“I’ve sort of coined it as modern archeology. We’re uncovering a little bit of Edmonton’s recent past, recent, as in, you know, in just over the last 100 years, or less than 100 years. But yeah, it was something that had been paved over and forgotten, and most people that would have known about that aren’t with us anymore, so a buried piece of Edmonton that got uncovered.” That is Chris Ashdown, president of the Edmonton Radial Railway Society, talking about the unearthing of some fascinating Edmonton history.
Left: A map of the streetcar line in Edmonton in 1930. Right: Edmonton Radial Railway #4 at the end of the line on 102 Avenue at 142 Street, circa 1925. (Image courtesy of Edmonton Radial Railway)
Spikes from an old Edmonton streetcar line found during Valley Line West LRT construction. (Image courtesy of Edmonton Radial Railway)
Preserved railway ties can be seen under Stony Plain Road in Edmonton. The old streetcar line was uncovered during LRT construction in 2024. (Image courtesy of Edmonton Radial Railway)
Construction crews working on the Valley Line LRT at Stony Plain Road and 142 Street uncovered some streetcar tracks built back in 1913. Ashdown says it was not really a surprising discovery. In other parts of the city, old streetcar tracks have also been found during street construction. But in this case the rails had been removed, while the ties and spikes were left in place. And Ashdown says this particular chunk of the old streetcar system had an interesting history. 142 Street was the western terminus of the streetcar line. Double ended streetcars were used on the line. “This was a single track that went from 124th Street to almost 142nd street, where it split into two. So it ended with two tracks at 142nd street.”
That line was only in operation until 1932 because of low ridership. “What’s interesting about this particular track, this was built in 1913 to serve the up and coming Glenora neighborhood. And Glenora really didn’t take off that well, so the ridership was rather poor. And so they decided to replace the streetcar line with a bus, a small bus in 1932 that was the first bit of streetcar track that was replaced by bus service.”
Ashdown sees construction of the Valley Line LRT, in this location especially, where the old streetcars ran, as a validation, both of what came before, and what is underway now. “What’s happening now is we’ve got a modern streetcar system, which we call the Valley Line LRT. A modern streetcar line, replacing what was there many, many years ago, and expanding out to further reaches in the city than the old streetcar system did. So, the technology is basically what we saw in the past, but in a more modern form. And it’s just this whole idea that light rail is such an efficient and high capacity system and it’s being reintroduced again.”
For the vintage train enthusiasts of the Edmonton Radial Railway Society, which maintains streetcars at Fort Edmonton and across the High Level Bridge, the unearthing of the old line at 142 Street brought a special gift, seven of the original spikes. They were donated to the society by the contractors. Ashdown says they are the first from the old Edmonton streetcar lines that the society has ever got hold of.
“A little bit smaller than a modern day rail spike. So they are a little bit different, but just the fact that we’ve got that little bit of piece of history. We do have a few pieces of rail from other construction sites around the city, over, over the years, but we’ve, we’ve never had any spikes.”
They are slated to be on display at the society’s streetcar museum near the Old Strathcona Farmers’ Market.
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