Thursday, September 18, 2014

Grain Elevators of the Glenboro Subdivision

Come with me while I show you the grain elevators still standing on the Canadian Pacific (CP) Glenboro subdivision, from Winnipeg to Souris, Manitoba.

First, let's talk about the Glenboro subdivision. The subdivision runs from Woodman, which is on the CP Carberry subdivision, 3.8 miles west of Rugby aka the yard. At mile 12.4 it crosses the CN Rivers subdivision at Diamond.

In A Grain Elevator Loop, Part 1 I discussed the first four stations, Starbuck, Fannystelle, Culross and Elm Creek. Here's some photos I didn't use the first time.
Starbuck
Fannystelle
Culross
Elm Creek

There's no elevator at St. Claude, and I haven't found any mention of any former elevator there. One has to imagine there was one.

Next is Rathwell. This town no longer has a grain elevator (in 1990 it still had 3!) but it does have a grain facility. Louis Dreyfus has a 42,000 tonne facility just west of town. In fact, the Canadian Trackside Guide says it has an SW1200 for switching. I honestly just took one snap and carried on so I never saw the loco.
Louis Dreyfus, Rathwell

There are no elevators in Treherne, although there certainly were some. They were gone by 2007.

Note that CP has been threatening to abandon a portion of the Glenboro subdivision since 2006. The section between Rathwell and Page had no rail users. Later this was amended to Rathwell to Nesbitt. Surprisingly, in mid 2014 CP removed the Glenboro subdivision from their list of "to discontinue" lines. Back in 2010 I reported that the River Hills Railroad was looking at taking it over, but that's over and the RHR's web site is offline.

Holland is next on the line. It has a lovely Paterson elevator.
Paterson in Holland, MB
Holland is a nice little town. I love these murals showing their civic pride.
Tammy Mahon was on Canada's national women's volleyball team from 2002 to 2012, and was the captain from 2008. She was also a star track and field athlete. Good for her and good for Holland for being proud of her.

Holland even has a windmill.

Next is Cypress River, featuring two elevators, both now Paterson elevators.
Paterson grain elevators in Cypress River
While documenting these elevators, I came across this little fella.
Grain elevatorsssssssssss
It was very much alive, but quite scared of me, and slithered away to do snake things.

After Cypress River is Glenboro. There are no elevators there any more, sadly.

Next is Nesbitt. This town actually features two grain elevators. The first is the former Manitoba Pool grain elevator just east of town.
Former Manitoba Pool elevator, Nesbitt
There is a large Cargill facility a few kilometres west of town. This facility has a capacity of 17,700 tonnes, and when I saw it, it was being served by CP!
Working the elevator
CP 8755 and CP 3079 were doing the honours.
Red Power
There was a crew van at the crossing I was at. I assume these guys were coming off shift when they were done switching.
Cargill near Nesbitt
The next location on the CP Glenboro subdivision is Page, and it has no elevators.

The western end of the Glenboro subdivision is at Souris, where it meets the CP Estevan subdivision. Souris is graced with two grain elevators. There's the former Manitoba Pool elevator, at the junction of the two subdivisions.
Pool Power
Just to the left of the elevator, you can see its replacement, the Viterra "Souris East" grain elevator.
Souris East
This Viterra facility has a LOT of storage tracks!
Storage? We got storage!
There you have it - the remaining grain elevators on the CP Glenboro subdivision. I hope you enjoyed the tour!

Extra - If you are doing serious research, may I recommend the Mendeley program. It tracks your PDFs and research items and allows you to do searching, quoting, and annotation. I use it for my grain elevator research and it is great at search. And it's free!

Extra extra - You might also like Elevators of the Carman Subdivision.

6 comments:

Eric said...

Nice post, Steve. A fine survey of current grainhandling facilities and some cool photography! Thanks for sharing,
Eric

Canadian Train Geek said...

Thanks, Eric, and thanks for reading!

GP9Rm4108 said...

CP's newest system map that accompanies that abandonment list shows Nesbitt to Rathwell as gone.

It shows all the planned discontinuances so they must have made the final decision and axed it.

Brad said...

interesting that you pointed out that the Rathwell facility has a SW-series switcher, I actually saw it once. and also there is a washout just west of Treherne so there is next to no traffic from there to Nesbitt

GP9Rm4108 said...

I can't remember if you pointed out the ex CSX switcher at the Cargill facility just east of Souris.

In the last 48 hours Starbuck was spotted and Fantystelle and Elm Creek were pulled.

Like CP's system map shows, I am sure Rathwell to Nesbitt is off of their radar and it's only a matter of time before it's lifted.

Canadian Train Geek said...

Thanks for the updates, GP9R and Brad. I didn't know about the washout but I guess the subdivision is split now and that section is gone.

I didn't mention the ex CSX switcher at Cargill. I didn't see it when I was there and really wasn't aware of its existence until I saw it in the Trackside Guide.