About Us

Where We're Located

The Wheatland Express Excursion Train operates on Treaty 6 Territory and the Homeland of the Metis, typically departing from Wakaw or Cudworth’s rural prairie communities in the province of Saskatchewan.

Wakaw is located 90 km northeast of Saskatoon and 60 km south of Prince Albert, at Highway 41 and Highway 2. Passengers board the Wheatland Express from the Wakaw Railway Platform located at Railway Avenue and Main Street, Wakaw.

Cudworth is located 85 km northeast of Saskatoon and 83 km south of Prince Albert on Highway 2. Passengers board the Wheatland Express from the Cudworth Heritage Museum located at 1st Avenue & Main Street, Cudworth.

We encourage you to visit Tourism Saskatchewan and Tourism Saskatoon’s webpages when planning your next visit and explore everything our province has to offer!

Our Story

Wheatland Rail owns and operates the Cudworth Subdivision, 47 miles of track between St. Louis, SK and the Totzke junction, where the line interchanges with CN. The shortline railway is run in partnership with Crosskey Marketing, providing many railway services to farmers and grain producers in central Saskatchewan’s prairie grain belt.

Knowing of many successful tourist train operations throughout North America, the team at Crosskey Marketing thought, “why can’t we?” With the locomotive, track and employees already in place, the dream to innovate and grow on this track was born! In 2017, the not-for-profit organization, Wheatland Express Inc., was formed, aimed at generating tourism, economic and employment opportunities in the local community while providing outstanding experiences and events to domestic and international visitors to Saskatchewan.

In January 2018, the first passenger car, “The Lake Erie,” was purchased. The first season planned to host only eight tours between June and September 2018; however, tours quickly sold-out before our first departure. By December 2018, the Wheatland Express hosted 3,500 passengers on 25 excursions.

We are proud to continue developing new memorable experiences to add to our repertoire each year while improving our guests’ favourite tour experiences. Each journey aboard the Wheatland Express is sure to bring you a new and unique experience that you won’t soon forget!

Wheatland Express was honoured to be recognized at the 2018 Saskatchewan Tourism Excellence Awards as “Rookie of the Year!”

Meet the Crew

Nothing happens by accident! Meet some of the hard-working crew members at the Wheatland Express Excursion Train. Without them, our excursions and operation would not be possible. Thank you for your continued effort and passion!

Rail Equipment

Baggage Car

Alibi Car

Our latest arrival was originally built by the Budd Company in 1937 as the first stainless steel baggage car for the Santa Fe Railroad and later converted into a railway messenger car. It ran from 1938 until 1959 between Los Angeles and San Diego. ATAX 3430 was sold in 1968 to Metal Processing Industries in Vinton, TX. After a long ride, we finally received it in the fall of 2021, after getting used for our haunted house at Halloween, our team did an amazing job at refurbishing it. We converted ATAX 3430 into a come-and-go lounge, there are never enough bars! We partnered with Backroads Spirits Co. to create the "Alibi Car" with different exhibits and an actors froom for all the actors on-board. If you haven't visited it, you should do it before you leave. It's worth the stop!

Seating Capacity Come and go lounge seating for 8 people

FURX 5541 & 5543

Diesel-Electric Locomotives

Built-in September 1971 for Norfolk Western Railway, our locomotives FURX 5541 and FURX 5543 are EMD GP-38-2 (General Motors) 2000HP Diesel-Electric.

Seating Capacity N/A
Starting Equipment Rental Price Included

CAR 2017

Diner Car

This 400-series lunch counter diner car was delivered to Union Pacific (UP) in June 1955 and moved to Los Angeles to be furnished for the car's first trip. In 1987, the car was sold to Mexico. The car was acquired by Wheatland Express in 2017, arriving at Wheatland Railway in 2018, where it went under refurbishment for use with Wheatland Express. The car was first utilized for our 2019 tour season and is available to all guests on their excursions. Car 2017 is licensed for beverage service. Previously numbered: AMTK 8398; UP Lunch Counter Diner 4001; UP Cafeteria Lounge 4001; 2017 "Lake Erie."

Seating Capacity 16 - come and go seating

CAR 2020

Gift Shop

Car 2020 previously numbered TPHX-1940 comes to find us from Stettler, Alberta and had to be brought to us by truck instead of rail. This car was built in 1948 by the Budd Company in St. Louis, Missouri, and proves to be a bit of a mystery. Where it was in between when it was built to when it arrived in Stettler is anyone's guess. Car 2020 is a baggage car or sometimes called a combined car, which means it was built to store large pieces of luggage for passengers in one half and have coach seating in the other half. Car 2020 arrived on Feb. 3rd of this year and has since gone under a complete renovation. It has become our accessible car complete with a lift and accessible washroom along with housing our onboard gift store. If you haven't already we encourage you to check it out, we encourage you to do so and hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Seating Capacity 30

Car 2021 & Car 2022

Buddliner Cars

The Wheatland Express has added two new cars to its fleet! Car 2021 and Car 2022 were built in May 1955 by the Budd Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for the Boston Maine Railroad. They served there until December 1976 when they were sold to Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority handing commuter traffic in the Boston area until retired and sold to the Seminole Gulf Railway in Fort Meyers, Florida. Seminole Gulf Railway used the cars as SLGR 6120 and SLGR 6122 on their excursion passenger service. The Budd Company named these cars the Budd Rail Diesel Car (RDC), intended for passenger service in rural areas of low traffic density or short-haul commuter service. They were less expensive to operate as they were self-propelled diesel multiple units (DMU), used singly or coupled together in train sets, controlled from the front unit's cab. RDC cars were the first example of self-contained diesel multiple unit trains, an arrangement now in everyday use by railways worldwide. The Budd company designed five basic variants of the RDC: RDC-1: 85ft passenger cars (the same design as our new arrivals!); RDC-2: 85ft baggage and passenger coaches; RDC-3: 85ft railway post office with a baggage compartment and some passenger seating; RDC-4: 85ft used strictly as a railway post office and baggage car; RDC-9: 85ft unpowered passenger trailer with room for 94 passengers. The Buddliner was one of the few DMU trains to achieve commercial success in North America!

Seating Capacity 68-76

Car 2018

Safety Car

This car was built in January 1954 by American Car Foundry (ACF) as a sleeper car numbered UP 4585. In February 1966, Union Pacific (UP) rebuilt the car into a 44-seat long-distance coach and renumbered to UP 5545 and named "Alpine Grove." The car continued to operate in New York and Pennsylvania, USA. AMTRAK purchased the car in 1973 and used until the car was retired in October 1981. It was not until 2018, that the car was purchased by Crosskey Marketing and renumbered to Car 2018. At one time, the car sustained water damage which required a complete remodel to reach its present state for service for use as an "onboard railway safety classroom" with the Canadian Safety Train Express. The car is utilized on Wheatland Express excursions experiences.

Seating Capacity 38