would be a boxcar containing freight from more than one shipper ... destined for a number of consignees at a given population centre. Freight buildings were built at these centres to receive, document, store and distribute the foodstuffs, hardware, household goods etc  received. Often bulk commodities would be received at an industry spur or railway team track (again, we refer to horses).

Express traffic and federal mail contracts also bolstered railway profits and took some of the sting out of hauling the area's agricultural commodities.

The authors provide abundant local geographical evidence regarding particular routes built by both railways to particular centres - which is beyond my ability to explain adequately. 

The authors write that Henry Thornton was often 'reasonable' about the location of new CNR lines and granting trackage rights to the CPR.

In contrast, the CPR often aggressively defended its territory and its own population centres with counter-construction - to block the CNR and/or to spoil the profitability of the unserved territory into which the CNR might build. The CNR tried to build lines reaching CPR centres such as Swift Current, Red Deer and Medicine Hat but was effectively rebuffed.

Below, I attempt to illustrate only a few simple examples which are cited in the research paper.

The authors are very thorough and exact in their documentation of the actual

context and progression of events - which I am not attempting to reproduce here.

(Regular readers of this blog long ago gave up any expectation of seeing academic rigour!)

The maps are taken from: Railroad Map of Western Canada; no date - 1950s?; Canadian Freight Association.

We can only infer that track or stations represented in black are joint operations between CNR and CPR.

 CNR built a line toward Swift Current.

CPR countered by building to Stewart Valley ...
with the implication of building a bridge and line to reach Matador - which was never built.

*  *  *

CNR would have built to Medicine Hat, but CPR would not grant trackage rights within the city.

CPR maintained its monopoly in southern Alberta including the Lethbridge area's coal traffic.

*  *  *

CNR granted trackage rights into Prince Albert and North Battleford.

CPR built freight stations in North Battleford, Humboldt and Prince Albert, 

but shared passenger facilities with CNR at these locations.

North Battleford is a junction northwest of Saskatoon.

Humboldt is a junction roughly east of Saskatoon.

*  *  *

The CPR built more than 700 miles of track north of the CNR's Yorkton SK-Saskatoon-Wetaskiwin AB line.

To see that area on the map above, follow the blue CNR line from the southeast corner of the map 

to 'Artland' in the orange Saskatchewan-Alberta border area.

*  *  *

The authors list the following centres as being invaded by the CPR after World War I:

Saskatchewan: Humboldt, Lloydminster, Melfort, North Battleford, Prince Albert, Tisdale.

Alberta: Vegreville

1931 data for the seven centres

Total population: 23,843

Retail trade: $26,903,500

*  *  *

from: Imperial Royal Canadian World Atlas; ed: Fred James; 1935; Geographical Publishing, Chicago.

*  *  *

The Drumheller coal region includes that area of black 'joint stations' to the northeast of Calgary. 

Before the CNR, the Canadian Northern in 1918 had double-tracked Munson to Wayne 

to handle the heavy coal traffic (up to 30 trains per day).

CPR received permission from BRC to build into these coalfields in 1919.

CNR eventually allowed trackage rights and built a joint line south from Rosedale to East Coulee.

The authors cite this as 'the most serious CPR incursion into CNR territory in Alberta'.

*  *  *

Question 2: Was the CNR the Aggressor?

"Given the CPR's aggressiveness and the CNR's willingness to cooperate with it by granting trackage rights into major trade centres, the charge that the CNR was the aggressor in the Interwar construction of branch lines is not supported by the evidence."

*  *  *

Thanks to Charles Bohi for sending me these Big Beaver photos.

Additional Charles Bohi photos of Big Beaver track and elevators, 

and Coronach and Rockglen stations,

can been seen in these posts:

South of Moose Jaw to Congress, Assiniboia and Rockglen, 1989

Fife Lake, Coronach, Big Beaver to Lake Alma, Saskatchewan in 1989

Big Beaver, SK#11, Paterson Elevator, Look NE, July 1984, Bohi Photo

Big Beaver, SK, End of Track Fife Lake Sub. Supposed to be connected to Bromhead Sub at Minton, Look SW, July 1984, Bohi Photo

Question 3: Was building these lines a disastrous mistake?

... in the next post ...

Fife Lake, Coronach, Big Beaver to Lake Alma, Saskatchewan in 1989

Our one-day run along the southern border of Saskatchewan continues.
Having left Rockglen in the west, we'll travel beyond the former end of the CPR Fife Lake Subdivision at Big Beaver.
We'll cross some 'badlands' (i.e. an area with no railways) and connect with the west end of the  CPR Bromhead Sub.

*  *  *

Here are sections of the April 1950 CPR employee timetable.

*  *  *

Recap:
At around 07hr on September 12, 1989 we scraped the frost off the car
and began our run from Regina to Moose Jaw before turning south.
Shortly after reaching Assiniboia, we turned east.

The account resumes just before noon ...

