An old incline railway once sat near where the Edmonton Funicular now is
If you’ve ever visited the Edmonton Funicular, did you know there was once an incline railway nearby that was built around the turn of the 20th century?
The railway was built to ease the work it took to move goods from Strathcona to Edmonton, which entailed a trip over the North Saskatchewan River by bridge or ferry, followed by a march up McDougall Hill Road.
The City of Edmonton says that when an Incline Railway was proposed, many businesses in the river valley supported the idea as an easier solution to moving their freight to and from the valley for their customers.
Construction on the project began before the fall of 1907. A few hurdles were met along the way, most related to how to power the engines moving the huge platforms.
City of Edmonton Archives
At one point, coal was proposed to power the railway, but by 1907, many of the coal mines in Edmonton were no longer as productive as they had once been. Ultimately, it was decided that it would be powered by steam. In April of 1908, a 75-horsepower steam engine and boilers were installed, and the Incline Railway officially opened for business on May 20, 1908.
The Incline Railway was wildly popular when it first opened. In its first two days of operation, over 500 passengers and countless wagons made use of it to travel between downtown and the river flats.
Despite initial success, its revenue expectations were never met, and even with continued use by Edmontonians, the railway was always under financial pressure of closure.
By 1912, the operation was put up for public sale, though with the soon-to-open High Level Bridge viewed as competition along with growing safety concerns, no one came forward to purchase it.
For many years, its location could be seen as a scar on the hill, until the Chateau Lacombe was built in the mid-1960s.
The photo below of the Edmonton skyline in 1965 shows the Chateau Lacombe parking structure under construction, directly on top of the former site of the Incline Railway.
City of Edmonton Archives
So as the city expanded and erased the Incline Railway’s footprint, just one block east of its historic location, the Edmonton Funicular now operates, connecting downtown Edmonton to the river valley just as the Incline Railway once did.
You can read the railway’s full history on the City of Edmonton webpage about it.
Did you know that there was an old incline railway near the Edmonton Funicular? Let us know in the comments.