The museum is housed primarily in Pouce Coupe's (pronounced Pouce Coupee) one time railway station, built in 1931 about three blocks west of its current location and moved here in 1972. The museum itself opened in 1973 and has grown constantly since.
Not only does the museum have an authentic railway station, it also has a
Northern Alberta Railway (NAR) caboose parked behind that station. Naturally, it was that selfsame railway which built the station.
What's left of the Northern Alberta Railway is now jointly owned by the Canadian Pacific and Canadian National Railways. The section which ran through Pouce Coupe is now gone, leaving behind an empty right of way. The chronology is a bit difficult to follow, but it appears that it may have been the
Edmonton, Dunvegan and British Columbia Railway (ED&BC) which ran through Pouce Coupe on its way to Dawson Creek in 1929 or 1930. In 1930 financial difficulties forces its being taken over by the province. The depot here was built (or completed) the year after the steel reached Pouce Coupe.
Unfortunately, this bay window NAR caboose has no identification number. However,
Railway Preservation is able to inform us that this caboose, built by Canadian Car and Foundry of Montreal, now Bombardier Transportation Canada, was delivered to the ED&BC as number 13000. Built in 1926, the caboose passed to NAR, likely in 1929, and finally to CN in 1981, as CN 78970. Though the caboose bears NAR markings, a NAR number is not given. Possibly it was NAR 13000.
Stenciling on the caboose indicate that the last inspections on the unit took place in 1973, so the caboose already may have been retired when the NAR was absorbed into CN on January 1, 1981.