What are these old train tracks doing here?

Ajouté : 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]I've been trying to track down why these were here.

[00:00:03]It's no [music] secret Calgary has trains. There used to be track running a block north and one block south a city run streetcar. But the surprise about these mystery tracks in Inglewood, they face this way, north-south, while those other tracks ran east-west. So, what's going on here? There were a few theories in social media comment sections, but you can only get so far with online speculation. So, I hit up the city for information and got on the phone with a hobby historian. Allan Zakrison got a good look at the rail down to its mill marks. The imprint says ISCO GARY.

[00:00:45]And the weight of the track, he says, was 60 lb. Maybe that's a clue. He also sent some newspaper clippings and screen captures of old maps. More on those later. Meanwhile, a response from the city with a couple theories. It was a spur line or a small loop from the red line, the original 1909 east-west track first built to run from Hillhurst all the way to the Cushing Brothers factory on 15th Street Southeast. Or it could be part of the CP Rail commuter train route that went down to Ogden [music] from the main station, kind of where the Calgary Tower is. No one answer here, but breadcrumbs leading to the library. The local history section had a few helpful books. This one lays out how much the route changed from the time the initial bylaw to build it passed in 1907.

[00:01:32]Construction delays and protests against a train track in Southwest Calgary became an opportunity in Southeast Calgary. Instead of one track, officials decided on twinning the red line on 9th Ave Southeast. Why? Calgarians were flocking to St. George's Island.

[00:01:50]Pictures show the train never crossed onto the island, but some maps suggest it might have dropped picnic goers off a lot closer than the corner of 9th Ave and 12th Street Southeast. Not to a dead end, not to a loop.

[00:02:05]>> That's called a Y, W Y E, and it it's like for a uh a streetcar or a train to make a three-point turn and reverse itself.

[00:02:16]>> Don Thomas worked at CP Rail for decades. I found him at Canada's largest model train show.

[00:02:23]One look at the rail and he thinks it's too bent for an ordinary railway. So, the city's theory about commuter rail to Ogden doesn't jive.

[00:02:32]>> I'm not familiar with the way that Calgary streetcars operated. It was before I was born.

[00:02:38]>> Me too.

[00:02:39]Operations-wise, he thinks this busy intersection would be a great spot to cut streetcars short.

[00:02:45]>> But if there was a special event or if it was rush hour, then then they would have a short-turn car.

[00:02:52]Which would have to find either a loop or a Y to get back to the beginning.

[00:02:59]>> That would keep [music] the line more efficient, stopping an empty car from going all the way to the Cushing factory when Calgarians were really just trying to get to this park for a picnic. Why a Y and not a loop? He says the loop wouldn't fit on the street, it's too big. Does that put the mystery of these streetcar tracks to rest? The city's original electric streetcar engineers might be the only ones [music] to know for sure, and they're not around anymore, and neither are the tracks.

[00:03:26]The rails were dug up and are now in storage, waiting for the city to figure out what to do with them.