MTM: Edmonton High Level Street Car (corrected)

It has been awhile since I've done one of these, But I vaguely remember mentioning the High Level Street Car in one of my other posts. We finally got around to taking a ride on it a couple of weeks ago and I even had my camera along!


The Edmonton Radial Rail Society has put in thousands of volunteer hours yearly to restore and locate cars. They run on a short section of track from Strathcona to Jasper Avenue as well as in Fort Edmonton Park. We took the run over the High Level Bridge and I can see we will have to go to Ft. Edmonton Park as well. That will be at least two posts worth too ;)

This is where we start, just behind the the bus barns and Museum. Click any photo to enlarge.

Here comes the Street Car.

Hmm, seems a little modern and plastic!

Is that German?

Yes, it sure is! This is the car from Hanover, Germany!
The trip is about the ride anyway.

Approaching the tunnel that runs under 109 St and some apartment buildings!

Once out of the tunnel you can almost believe you have left the city behind.

But no...there it is, just hidden behind trees.

To the East is our ball diamond, yes, we have a team... um... Edmonton Capitals (forgive me they were the Cracker Cats two years ago and I don't follow the sport) and they belong to the Golden League.
Oops! This is Kinsmen field on the South side of the river (hard to tell in the little photo). The diamond (Telus Field)for the Capitals would be behind the Rossdale plant.

This is the view to the West from the bridge.

This is the Rossdale Power Plant (it seems they are decommissioning it) and the Walterdale bridge which the locals call the 5th street bridge - because we're too lazy to say one hundred and 5th.

The dome of our Legislature building and a few of our high rises.

Picking up a passenger at the Grandin stop.

The end of the line....Jasper Avenue, surrounded by Apartments and office towers.



For $4.00 you can stay down town all day and take the street car back in the late afternoon...cheaper by far than the daily fare for regular transit - if you live near the Strathcona terminal. Regular transit is $2.75 and you get a 90 minute transfer.

Southbound for the return trip you can see the bridge for the LRT and in the background residences and other buildings (hospital) for the U of Alberta.

Oh, look! The LRT! Which to be honest I didn't even notice until I processed the photos... it probably beat us to the other side of the river. Behind that is the Royal Glenora Club and Victoria Park and behind that are residential high rises.



MTM  is being hosted by Clare2e from Women of Mystery and it even has it's own blog now...My town Monday.

Have a good day all.

What a weekend!

In fact my weekend was so packed with excitement, that I am going to have to break this up into at least two posts.

We started Saturday morning off by going to the farmers market and spending atrocious amounts of money on fresh veggies. We discovered while we were in the neighbourhood that it was time for the Art Walk. Local artisans set up on the sidewalks in front of willing businesses and show off their art and sell stuff and you can even watch some of them work. My friend though it would be a good idea for me to sit in the blazing sun and have a caricature drawn, so here it is.




It only took her about 10 minutes to do this and it is a fairly good representation. I think I might use this as my avatar for awhile.

We wore ourselves out walking around and looking at art, then I had to rush home to go to work. About 2.00 p.m., I stepped outside to run back to my suite for a minute and could smell propane. I spent the next few minutes going from patio to patio at the back of the office building, checking barbecues. Nothing, then it went away. Well, it is windy, I wonder how far that smell will travel on the wind? (By this time, it was getting very urgent that I return to my suite.)

10 minutes later going back to the office building I can smell it again! I check some of the patios on the other buildings, then decide the fire department is better equipped to find a leak if there should be one. Our Fire Department cannot be reached unless you call 911 - which in this case is rather stupid. I had been hearing sirens and kinda thought they might be attending whatever was causing the smell and didn't want them rushing to respond to nothing. I did search a bit on the web to see how far the smell could travel, but got nothing. I called the non-emergency line for the police and barely got out that I was smelling propane or something, but wasn't sure, when the Cst. (sorry, Constable) informed me that the construction crew for the LRT * had hit the gas line and we might be evacuated soon.

As it turns out, they didn't have to evacuate us, we were far enough away, we just happened to be downwind. I finished my shift, went home had supper and headed out about 7.00 p.m. to go to my friends place and fix my bike tires. They had only just finished fixing the line.

I have a short cut that I take along the greensward that cuts directly to the avenue that my friend lives on, if I went by surface streets, I would have an extra 4 blocks to walk. This picture is at maximum zoom from where they have cut off my shortcut, back to my parking lot, my bldg is at the far end of the lot. The driveway is on 108 St.

Click to enlarge

This sign pretty much tells you where I am going with this.

This is probably the culprit! (this is 111St)

That idiot could have blown up houses for miles! Not to mention two schools and a community centre and my apartment bldg.

That is about a half mile from my place or less as it is about a mile to my friends (by this shortcut). Um, yes, that is a garbage can beside the bike trail.

I figured that as they made me smell gas for 5 hours and then had the nerve to cut off my shortcut, I would blog about it. I had to add 6 blocks to my walk after having walked around all morning! (Yes, it adds 2 blocks, because I had to backtrack a bit) But, we got my tires changed with no problems and tightened my brakes and greased my chain and I can change gears much better now!

So, for Monday, I am grateful to be here, to have my bike fixed, a still have a roof over my head!
I will have to tell you about Sunday on Wednesday as Tuesday is WWC.

Have a good Monday everyone.

* Light Rail Transit

WWC: Close up & Background

Wow, this weeks words were a challenge! What to take a close up of? What the hell to use as background?

Then I was out shopping, waiting for the bus and I noticed across the street, something that would have been a GREAT background photo. I pulled out my phone and snapped off this picture. You can barely make out that there is a house roof behind the gravel.



The city is finally getting around to extending our Light Rail Transit and there is construction everywhere! When I saw the pile of gravel (taller than the house), my heart went out to the people who now have it as a background. Too bad the photo didn't turn out! I was on my way to buy my new camera and the closest I have come to there since, is the other side of the high rise you can see on the right. I might get there again before the pile is reduced too much, but, who knows.


So, now on to the photos I took with my new camera!

Close up:

Can you guess what this is?

This was an accident how it focused this way, but I like it.

This was not an accident and I really like it.



Sibu, first thing, when I sit down, has to be cuddled.... he likes to be close up!

This is over the back of my head.
Then he winds up sitting on my shoulder facing the computer screen. (WARNING! The blog administrator strongly advises against clicking to enlarge this photo, serious damage could occur to your retinas and/or monitor! The Blog Administrator accepts no responsibility for any damages incurred should you fail to heed this warning!)


This was him trying to figure out the camera.

Background:

This is the background of my apartment complex.


And across the fence, the background of the school.Background traffic noise.

Background people noise, waiting for buses.
The temporary bus transfer point, while the regular one is being reconstructed for the LRT and the mall itself is undergoing renovations. Major background noise and smells!

Background music.

Background music player.


Did you enjoy? Maybe you would like to participate next week? Then stop over and see Tink's blog Pickled Beef and get all the details on joining the fun.