Sharples, Alberta revisited

Per "Place Names of Alberta Volume II Southern Alberta".

The entry reads:

"Sharples was located on a Canadian Pacific Railway branch line from Acme to Drumheller. This siding was named after John Sharples, a railway foreman in Saskatoon, who won the Distinguished Conduct Medal in World War I. There were never any formal businesses located in Sharples, and it was merely used as a grain delivery point."

There are the remains of a grain elevator and some abandoned buildings. In the foreground of one of the photos you can see the concrete pillars where there was once a railway bridge. The remains of the rail line is getting overgrown and eroded in some places. I took some slight "liberties" with the the photos. Off to one side is a small gas plant and a little further down the road is a farm, neither of which I included in the pictures. This is one of those abandoned places which is just a few miles off of the highway. 

I made an attempt to get here earlier this year. On March 1, 2015 the weather is just below freezing and clear which made it a good time to visit. The spring melt and rain can turn the back roads into mush. Frozen ground makes for great traction.

Note old rail line and concrete pillars from where a bridge once stood leading up to the grain elevator

Long abandoned grain elevator

Abandoned building