About an hour and a half’s drive south of Regina is the tiny village of Ogema, which has a tourist attraction like no other.
Ogema is home to the Prairie Southern Railway, a tourist railway designed for the ultimate prairie pioneer experience. On top of that, it also includes dining experience tours and one movie-themed tour.
The tours have become so popular they have to be booked in advance. Walk-ins are available, but may not be an option due to such high demand.
Train ride tours have been in operation since 2010. The mayor of Ogema, Carol Peterson, said the development of the experience has been years in the making.
“Back in 1998, we decided that since the community owned the rail line, we could run a train and maybe have something different go on for the fair day, not realizing that it was such a huge project,” Peterson said.
The opportunity came two and a half hours north in Simpson. It had a train station identical to the one that originally stood on Main Street in Ogema. To get the building and its solid structure, 23 people ventured to Simpson to disassemble the station and rebuild it in Ogema.
“For the 2005 homecoming, which was the province’s centennial, we had the train station moved from Simpson to Ogema so it would be the focal point of Main Street,” said Peterson.
In 2010, the town made two purchases: A 1944 General Electric diesel locomotive from North Conway, New Hampshire and a 1922 Pullman 70-passenger coach from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Ogema is grateful to individuals who keep the train in operation.
“We are really fortunate to have some of the local guys who know how to deal with diesel engines … We are fortunate that people step up and help us,” Peterson said.
Tours began with the heritage train ride, which is a two-and-a-half-hour ride with scenic prairie views. They have since expanded to more diverse tours.
“Our special tour is the 9 ¾ tour, which is Harry Potter-themed,” said Peterson. “We are telling people to bring their wands and wear their school colours.”
Various other rides have Canadian cuisines like the pitchfork fondue, the settlers’ supper, Texas-style barbecue and craft beer train rides.
The main attraction takes guests back to the wild west.
“The very, very popular one is the robbery train ride,” said Peterson. “We have people who ride up on their horses and stop the train and then come on and steal the passengers’ money.
“That’s where we are fortunate with our General Electric 44-ton switcher locomotive because it’s a push-pull engine. So they unhook from the passenger car, then go out on the siding. Then they come out through the other end and hook on to the other side.”
All the money collected in the “robberies” goes to STARS Air Ambulance and the Saskatchewan Cancer Foundation.
The train cars are equipped with rollover seats that twist around so that passengers will never be travelling backwards. Peterson says operators made sure they implemented the twisting seats so people would not get motion sickness.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an amended version of this story, correcting what money goes to charity.