Dreams from A to Z: the legacy of the Alphabet Railway

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Published on Sunday, July 10, 2016

Media Release

Our project brings a focus to small prairie towns in 2016. The rail line that has captured our imagination is a very specific slice of Canadiana which provides us with parameters that are current, national and universal. When Grand Trunk Pacific (GTP) laid a rail line across Canada’s northern prairies at the beginning of the 20th century, it promised a new world of “Health, Wealth and Happiness,” according to a 1913 GTP ad. Despite its early bankruptcy and subsequent absorption by Canadian National Railways (CN) in 1923, GTP was instrumental in creating community along this new route from Winnipeg to Prince Rupert, B.C. Today, the section of railway between Portage la Prairie and Jasper is fondly known as the Alphabet Railway. CN freight trains ply the rail line, maintaining its role as the heart of the local communities and intrinsically tying it to international economic progress. Interestingly, the extensive network of rail lines that once snaked across the Prairies, it is only this line that still carries passengers on Via Rail.

This project will see a team of four Canadian women, researchers and photographers, follow 1,557 kilometres of track through three provinces, following the orderly arrangement of towns, whimsically names in alphabetical order. Our goal for the fieldwork is to identify the imprint of the GTP concept on the western Canadian landscape, and photograph that impact as we see it in 2016. We will be equipped not only with our cameras and our ideas, but also with maps, old photographs, information from archives and conversations with local museum staff and municipal leaders. We will make images that reflect our personal connections with these communities as we travel along the route and create a visual record of the personality of each place. Two preliminary visits to sections of the Alphabet Railway in 2015 introduced us to the communities and allowed us to plan our journey to the towns along the entire length of the railway, with time to create a library of photographs that tell some interesting visual stories. Our model for this project is the Postcards from America series undertaken by Magnum Photographers.

In exploring the towns, we will identify and photograph common demographic and spatial themes that reflect on the state of the nation on the 150th anniversary of Confederation — themes such as community pride, immigration past and present, the impetus of transportation corridors and the fabric of historical geography. During the course of the research our progress will be shared [on social media] .

The team includes photographers Cheryl Hoffmann, Morina Reece and Dianne Byrdon. Cheryl is a street photographer who will weave a story of cultures, communities and the vision of immigrants, old and new. Morina specializes in environmental portraiture and will be creating a story that reflects the character of small prairie towns. Dianne will illuminate the textures of small town architecture and tell a story rich in the vestiges of promise. The project’s co-ordinator, Judy Wiesinger, received her PhD in historical geography for a thesis entitled The Evolving Urban System in the Canadian Prairies. Her understanding of the impact of the railroad on settlement in the West and the themes of immigration, industrialization and modernization will direct the work of the photographers and the resulting publication.

By Sheila Runions

Banner Staff

The quartet stopped in Rivers on Monday, July 4, their three-week journey beginning only the day before. They plan to conclude in Jasper approximately July 24 but will definitely be back in Winnipeg on July 27. They will fly from there to their home in Ottawa and from there, Cheryl will return to her home in Malaysia. They are schoolmates from Queen’s University and according to Dianne, Cheryl agreed to participate in the project  as a reciprocal adventure. Dianne has twice been to Malaysia to photograph rice paddy fields with Cheryl so when Dianne extended Cheryl the Canadian opportunity, she agreed.

“I learned about the ABC railway in history class at Trent University. Twenty-five years later when I was working in Saskatoon, I had to drive to Yorkton for a meeting so I took the route of the Alphabet Railway — Fenwood, Goodeve, Hubbard and Ituna. I visited them all and thought it would be great to come back sometime and photograph all those little communities because each has something unique and people are really proud of them. I spent five days last summer from Portage la Prairie to Saskatoon and Cheryl did some winter pictures in Alberta from Chauvin to Toefield, on the fifth alphabet; there are five A-Zs across the Prairies. When I learned that three miles west of Portage is where my great-grandfather settled in 1871, and that GTP cut through his property 50 feet south of his house, it settled it in my mind as something I needed to do because of the family connection. The first "A" is now a flag stop called Arona which is just west of his farmland.”

The project is self-funded which is why it is a short journey, yet a minimum of one hour is spent at each locale so the women can wander and follow their creative senses for lighting, angles, etc. Thus far, they have averaged 100 pictures at each stop. They are driving to each town which is why the end date at Jasper is in flux. On the return trip they will ride the rails, courtesy of passes from Via Rail, for some shots from the train between Saskatoon and Melville. There a friend will pick them up and drive them back to Saskatoon to get the rental car and continue their trip to Winnipeg airport.

While the expedition is self-funded, the long-term goal is non-government funding to compile their efforts into a book which will be released this time next year.

“We plan to make a book but we will need money for that so we hope once the images are in place... We are willing to do exhibits or sell individuals photographs of the town. We’re really looking for stories of people and their relationship to the railway so our winter project of a book takes shape for summer 2017, Canada’s 150th anniversary.”

If you have a railway story you wish to share with the women, you may contact them through facebook.com/ABCRailroadProject, @abcrailway16 (Twitter), abcrailwayproject (Instagram) or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .