Beiseker Alberta - For the last two years, the red building has sat with its faded paint peeling away from charming arches and its windows boarded, sightless eyes staring out onto an empty street.
 
The sight makes former Beiseker councillor Fred Walters shake his head.
 
"We're at a standstill until we can get it moved onto the foundation," he said.
 
Hurdles, obstacles, shoddy workmanship, and time have worked against the Alberta Centennial Railway Museum Society in their bid to make the old building into a functioning railway museum.
 
This story started when Canadian Pacific removed the rails in Beiseker 18 years ago, according to Walters.
 
Canadian Pacific donated the land to the Alberta Trail Network (ATN) for development about 20 years ago.
 
ATN leased the land for 50 years to the Alberta Centennial Railway Museum Society, of which Fred Walters is treasurer, for development of a railway museum.
 
The property, located on 18 acres of land running alongside First Avenue, is home to a locomotive, a couple of grain cars, an old snow plow, sitting on tracks as well as an old building on a girder with empty windows.
 
This building was the former Canadian Pacific Railway Bassano passenger station.
 
The 99-year-old building was 162 by 20 feet and had been used until the 1990s.
 
In 2009, the Town of Bassano learned that Canadian Pacific was going to demolish the building.
 
A petition was struck by local residents to save the building.
 
The Alberta Centennial Railway Museum Society found out about the old Bassano rail station.
 
Staff applied for a grant to secure the building for $10,000, and for two years, worked to get the station to Beiseker.
 
The contractor hired by the society to move the building at the beginning, was given an $80,000 deposit to move the building.
 
That contractor, who will not be named because the society is currently pursuing legal action against them, stalled for a year, Walters said.
 
"We asked what it was going to take to move the building," Walters said.
 
"The contractor asked for special wheels to move the building and told the society his foreman had run off with the original $80,000."
 
In 2011, the contractor asked for another $76,000 for the wheels to move the building.
 
The society advanced the contractor the money to get the building moving.
 
Walters said nothing happened for some months, and in the meantime, a welder welded the beams for the move.
 
"When it came time to pay the welder, they held out on paying their subcontractor," he said.
 
"To satisfy the welder and move the building off-site, I had to make a deal with the welder."
 
Walters paid the welder $50,000 for his work.
 
Then, the society ran up against red tape when Alberta Infrastructure told them their contractor didn't have the right wheels, the right configuration, or permits for the move.
 
The society paid $777 for the highway permit, and another $1,200 for the rural electrical permits.
 
"FortisAlberta moved the wires for us, for free," Walters said.
 
Back in Beiseker, the engineer who had designed the $76,000 foundation didn't do a proper job and the walls were falling in, Walters said.
 
The foundation had to be braced, and that cost another $100,000 to fix.
 
Heavy lifters Mammoet Movers did the move 19 Jul 2012.
 
The station was slowly moved over six hours 156 kilometres from Bassano, to the current site in Beiseker.
 
Mammoet Movers donated their services.
 
"All we had to do was give them a tax receipt," Walters said.
 
"They've got big hearts."
 
Walters, a self-confessed history buff, said he got involved with the railway museum committee during his time on Beiseker council.
 
"I was sitting on council at the time and we needed someone to represent council on society boards," he explained.
 
Little did Walters know that the future railway museum would be sitting for two years and turn into a pigeon coop.
 
Currently, a flock of pigeons calls the old railway station home, as a portion of the roof was taken off to facilitate the 2012 move and never replaced.
 
Walters said the roof can't be put back on the building yet, as there's an open foundation on one side and a ditch on the other.
 
That said, Walters and the rail museum society have big plans for the old station, including turning it into a rail museum, to preserve the history of rail in Western Canada.
 
The railway museum would commemorate the history of the railroad, as well as house exhibits, artifacts, railway memorabilia, displays, and some meeting space.
 
Outside, manicured park space with benches and wrought-iron light standards would welcome visitors and locals.
 
The plans would include metres and metres of gravel pathways, which is part of the society's agreement with Alberta Trail Net.
 
Walters said he got a quote a couple of years ago to see what it would cost to pave the pathways, which will be three metres wide and three kilometres long, and the $280,000 quote had him shaking his head once again.
 
Walters expects the renovations, the extra track, and platform work to cost approximately $200,000, but said it's only a ballpark figure.
 
To facilitate the entirety of the project, the Alberta Centennial Railway Museum Society has applied for a number of grants since 2007.
 
"The railway museum society received a $26,740 grant through the Community Facility Enhancement Program (CFEP) for roof repairs," according to Trish Filevich, press secretary for the Minister of Culture.
 
"They also received a $35,664 grant in 2007/2008 through the Community Initiatives Program, to assist with the cost of construction."
 
More recently, the non-profit society received a $400,000 grant from Community Infrastructure Improvement Fund, an initiative of the federal government's Economic Action Plan 2012, for the rehabilitation and improvement of the old train station.
 
"It's been eating up a lot of money as we go along," Walters said.
 
"We spent $465,000 on this project up until now."
 
He has applied for another grant of $70,000 from the provincial government's Community Infrastructure Improvement Fund, and is waiting to hear whether he gets funding or not.
 
Until then, the project is sitting on its beams.
 
Walters said he is confidant that the society will be able to get the station on its foundation in the near future.
 
He estimates it will be a couple of years before the museum is open.
 
Wrapping a chain through the door handle to lock it up, Walters can see the potential in the station's old bones.
 
"It will be nice some day," he said.
 
Jessica Patterson.