Riding the Rails

Iron Horse Park takes you for a ride back in time

hoW do You tAke A triP FroM cAlGArY to Vancouver without leaving Airdrie? You hop on the train at Iron Horse Park. With five bridges and two tunnels, the 1.6-kilometre layout has prairies and mountains to transport you back to Alberta’s golden age of train travel.

Ten years ago, a group of model railroad enthusiasts started the 12-acre park as a way to enjoy their hobby and share it with the public. As members of the Alberta Model Engineering Society (AMES), the volunteers who maintain and operate Iron Horse Park are dedicated to ensuring a great family experience, which is why it is a popular destination from the long weekend in May through the Thanksgiving weekend in October.

In 2009, Iron Horse Park celebrated Airdrie’s first century with the completion of the Centennial Bridge, a 62-foot wooden trestle bridge. After six long years of planning and with the tireless efforts of volunteers, the bridge was completed in less than two months.

Projects are constantly on the go at the park, including the construction of new engines and scaled-down prairie grain elevators and buildings. Unlike last year, though, most of the projects will be smaller, although important to continue improving the Iron Horse Park facility.

For Mike Gibbons, the work is challenging but he loves it.

“It’s a means to do what we wanted to do,” says the Airdrie resident, a long-time member of AMES. According to Gibbons, there are either a lot of smaller layouts in backyards or the public is involved and something more significant is created.

“I like sharing our hobby,” he says. It’s especially gratifying with all the children who come out. Their wide-eyed wonder when they see all the trains and go for a ride gives Gibbons a lot of pleasure.

A round-trip along the small-gauge railway takes about 20 minutes. Realistic, albeit smaller, versions of Big Red, a bright red Canadian Pacific diesel engine, and a brightly painted blue-and-yellow VIA locomotive power railfans around the track in open passenger cars. The engines can pull five-passenger cars carrying between 25 and 35 people at a time. Each train has an engineer at the front and a conductor at the back.

In addition to the bridge, another 1,800 feet of rail was added to the mountain subdivision, raising the track 20 feet from the start of the line to where it goes under the Centennial Bridge.

“CP Rail has the spiral tunnels and we have the spiral mountain,” laughs Alan Pile, current president of AMES. The track circles the mountain twice and can be bypassed if poor weather doesn’t allow for the trip up. During the summer, this isn’t normally a problem. However, a fan-favourite outing at Iron Horse Park is the Family Day Frostbite Run in February. Inclement weather can halt the train in its tracks.

“If it’s -40 C with a howling wind, it’s a no,” says Pile. This year, though, the members were able to dig out the entire track except for the mountain to hold another successful winter event.

In April, Iron Horse Park was a popular exhibit at Supertrain, one of the largest model railroad shows in Canada. With an engine, some passenger cars and 230 feet of steel track, rides offered to visitors were heartily enjoyed.

To add to the realism of Iron Horse Park, a new signalling system will be installed this year. This system will use lights to let the engineer know when it is safe to proceed when numerous trains are on the track at the same time.

“We could do more if we had more manpower,” says Gibbons, adding that he is nonetheless happy with how the park has progressed. Gardeners, carpenters, engineers or anyone who wants to help Iron Horse Park continue to thrive in Airdrie are always welcome to come and volunteer. Memberships are also available.

The park is open on Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. with the exception of special events. The park is also open on Canada Day, regardless of the day of the week, and birthday parties are popular at the facility. The first president of Iron Horse Park, Al Park, celebrated his 95th birthday there, so it’s not just for the young railroad fan. Normally held on Sundays in conjunction with regular hours, parties can be held on Saturdays or holiday Mondays as well. life

FoR MoRE INFoRMATIoN about iron Horse Park or to volunteer, please contact Alan Pile at apile@shaw.ca or visit www.ironhorsepark.net despite challenges from weather and markets, the Hanson family continues to do what it loves the most – ranching.

Not that it’s always been easy. The family’s Bell L brand has been around for a century, and the Hansons have learned to move with the times.

“The family farm is key to 95 per cent of Canada, because 95 per cent of Canada is rural, and agriculture feeds Canada,” says family patriarch Ron Hanson.“It’s partly a way of life, but it’s bigger than just that. I’ve been telling people that [it’s] a bigger security risk for us than terrorists in Canada, if we can’t supply our own food.”

Ron’s fear is he foresees a future when the family farm is consigned to the history books and corporations rule the breadbasket, “if we don’t change how we market agriculture.”

Son Wayne, who sits on a federal think-tank that’s been discussing the issue for a year, says it’s not just a Canadian problem. “They’re going broke in South America, Europe, everywhere. It’s something that got offside 50 years ago when food was determined to be cheap,” Wayne says.