Galt Historic Railway Park was created about 2000 as a site for the preservation and display of items and artefacts which recapture the history of the railway in Southern Alberta.
The Galt Historic Railway Park & Railway Heritage Interpretive Centre, collects, preserves, restores, exhibits and interprets artifacts which represent the history and social impact of the “steam” and “coal” eras in southern Alberta, with emphasis on Galt Railway System (1885 – 1912) and the 1890 International Train Station Depot from Coutts, Northwest Territories / Sweetgrass, Montana.
From the Galt Historic Railway Park
Along with its historic railway station, the museum holds a collection of rolling stock and several little speeders, which were used for railway maintenance. When we visited, the rolling stock on display to that date were about a half dozen passenger, baggage and mail cars and the half dozen or so speeders, a 1941 CPR caboose, number 436986 and this CPR cattle car, actually a true "Stock Car", number 277324.
This car was built with two levels inside, making it not possible to load cattle in this car. Weighing 47,800 pounds empty, the car was designed with an all up weight limit of 121,200 pounds. In service with the CPR from 1943, its year of construction, to 1989, it is a steel framed car, sided and floored with wood, designed to transport hogs and sheep. Shortly after being retired, 277324 was put on display at the Museum of the Highwood in High River, being donated to Galt Historic Railway Park in 2011, along with the caboose which rests beside it. The museum, incidentally, was surreptitiously located, likely by design, with a CPR track running beside, mitigating the effort necessary to get full sized railroad cars to the museum.
Following is text from a plaque mounted at the stock car. According to this plaque, 277324 was built in 1950, which cannot be correct. Its number corresponds with those of stock cars built in 1943, not 1950.
CPR 277324
This car carried livestock on two levels; it could carry pigs on one level and sheep on another. Two levels of ramps were used to load and off load livestock. A series of livestock pens were constructed near all train stations. These pens allowed the animals to be off loaded for watering and feed. This secondary industry employed many farmers for feed and personnel to manage loading and unloading. White-washed wooden pens kept livestock organized for shipment to slaughter houses. Soon trucks would replace shipping livestock and this secondary industry would disappear. This steel-ended car was built in 1950. It was donated by the Museum of the Highwoods in High River and became part of the Galt Historic Railway Park in March at 2011. It is the last stock car to cross the Lethbridge Viaduct on its own wheels. It is a fully functioning car. Future access will allow the public to enter the car.