A recent trip to Prince George, B.C. by Chestermere Fire Service’s Capt. Brent Paquette has led to the unearthing of a piece of Chestermere’s history.
In the ‘90s to promote Alberta, blue train grain cars with the slogan Take an Alberta Break visit and then the name of a number of communities were purchased through the Heritage Fund.
One of these cars suggested a visit to Chestermere Lake.
“I knew about this train car since ‘95,” said Paquette.
“I knew that it was out there and every time that I see the take an Alberta Break old blue grain cars I’ve looked for the Chestermere lake one,” he said.
His interest in the car started when his daughter was in school and he was helping her with a project to do with the Heritage Fund.
“I was explaining to her what the heritage fund was for,” he said, “and I said one thing they did was kind of a tourism thing with all these train cars and Chestermere had one out there.”
Since then he and his daughter have kept an eye out for the Chestermere lake railcar.
“We’ve just always looked for it it’s kind of a thing we’ve always done,” he said.
After 23 years of looking, Paquette never spotted the blue train car until a few weeks ago when he was in Prince George for the funeral of a retired firefighter.
After the funeral, Paquette and his wife decided to go for a drive around Prince George.
“We were going over the bridge, and I always look at these train cars when I see a blue one, and all of a sudden I said Oh My Gosh, that one farther back looks like it says Chestermere Lake on it,” he said.
They couple turned around at the next intersection and went back to get a closer look.
“It came past me and sure enough it was the first time in 20 something years that I’ve been looking for this thing that I finally seen it,” said Paquette.
“I’m just amazed that 27 years later that that thing’s still rolling down the tracks,” he said.
When he got back to Chestermere and was back at work, Paquette, who has worked in various positions with the city since 1995, struck up a conversation with Fire Chief Brian Pomrenke, who is another long-time city employee.
“I was telling the Fire Chief about it and sent some pictures I snapped of it over to a couple people at city hall,” said Paquette.
“And we were talking about this plaque that used to be around,” he said of a plaque given to Chestermere commemorating the train car.
“And we were talking about where we’d seen it last,” he said.
“I remember it was in the old city hall, and then it was in the public works department for a while,” said Paquette.
Between Paquette and Pomrenke, the pair were able to trace the location of the plaque in their memory to the water transfer station.
“About 15 years ago we had a big water break over in that water transfer station,” said Paquette, “and it used to hang on the wall and it was taken and put up on top of a cabinet when we had this big water leak.”
Paquette contacted EPCOR and asked if they could check on top of the cabinet for the train plaque.
“And sure enough it still was,” he said.
Once the plaque was rediscovered, the city decided to give it to the Chestermere Historical Foundation at the Dec. 4 council meeting.
“We really appreciated it,” said Jen Peddlesden with the Historical Foundation.
“I really think that this city council is taking note of Chestermere’s history,” she said.
Peddlesden said that the society will likely display the plaque in the space they have at the library.
For his part, Paquette is happy to see the plaque going where it can add to the record of the city’s history.
“It’s a great idea, I’m happy that they’re doing that,” he said.
