Once every summer, the Alberta Prairie Steam Train leaves its Stettler station for Big Valley to a musical fanfare, as the Red Deer Legion Pipe Band comes to town to ride the train.
This past Sunday, Aug. 21, the band was out in force with their bagpipes, snare drums and brass for this year's appearance, to play for the train's patrons before boarding the train to go to Big Valley. Once there, the band set up for an afternoon performance beside the station.
"We've had them for many years," Bob Willis, spokesperson for Alberta Prairie Railways, said. "There's been a summer here or there, where they're competing or in Europe, that they've not come, but usually they do."
The band formed first in 1948 as an all-girls band, but became co-ed when Red Deer Legion Branch 35 took over sponsorship in 1970.
The band has since been active in parades, cultural and recreational events around central Alberta, but has also been a mainstay on the competitive band circuit since 1983.
Those competitions have taken the band, made of volunteers, all around Canada, and abroad to Hawaii, France and Scotland. Just over a year ago, the band was playing in front of the Eiffel Tower.