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The Influence of the Railways on the Waskasoo Area
When the Canadian Pacific Railway arrived in
Calgary in 1883, the Calgary and Edmonton Trail gained major
significance as the north-south route from Calgary to Edmonton
and it wasn't long before the value of a railway joining
Alberta's two major population centers became obvious.
 In 1890, the first half of the
Calgary and Edmonton Railway was built. It was leased and
later sold to the Canadian Pacific Railway. The route followed
the general
C & E Trail corridor but the railway decided on its own
route to reduce the grade of the railway or to accommodate
preferred locations for communities.
Around Springbook, the
railway was build a couple of miles east of the C & E Trail
toward a crossing of the Red Deer River 7 km east of the
settlement at Red Deer Crossing, where Fort Normandeau now
stands. Rev. Leonard Gaetz, who owned a considerable amount of
land where central Red Deer now stands, gave the new railway a
good chunk of that land to build the railway there, much to the
chagrin of the settlers at the Crossing. During that winter, a
bridge was built crossing the Red Deer River and the line
continued to Edmonton the following year. That bridge is now
part of the Waskasoo Park
trail system.
Passenger service started in 1891 and continued until 1985. The
Red Deer downtown yards were relocated to the northwest of the
city in 1989.
Red Deer became a booming community in the early part of the
twentieth century. In 1901, the
Alberta Central Railway was chartered with Red Deer as its
headquarters. It was to have run southeast to Pine Lake, then
northeast to Coal Banks, near Nevis, and then to connect with
the main CP line somewhere farther east. To the west, it was to
go to the Brazeau coal fields near Nordegg and there were dreams
of it extending through Howse Pass to the west coast.
 In 1910,
Sir Wilfred Laurier came to Red Deer to drive the 'first spike'
but construction didn't start until 1911. The station was
located near the present Mountview Fire Hall, went west across
Kin Canyon on a wooden trestle and crossed the Canadian Pacific
and Waskasoo Creek, where today a lonely bridge support stands
along Taylor Drive near what was called Forth junction. It
headed west through what is now Westpark, then southwest
crossing the Red Deer River just north-east of Springbrook where
a steel trestle, one of the longest in Alberta, was built at
Mintlaw.
Unfortunately, the company went bankrupt and was leased
to the Canadian Pacific Railway which built the line through
Sylvan Lake and as far as Rocky Mountain House by 1914, but no
further. A competing line, the Canadian Northern Railway,
reached Rocky first but there were apparently fights that
occurred between the construction crews along the way. The
eastward right of way was levelled to north of Pine Lake but
tracks were never laid.
As the City of Red Deer expanded
westward, the junction was moved a few miles south to Tuttle
siding and junction, north of McKenzie Road. The line was
abandoned and the rails were torn up in 1983. Much of the right
of way is still intact.
Today, the Canadian Pacific line that runs past Springbrook is
the primary north-south freight rail corridor in Alberta.
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