Canadian National Railway, N of junction of Albreda River and North Thompson River
52.6375 N 119.1625 W — Map 83D/11 — Google — GeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1956
Official in BC – Canada
Mile 92 in Albreda Subdivision (Jasper to Blue River as of 1977)
Canadian Northern Railway station built in 1915
Canadian National Railway map 1925
Named in association with Albreda Lake, a name dating to 1863.
During construction of the Canadian Northern Railway around 1915, Albreda had the first telegraph in the area. Albreda was the inspection point for the Blue River–Jasper subdivision of the rail line. The Albreda post office was open from 1923 to 1948, and again from 1956 to 1959. The small settlement was the site of a Japanese internment camp during World War II.
The original Albreda station was on the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway line, as indicated on Arthur Wheeler’s 1912 topographical map of the Mount Robson region and on British Columbia Pre-emptor’s map 3H, 1914. That early station was located just east of Tête Jaune Cache and repositioned westward as shown Pre-emptor’s map Tête Jaune 3H 1919.
Albreda may have had a CNoR 3rd Class depot at one time.
- Bohi, Charles W. Canadian National’s Western Depots. The Country Stations in Western Canada. Railfare Enterprises, 1977
- British Columbia Geographical Names. Albreda
This was the first permanent job as an operator that I held. “Third Trick Albreda 1957, 1958. Bob McLeod was the agent, and him and his wife Rose Lived in the station with their two children, “Bull Moose” as bob called his son, and I cannot remember his younger sisters name. I Lived in a bunkhouse with another Operator by the name of “Bill Bifford from Kelowna, BC. Bill and I learned to cook together, and we both lived, so I guess we did okay. I can remember the first time we went to Valemount and bought a chicken to cook. When we got home, at first we tried boiling it, then we give up on that, and put it in the oven, then we give up on that and fried it. Bill liked to make the desert. His specialty was, Crushed Dads cookies, with vanilla pudding then another layer of Dads Cookies. Bill was taking a course in electronics, and I believe he eventually moved from Operations to the Wire Chief side as a Career. May not be true, but my memory tells me that’s what happened. They had a little store at Albreda and the man that run it was named “George Harris”. Also in Albreda they had a rather famous lady trapper by the name of “Ella Fry”. I remember one time she came into the station while I was on duty and had a bunch of supplies delivered by CNR. When she paid the bill, she said, Keep the change, and at the time it was a fairly generous tip. (probably a couple of dollars). If you go to youtube, some of her family has put a verbal sound track of her, and the voice I heard was definitely Ella. The swing operator that came in was an operator by the name of “Jay”, and another operator was Norman Dhaliwal. This was before the Yellow Head Highway was built, and Albreda was a very isolated place to work. I left the CNR because I joined the Royal Canadian Navy, then in 1965 came back to the CNR as an Operator in Redpass Jct.
More about Ella Fry.