Southwest Manitoba Elevator Trip, Part 2 - There Will Always Be A Ninga

Killarney

In part 1 we covered the section from Winnipeg to Lena, aka this section:

Today in part 2 we will cover Killarney, Ninga and Boissevain. What, only three towns? Don't worry.. they have a lot of elevators!

All of the towns in this post are on the CP Napinka subdivision.

Killarney

As I approached Killarney I saw the row of elevators pictured above. A good start!

On the east side of town there are three elevators - Tri Lake Agri (owned by Richardson Pioneer), Paterson, and FeedMax, with the former UGG elevator not far away.

The Tri Lake Agri grain elevator is clad in familiar Pioneer orange. This photo is a bit of an optical illusion, as the bins seen on the left are part of the Paterson elevator on the other side of the tracks. This elevator has a capacity of 16,500 tonnes.

This photo, looking west, shows all of the Killarney grain elevators.

You can see the Tri Lake Agri elevator on the left, the N.M. Paterson grain elevator on the right with the FeedMax just beyond it. Way in the distance the former UGG elevator is on the left side of the tracks, and the Pioneer elevator with the blue elevating machinery on its top is on the right. Don't you love the Prairies? You can literally see for miles!

Here's the Paterson complex, a central elevator with bins on both sides. It appears to be very much like the Paterson elevator in Morris. This one has a capacity of 39,500 tonnes, after expansion in 2008.

The FeedMax complex incorporates an ex Paterson grain elevator that became surplus when the concrete Paterson elevator was built.

The real jewel of Killarney is the ex UGG grain elevator downtown. This lovely old structure appears to be unused but has lots of character.

Note the siding on the cupola, different coloured roofs and my Civic doing a little photobombing.

This elevator was a distributor of Proven Seed... which is owned by Crop Production Services, which was acquired by Agrium in 1994. Things change a lot.

The UGG elevator is right at the foot of the main street.

I stopped at a deli to grab a delicious sandwich (made right in front of me), and refueled at the local Co-Op, before continuing to photograph the last grain elevator in Killarney. This is a steel grain elevator, built by the Manitoba Pool, then relabeled for Viterra when the MPE merged with the Alberta Wheat Pool and the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool. Now Pioneer owns it. I told you things change a lot!

This complex has a capacity of 12,500 tonnes.

Ninga

Between Killarney and Boissevain lies the small community of Ninga... a plucky little place that unfortunately seems to be shrinking.

Apparently it was 47 in 2012 and somewhere I found a photo with a population greater than 50.

That lovely house in the background is described further here. A closer look:

Anyway.. grain elevators.. yes, there is one in Ninga, a former Manitoba Pool elevator.

There is still a siding here, but judging by the rusty rails, the profusion of weeds and the jammed flangeways, it hasn't seen service in a while.

It's nice to see the locals have a sense of humour.

Ninga has a lovely church, quite large for the current size of the town.

Anyway, enough of Ninga... lovely place, but I had to move on to Boissevain and its many elevators.

Boissevain

The Boissevain grain elevators

First up was this lovely Paterson elevator on the east side of town.

The elevator is still in use, as evidenced by the grain truck I saw inside.

There's a nice old outbuilding too.

There's a grand old church across from this elevator, the St. Pauls United Church of Canada.

This lovely building was a Methodist church built in 1893. You may know that the majority of Methodist churches merged with the Presbyterian Church and the Congregational Union of Canada to form the United Church in 1925. I used to be a member of the United Church, certainly one of the most progressive churches in Canada, if not the most.

Next down the line is the former Manitoba Pool "A" elevator. It is well known because of the large mural on the elevator.

It's difficult to get the whole elevator in one photo because of its proximity to downtown and nearby buildings.

Nearby is the former UGG elevator, which was on a spur but has no rail service now.

You can see where the UGG shield was painted over.

Here's a sidewalk view of the elevator.

Notice the driveway is wide open. I presume it is still being used for storage.

From the sidewalk, I was able to use my long lens to take a few interior photos. Here's the selector wheel used to select what bin the grain flows into.

Here's the ubiquitous bin chart showing what's in each bin. I think the green one is for the annex and the blackboard is for the original elevator.

Here's my page on Boissevain grain elevators.

The final Boissevain grain elevator is a Viterra concrete elevator just west of town. I'm quite sure I took a non-optimal route to get there but by then my Civic was used to driving on dirt roads.

I took a quick look back at Boissevain before carrying on to Deloraine and beyond.

Continue to part 3!