The Calgary and Edmonton Railway (C&E) was an early pioneer railway in what was then the Northwest Territories , now Alberta , Canada. It connected the towns of Calgary and Strathcona (also called South Edmonton). Construction started in April 1890 and it opened August 1891. The line was the first major transportation connection for the isolated Edmonton settlement, and the development of the line was responsible for the creation of many railway towns along the line such as Red Deer and Wetaskiwin . It supplanted the Calgary and Edmonton Trail as the busiest transportation route along the Calgary–Edmonton Corridor .
6-543: South Edmonton station , known as Strathcona station prior to 1932, was built by the Calgary and Edmonton Railway in what was then the City of Strathcona, Alberta . Construction on the station was started in 1907, completed in 1908, and expanded in 1910. The building was initially the northern terminus of the Calgary and Edmonton Railway serving Strathcona and Edmonton, although Canadian Pacific later expanded that line north across
12-524: The North Saskatchewan River via the High Level Bridge into Edmonton proper. The building was designated a Canadian Heritage Railway Station in 1991, when it was still owned by CP and therefore subject to federal regulation. After being sold by CP it was designated a Municipal Historic Resource in 2003, and a Provincial Historic Resource in 2004. From 1998 to 2010 the building was home to
18-529: The 1908 station. Calgary and Edmonton Railway Initially, the northern terminus of the line was the old wooden Strathcona train station, a replica of which the Calgary and Edmonton Railway Station Museum operates, until the Edmonton, Yukon and Pacific Railway company was created to run a shortline across the North Saskatchewan River in 1902. In 1907 the new Strathcona Canadian Pacific Railway station became
24-546: The Iron Horse Night Club, one of Edmonton's largest nightclubs , with two levels, eights bars, four rooms, a dance floor, and a stage; it hosted over 1,000 people on an average night. The 1908 station was the second in Strathcona. The original 1891 station was demolished after this bigger station opened; however, a replica houses the Calgary & Edmonton Railway Station Museum at 10447 86 Avenue NW, four blocks north of
30-401: The depot for Strathcona. From 1998 to 2010 the former station housed the Iron Horse Night Club. The line's primary raison d'être was to move in settlers from the east coast to Edmonton where they would congregate at immigration halls and land titles offices before setting out into the rural areas to start homesteads . Some limited export of grain happened from farms near the line, but
36-552: The real grain boom in the area required the construction of many more branch lines lined with grain elevators . The line was later acquired by the Canadian Pacific Railway , and Strathcona merged with Edmonton in 1912. The line itself still exists, and although train passenger service was discontinued in 1985, the Edmonton Radial Railway Society operates vintage street cars from Old Strathcona across
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