My Birthday Train Ride - Wild West

In an effort to do something different for my birthday this year, a friend and I headed out to the Old West to experience an authentic historical train ride. Well, basically authentic.

So we packed and headed to Stettler, Alberta. This was our hotel room:
Once we got checked in we hit the town.


Our goal? First, we were looking for this local man to party with:



No luck. Plan B: Spend the evening chronicling the dives of Stettler. We hit pay-dirt. The pics were too dark to bother posting here, but trust me when I tell you... they were not the kind of places you would 1. bring your mother to, or 2. want to drink out of the glasses, or 3. do more than a cursory tour and escape out the nearest exit. Goal = success. We headed back to the hotel room for some sleep in preparation for our early boarding call.

Here is our passenger car:


All aboard!!



We found our seats and settled in to enjoy the show. Gabriel Dumont was on board, welcoming the passengers, acting as our guide back in time and armed and ready for bandits. Gabriel Dumont (pictured below) was a famous historical figure of the Wild West. Through the loud speaker installed in every car of the train he narrarated our journey back in time and offered interesting facts about the railway branch we travelled as well as the engineering feat of the invention of rail travel.



The train departed the station and we began our trip to Big Valley at a speed of 12-14 miles an hour. At that speed, we were able to easily make our way from car to car, and quickly discovered the bar service coach:



Where we enjoyed some morning drinking, live musical entertainment, and stunning views through the windows as we traveled through the prairies.



Dumont had warned us that bandits were particularily active on this branch of the rail. The sounds of horsehooves were soon upon us, and the train came to a stop.

We were boarded, robbed and as all the passengers hung out the windows watching the gang preparing to escape, Dumont started firing and a shoot out ensued.


Dumont's reputation was well earned. The smell of gunpowder filled the air and within minutes... dead train robbers. Although one of the train robbers must have escaped because our money was never recovered! We were informed that all the money stolen was to be donated to the Edmonton Children's Hospital - totally $368.27 in gold coins.

All I can say is after that excitement, I needed another drink. And thank goodness the liquor was safe!!



So drink in hand we wandered the train until we reached the open air car. Autumn colours were everywhere.


Prairies:


Farmers feed cities!

I took tons of pictures of the scenery we passed by as well as of the train when we pulled into the station.



This is the steam engine that was used for our train ride.
I had a great time. Until now, I do not think I have ever been on a real train. I would definitely do something like this again!