(As always, you may need to scroll to the right for larger images.)

It's 1130hr and we make a quick stop to take this distant photo of Fife Lake.

At Coronach (above and below) there was no way to quickly get the sun behind the camera.

In 1989, a nearby surface mine provided coal to the Saskatchewan Power plant just south of Coronach.
Back then, the industrial short line rail-haul was done by two SW1001 locomotives (data: Canadian Trackside Guide).

*  *  *

Update: September 07, 2018

I appreciate Charles Bohi sending me this photo of the Coronach station.

Coronach, SK#1, CP Type 16 Depot, Look SE, June 1970, Bohi Photo

End of September 07, 2018 update

*  *  *

Using internet resources in 2018 ...
(which may or may not be current to 2018)

2018 screenprint from Westmoreland Coal website

Above, is the current description of a new mine, farther to the north.

The outlines of the new mine can be seen at the top right corner of the Google image above.
One or both of the water-filled shapes to the east of Coronach (foreground) may be the previous mine(s) in my 1989 photo.
You can see the mine-to-power-station private railway following the contours of the East Poplar River.
In 2018, an SD40-2 and an SD32-ECO are operated by Westmoreland Coal (data: Canadian Trackside Guide).

The image below overlaps the town area of the image above.

To the left of the blue '18' road marker beside the power station reservoir ...
is the junction switch between the former CPR Fife Lake Sub and the Westmoreland Coal railway.
... Obviously, it is handy to maintain a rail connection for their equipment.

When the Fife Lake Sub still ran east of here, I think it crossed the reservoir via the current road causeway
... you can see the abandoned right of way running south on the eastern side of the reservoir.

As you'll see, this area does not receive a lot of rain.
The power plant probably needs the reservoir to ensure there is adequate water
for steam turbines, cooling and for processing and settling coal ash.

While coal unit trains often run considerable distances to supply power stations,
an elegant engineering solution is to build the power plant at the mine
and transport the electricity ... rather than the coal.

Germany has some enormous lignite mines with power plants situated beside them.

*  *  *

Coal in the Prairies?

Atlas of Canada; 1915, Government of Canada.

Back in 1915, this is how the coal resources had been mapped for the area.
If you find the Poplar River on the map ... the future town of Coronach (and the railway line)
were probably located on the eastern fork of that river.
Fun geographical fact: Water from the Poplar River eventually flows into the Gulf of Mexico.

*  *  *

Calling on this reference from 1919 again ...

The article mentions lignite, which could be processed to produce gas ... 

Back when coal was still in wide use for domestic heating and industrial steam generation ... lower grades of coal were processed to yield coal gas. The gas generation would be done locally by a city utility and piped into homes for use as a cooking fuel (before natural gas and long distance gas pipelines). The gas-generating residue might be oxidized to form almost pure carbon (coke) which could be made into briquets. Cleaner-burning coke was often used in caboose stoves, for example.

Canadian railways generally used higher grade bituminous coal in their locomotives.

*  *  *

At 1220hr we were rattling along Highway 18 between Coronach and Big Beaver.
... starting to get hungry.

Dude, is there somewhere around here where I can get a good latte and maybe a biscotti?

*  *  *

Big Beaver

Big Beaver turned out to be an example of a typical town of the Canadian Prairies in miniature.
As you saw above, it had once been the eastern terminal of the Fife Lake Subdivision.
With the minimal research done before this trip, it was a surprise to find that the track was gone.

Above, my camera looks from Railway Avenue to false-fronted buildings on extra-wide Centre Street.

Standing on the old railway roadbed at the east end of town, you can see an enduring railway artifact - the stock pens.
The chute up to stock car floor level for railway loading is visible.
The stock pens endure on circa 2018 Google images of Big Beaver below.
Beyond are the white buildings of Centre Street.

As I write this, I don't know if Big Beaver ever had a grain elevator.

*  *  *

Big Beaver in 2018 Google Images
(which may not be current to 2018)

In the oblique view of the east end of town, above,
you can see the unnamed north-south road from which I photographed the roadbed.
To the east, the track ended near that cut and pond.
In the left foreground are the remains of the stock pens.

Now looking at the west end of town, you can see the wye.
Considering the subdivision footnotes about equipment on the wye,
there must have been a risk of shoving derailments because of curvature and grade.

Below, just west of Big Beaver, is an interesting and typical bit of civil engineering on a prairie branch line ...

With Big Beaver in the extreme top right corner of the image,
you can see the track west of town follows the local drainage pattern.
Taking a circuitous but elegant route to reach a small town,
the line meanders back and forth.

Rotated slightly clockwise, and viewed from directly overhead, you can see the engineered curves
 of the former railway line following the rough, meandering creek bed.
Damage to the unmaintained roadbed suggests that the creek and its tributaries are not always dry.

*  *  *

Update After Posting
August 28, 2018

Through my brother, Eric Gagnon, I received these two photos from Mr. Charles Bohi today ...

