Edmonton, Dunvegan and British Columbia Railway
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This was a promotional railway floated in the 1910s as the Athabaska Railway in the heady days of Canadian Railway expansion. On paper it was to strike out from Edmonton northwestward to the Peace River country, over Pine Pass and eventually reach Prince George. There were also amorphous dreams of reaching the Yukon too. Together with the Pacific Great Eastern Railway, the E, D, and B.C. had dreams of becoming a much larger system, possibly through partnership. Chided as the Exceedingly Dangerous and Badly Constructed Railroad, it took a few years to fomulate.
The company was rechartered in 1911 under the ownership of J.D. McArthur as the Edmonton, Dunvegan and British Columbia Railway (ED&BC). Construction of the ED&BC started in 1912 heading toward Westlock, AB, reaching High Prairie in 1914, and Spirit River in 1915. Deciding not to proceed to Dunvegan, a branch was built south from Rycroft, AB to Grande Prairie, AB in 1916 (400 miles northwest from Edmonton). In 1924 the line was extended to Wembley, AB and it reached Hythe, AB in 1928. In 1930 the line was extended westward across the provincial boundary to its western terminus at Dawson Creek, BC. Costs, financial depression, overbuilding by many companies in the west and the First World War all curtailed railway development. In the end, the E.D and B.C. became part of the Northern Alberta Railways System.
Trivia:
Scientific wunderkind Karl Clark, of the University of Alberta, ran out of room in the university basements, and human muscle to move the raw oilsand material he was researching at the University of Alberta, and thus he moved his washing machine , steam plant and\ other apparatus, to the E.D. and BC Railway work yards. He continued to perfect his oil separation process with became the basis for the Alberta Oilsands and Syncrude's vast operation in Fort McMurray.
Sources
- Bruce Ramsey. PGE--Railway to the North. Mitchell Vancouver, 1962.
- http://railways-atlas.tapor.ualberta.ca/cocoon/atlas/Chapters-11-5/
