The Alberta Coal Branch is the name given to a segment of the

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue a ...

(originally the

Grand Trunk Pacific Railway The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was a historic Canadian transcontinental railway running from Fort William, Ontario (now Thunder Bay) to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, a Pacific coast port. East of Winnipeg the line continued as the National ...

) and the region through which it passes. It is located within

Yellowhead County Yellowhead County is a municipal district in west central Alberta, Canada. It is the only municipal district within Alberta census division No. 14. History *1994: Established as a ''Municipal District of Yellowhead No. 94'' on January 1. ...

in west-central

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, Canada.

Geography

The Coal Branch region encompasses a portion of the eastern slopes and foothills of the

Canadian Rockies The Canadian Rockies () or Canadian Rocky Mountains, comprising both the Alberta Rockies and the British Columbian Rockies, is the Canadian segment of the North American Rocky Mountains. It is the easternmost part of the Canadian Cordillera, w ...

east of

Jasper National Park Jasper National Park, in Alberta, Canada, is the largest national park within Alberta's Rocky Mountains, spanning . It was established as Jasper Forest Park in 1907, renamed as a national park in 1930, and declared a UNESCO world heritage site ...

. It extends from

Alberta Highway 16 Alberta Provincial Highway No. 16, commonly referred to as Highway 16, is a major east–west highway in central Alberta, Canada, connecting Jasper, Alberta, Jasper to Lloydminster via Edmonton. It forms a portion of the Yellowhead Highway, ...

in the north to the

Brazeau River The Brazeau River is a river in western Alberta, Canada. It is a major tributary of the North Saskatchewan River. The river was named for Joseph Brazeau, a linguist associated with the Palliser Expedition. Course The river originates in the h ...

in the south. The McLeod, Lovett and Embarras Rivers flow through it, and it includes many former coal-mining towns and

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

History

The Coal Branch rail line was built between 1911 and 1912 by the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway to gain access to deposits of high-quality

steam coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is a type of f ...

. It diverges from the main line at Bickerdike and runs south through Coalspur to the Lovett River, a distance of . A series of coal mining, railroad, and logging towns quickly developed along the route. Going south from Bickerdike, they include

McLeod River The McLeod River is a river in west-central Alberta, Canada. It forms in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies, and is a major tributary of the Athabasca River. __TOC__ Course The river begins in the southern arm of Whitehorse Wildland Prov ...

Erith Erith () is an area in south-east London, England, east of Charing Cross. Before the creation of Greater London in 1965, it was in the historical county of Kent. Since 1965 it has formed part of the London Borough of Bexley. It lies north ...

Weald The Weald () is an area of South East England between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It crosses the counties of Hampshire, Surrey, West Sussex, East Sussex, and Kent. It has three parts, the sandstone "High W ...

, Embarras,

Robb Robb is a surname of Scottish origin, formed from a diminution (reduction) of the name Robert. Robert was a popular name, especially after its use by three Scots Kings in the fourteenth century. Rob is first recorded as a surname in the mid-15th ...

, Coalspur, Diss, Sterco,

Foothills Foothills or piedmont are geography, geographically defined as gradual increases in elevation at the base of a mountain range, higher hill range or an highland, upland area. They are a transition zone between plains and low terrain, relief hill ...

and Lovetteville. A western branch that opened in the summer of 1913 diverges at Coalspur and extends to Mountain Park. Along that route lie Mercoal, Shaw, Leyland,

Cadomin Cadomin is a Hamlet (place), hamlet in west-central Alberta, Canada, within Yellowhead County. It is along the McLeod River in the Rocky Mountain Foothills, foothills of the Rocky Mountains, approximately south of Hinton, Alberta, Hinton near ...

, and Mountain Park. In 1921 a spur long was built to Luscar. The Coal Branch towns thrived from the arrival of the railroad until markets for steam coal declined as the railroads replaced

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, Fuel oil, oil or, rarely, Wood fuel, wood) to heat ...

s with

diesel Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine ...

. Most of the mines closed during the 1950s, after which the population quickly declined and many of the towns were abandoned. Today the permanent population of the area is small, but the scenic mountain setting makes the Coal Branch area a popular destination for all types of outdoor recreation. Coal mining continues near Luscar, producing coking coal for export to Asian steel mills, but most of the workforce lives to the north in Edson and Hinton.

References

{{coord, 53, 11, N, 117, 01, W, display=title, type:city_region:CA_source:GNS-enwiki Yellowhead County Canadian National Railway lines Grand Trunk Pacific Railway Railway lines opened in 1912