The G.T.P. Industrial Branch Have you ever taken a stroll down the bike path next to the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary? Have you wondered what the story of the railroad line that runs parallel to it is? Well, it used to go all the way to the East Village, for starters. It was built by the Grand Trunk Pacific in 1911 when their rail line from Edmonton reached Calgary and it used to be their main line into the city, being used in passenger service along with freight. Today it is used only as an industrial spur, but it sure has some interesting history. Including a short return to passenger service in 1976 which has something to do with the late, great Gene Wilder.
General Information: Built: 1911 Partially Removed: ~1973, ~1977, ~1980, ~1986, ~2001 Beginning Point: Mileage 126.0, Three Hills Subdivision End Point: End of track Speed Limit: 10 MPH General Direction: Northwest
Current Customers Caltrax
Map See my full map of every rail line to exist in Calgary here! Trackage coloured pink/magenta indicates the G.T.P. Industrial Branch
More on the G.T.P. Industrial Branch The G.T.P Industrial Branch is a really fascinating line, and one of the reasons why is because it's so easy for the public to see - since it follows a bike path. In fact, a bike path was even built right on top of some of the removed sections of the track (see the gallery below for more on this).
A Wild(er) Story Did you know that the G.T.P. Industrial Branch has cultural significance (as well as the Calgary Industrial Line)? This is especially strange considering that the majority of its use has been for local freight trains which don't have a whole lot to do with culture. The branch (probably) hasn't seen passenger trains since CN took over its operation from the Grand Trunk Pacific in 1919, but in 1976 it saw a brief return to passenger service because of CP Rail and Gene Wilder. Yup. Take a minute to understand how weird that sounds. A CN industrial spur getting passenger service because of a movie star and the rival railway.
So here's how it makes sense - have you ever watched the film Silver Streak? The brief synopsis of the film is it's a murder mystery set on an AmRoad (knockoff Amtrak, essentially) train from Los Angeles to Chicago. However, most of it was shot in Canada. The railcars and locomotives were actually Canadian Pacific streamliners and FP7s. The stations of LA and Chicago were both actually filmed at Union Station in Toronto, a lot of the prairie and landscape shots were filmed in Alberta, and a stop along the way was filmed in Calgary (thinking about the CPR's new name and location of its headquarters, it's ironic that the stop Calgary portrayed in the film was Kansas City). Calgary and the surrounding area is also where the climax of the film was shot, and you guessed it, that was on the G.T.P. Industrial Branch. The train was backed onto the branch, probably through the little CP/CN interchange yard and it was filmed right there (see below picture). Another shot was also filmed on the Bow River bridge on the line.
So while, yes, when I say a "brief return to passenger service", I totally lied to you - don't mean true passenger service - technically I mean that a short passenger train used for filming was stopped there for a little while - but still, a neat story!
Fifty years ago, the one and only Gene Wilder filmed a movie featuring a CP Rail stainless steel passenger train - right here. Right on these CN rails.
Based on the age of these rails - 1963 vintage - it's more than likely that the same rails the movie was filmed on are still in use today!