10/04/2026
Thanks for the write up The True North!
A Saskatchewan farmer spent 13 years collecting old trains. This summer, they carried passengers again. 🚂🇨🇦
Gary Southgate grew up in a small village beside the railway tracks, back when steam locomotives were still part of everyday life. He never forgot it.
So in 2013, the farmer from North Battleford started doing something most people would call crazy. He began buying old Canadian passenger trains. One coach at a time. One locomotive at a time.
He collected former VIA Rail coaches in their classic blue and yellow. He found vintage Canadian National locomotives and had them restored to their original green and gold. Some of his cars once ran as a w**e train in BC's Okanagan Valley. For years the collection sat scattered across the Prairies at museums and on sidings, waiting.
Then he found the right home for it: Eastend, a small town in southwest Saskatchewan, tucked into the Frenchman River Valley. He bought land beside the tracks, and in 2022 the trains finally rolled into town.
It still took four more years of restoration, permits and test runs.
This summer, the first passengers climbed aboard.
Gary admits he had a tear or two in his eye on that first trip.
The ride with Eastend Scenic Rail Tours is a roughly three-hour round trip from Eastend to Ravenscrag, winding past rolling prairie, rugged coulees and badlands, and iconic Jones' Peak, with two scenic stops along the way. The coaches are the same kind that once carried Canadians from coast to coast.
He did it to preserve a piece of our history. And he did it with the help of a small town that got behind him.
One man. Thirteen years. A whole train saved. ❤️
