I took a drive on February 7, 2015 in Wheatland County, Alberta to find Taylor Siding. I have not been able to find any information on it other than some pictures on a forum. Taylor Siding is on Highway 841 south of Highway 9 just where it crosses the rail line. The rail line in the map below does not exist. At one time there was a railroad, the tracks have been torn up, the rail bed and the bridges remain. If you look up this area on Google Earth and trace the rail line in the area there must be about twenty abandoned rail bridges.
I tried to take a few pictures and my camcorder protested with an onscreen message that it was too cold. I had to use the cell phone instead. There are a couple of long abandoned buildings, remains of old cars, and the railway. The wires on the poles are not connected but what caught my eye was the glass insulators on the poles. My father had a small collection of these when I was a kid that he scavenged horseback riding in northern British Columbia.
Someone had recently drove through and down the rail line and across the bridge. Whoever did it should have been able to drive for miles. The rail bed is nice and wide and I know from some research that all the bridges should be intact. The railway would have serviced the coalmines that once existed as well as the usual rail traffic.
What a great trip! (I have a few glass insulators, too)
ReplyDeleteI am kind of irritated by the photos. My winter photos taken with my iphone come out with a bit of yellow. I did a little bit of colour correction on these. My other camera has better definition and no colour issues but I could not get it to cooperate in the cold. It was not that cold.
ReplyDelete