"In coverage of the Fife Lake Sub someone (I think it was you) wondered if there were elevators at Big Beaver.  Shots are attached.  Hope they are of use to you.  It is amazing how much difference being in the area in 1980 could make.  Distant shot of Big Beaver looks NW.  Closer in shot looks east."

Big Beaver, SK#3, Elevator Row from Distance, Look NW, April 1981, Bohi Photo.

Big Beaver, SK#6, SWP Elevator #879 and Federal Elevator, Look NE, July 1984, Bohi Photo.

Below, is the Big Beaver townsite seen in Google Earth circa 2018.
The road at the right runs north.

The stock pens (painted white/whitewashed) are seen in Mr Bohi's top photo - immediately east of the Paterson elevator.

These two elevator photos gave me a reason to examine the local geography a little more ...

Is the 'rule of thumb' operating in the Big Beaver example? ... That branch lines and elevators were built so that most farmers would not have to haul their grain more than 10 miles? 

Above, I marked the three last 1950-era stations on the Fife Lake Sub. - with Big Beaver being the end of the line.

Minton is the terminal of the next branch line to the east - the Bromhead Sub. The red lines are 10 miles in length - forming those 10 mile radius circles for the farmers. However, farmers didn't haul grain 'as the crow flies'.

I did not include Google's highways on this map. The yellow line is the US border. For scale, the smallest uniform square of land you see is 1/2 mile wide ... or as they'd say on the Prairies 'a quarter section'.

For a town we visited for perhaps 10 minutes, Big Beaver has always interested me and I appreciate Mr. Bohi's help in solving its mysteries.

End of the August 28, 2018 update.

*  *  *

September 7, 2018 update.

I appreciate these additional photos from Charles Bohi.

Big Beaver, SK#11, Paterson Elevator, Look NE, July 1984, Bohi Photo

Big Beaver, SK, End of Track Fife Lake Sub. Supposed to be connected to Bromhead Sub at Minton, Look SW, July 1984, Bohi Photo

On the timetables, Big Beaver was at the end of the Fife Lake Subdivision - this view is east of the town (i.e. the end of the line).
This view suggesting that the CPR had been planning to continue this line through to the Bromhead Sub is particularly interesting!

Fife Lake Sub construction data furnished by Mr Bohi:

1927: 59.5 miles completed.
1929: 20.2 miles completed.


End of September 7, 2018 update.


*  *  *

The Big Muddy Badlands, the Short Grass Prairie
and other neat stuff.

At 13hr, another surprise - and it's not a Starbucks.
This unusual landscape is part of the 'Big Muddy Badlands'.
Looking closely at my original scan, that seems to be a perfectly good new swather for cutting hay in the field.

As you know, much of the arable area of the Prairies was under a glacial sea at some point. As the glaciers receded, the underlying land was altered by sedimentation and changing drainage patterns ... Massive amounts of water were standing over the land and littering it with dead 'sea animals', and living and dead aquatic plants. Then, the receding glacial sheet allowed water to whoosh around and erode the land as it revealed new drainage routes for the water. On the Prairies, not all land was created equal ...

Another significant geographical feature of this area is the amount of precipitation received. Looking at the level of growth this late in the season (September) I'd say this is 'short grass prairie'. In an average year, virtually all rain is received in the spring, the grasses and other plants grow as best they can ... When the hot dry summer comes ... they go to sleep ... They reproduce when it works best for them ... and that's pretty much it for their life cycle ...

The local plants have never aspired to the Greatness of Wheat - with robust growth and a super-abundance of large seeds for export across some ocean to feed The Empire. They're content right here.

... Combine lots of sea life calcium exoskeleton residue together with very little rain ... and you probably get something like this ... a soil that is more alkaline (i.e. with a higher pH). If the groundwater is near the surface, you'll have all sorts of 'bad' alkaline water coming up by capillary action through the soil. There are ways to reclaim the soil so you can farm here ... but maybe you'd prefer some land along the Canadian Northern Railway?

When you see photos of steam locomotives with white 'bad water' stains on them, it is probably from filling their tenders with alkali water from tanks at places like Big Beaver. However, I've never filled a locomotive tender at Big Beaver myself, so that shouldn't stop you.

Now running north on Highway 6 at 13hr, we see an alkali lake near Minton.
This is probably West Coteau Lake.

With the previous description of glacial sea beds and coal, you may not be surprised by this sight.
Because we had just planned to survey the rail lines near the border, we weren't expecting this.
Long before the 'fracking revolution' here are oil wells north of Highway 18 near Gladmar.

Atlas of Canada; 1981; Reader's Digest.

At 1330hr, we've arrived at Lake Alma on the CPR Bromhead Sub.
The rail was Algoma 85lb from 1920.
We are looking timetable east.


In the next segment, we'll be travelling through Estevan on our way back to Portage.
Hopefully we'll stop for lunch, too.