Deleau Manitoba - "Take an Alberta break."
 
It's a slogan Deleau area farmer Ian Robson has gotten used to seeing in recent years.
 
It's plastered in the top left corner on many of the more than 250 rail hopper cars that have sat on the Canadian Pacific (CP) rail line that runs through his rural Manitoba property for nearly four years.
 
"I'm tired of looking at them" Robson told CBC News from his front yard, located east of the community, about 250 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg.
 
"I used to have a good view of the other side of my property. The view is spoiled. Put it that way."
 
Robson said the hopper cars were parked on the line in October 2015.
 
Nearly four years later, more than five kilometres of the dark blue cars with "Alberta" scrawled across in gold-coloured lettering sit idle and empty on the tracks, 258 in total.
 
"They cut right through the middle of my property," said Robson.
 
"Before, I could see what was going on, who was over there, where my cows are."
 
He said while there are breaks in the cars at road crossings along the rural line, strong wind gusts once blew them through a crossing one spring, blocking the only access point to fields in the area because of flooding.
 
The cars were quickly moved once Robson called CP.
 
When the cars first arrived, Robson said the section of line was largely unused.
 
Part of the rail line was ripped out of the ground west of where the cars were parked.
 
He couldn't figure out why they were parked on the line to begin with.
 
"My guess is that CP needed a place to store these Alberta hopper cars, and so they brought them here," he said.
 
Robson said while the fact that the cars block the view of his property is a nuisance, a larger problem occurs in the spring.
 
He said large snowdrifts build up against them in the winter and cause excess moisture problems in part of the field along the line, delaying when he can get out on the field in the spring.
 
Gordon Goldsbourough is a Manitoba historian.
 
When he heard about the rail cars, he went out to the area with his drone.
 
"It's just mind boggling," said Goldsbourough, who is a member of the Manitoba Historical Society, and a weekly contributor to CBC Manitoba's Weekend Morning Show.
 
"I have to think that maybe it's because the government in Alberta wasn't keen to have a large asset sitting visibility idle." Goldsbourough speculated.
 
"They're out of sight of the Alberta taxpayers."
 
All of the hopper cars are owned by the Alberta government, which purchased them in 1980, and were in turn, leased to CP and to CN.
 
Jeanna Friedley, a communications advisor with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, told CBC News in an emailed statement that the cars have not been abandoned and are simply being stored on the rail line.
 
"CP has informed us that they no longer need to lease the Alberta cars," the statement read.
 
"The cars are still governed by our agreement with CP until they are transferred to another railroad or returned to the Government of Alberta," the statement read.
 
Cars to be Leased
 
Robson said the parked cars speak to a larger trend in rural grain transportation.
 
He said the closest elevator to his farm used to be under 15 kilometres from his home.
 
Now, he and others in the area have to move grain by truck long distances to larger terminals after local elevators were closed and torn down, no longer requiring some sections of rail line.
 
"The purpose of the Alberta government buying them was to help out farmers," said Robson.
 
"The use of those cars earns money for farmers, but for the entire country of Canada. They were worthwhile investments and they need to be looked after."
 
Robson said while more than five-kilometres of the cars remain, some were moved away this spring.
 
Friedley confirmed some have been moved after the Alberta government leased 125 of the cars to the Battle River Railway, a shortline railway in Alberta.
 
"The government plans to lease more cars to this railway in 2019 and then to surplus the remaining cars," the statement read.
 
For its part, CP said it is in the process of returning the hopper cars to the owner, but wouldn't provide a timeline for when they would be moved from the area.
 
Robson hopes that day comes soon.
 
"They should be repaired and be used for moving grain. I would like them to be back in service," he said.
 
"That's the purpose."
 
Riley Laychuk.