A Wee Grain Elevator Trip

On August 4 I took a "wee" grain elevator trip as part of my 2014 photography project (you've visited www.grainelevators.ca, haven't you?). I only had Sunday morning and I had an errand to run, to drop off a print to the owner of the Mentmore grain elevator in thanks for him showing me around. I figured I didn't have much time so I really only planned on seeing one new-to-me elevator, in Justice, Manitoba.

I made a spreadsheet to plan my trip (of course! who wouldn't?) and here it is.

You can see I intended to take the Trans-Canada west, then north to Justice, then visit Mentmore, then revisit a few elevators on my way out. I had a dwell time of 30 minutes at Oberon because I wanted to revisit that fantastic elevator in detail, and I planned on 30 minutes at Harte to hopefully catch a train passing the elevator on the CN Rivers subdivision.

I woke up bright and early around 03:15 and hit the road a few minutes early. After passing Portage la Prairie, I noticed I was well ahead of schedule so I made a quick decision to add two more elevators to my list. There is a new Viterra elevator just north of Brandon on the Rivers subdivision, as well as the old Manitoba Pool grain elevator at Forrest. I had thought about including them in the list before but I didn't think I had enough time.

After a quick stop at the highway Esso for fuel and the local Scottish restaurant for drive-through breakfast, I headed north on highway 10. I came across the old Pool elevator in Forrest quite easily.

Forrest with a new top!?

I spent the next 15 minutes photographing the elevator. It is a bit of an odd duck in that the top has clearly been replaced / renewed while the rest of the elevator, and the annex, is quite weathered. It does appear to be maintained as it is not very overgrown and there is an open Shop-Vac in the truck bay.

Drive Through Service

Back on the road, I quickly spotted the new Viterra facility and took a few photos from the highway.

Service at.. a profit

After 17 minutes of driving, I found Justice.

Been searching for justice? Here it is!

Justice has a classic Manitoba Pool elevator with a largeish annex. The single-track CN main line runs past it but there is no siding for the elevator any more.

Your classic prairie elevator

I spent half an hour photographing the elevator and a few scenes around. I was hoping a CN train would happen along but there was no sign of any rail traffic. There was some nice scenery, though.

Thanks for the photobomb, birds!

I carried on east to Brookdale and territory I had covered before on May 31. I stopped in Brookdale to photograph the old grain warehouse, a classic structure I had intended to photograph the first time but ended up forgetting about! The sun was not in a great position but I did what I could.

Ancient grain warehouse

From there I headed north to Mentmore. I dropped the photo off and took a few photos of the elevator from afar.

Jayson Brothers Limited, Mentmore

After that it was a short drive to Oberon.

Grain Elevator Selfie FTW!

I just love the weathered, forlorn look of this elevator. I spent about 20 minutes photographing it from various angles. Here's the office, viewed from outside.

Needs a little work

From there I headed directly south to Harte.

Bye for now

I was about 20 minutes ahead of schedule!

There was no rail action imminent but I did see a crop-duster working nearby, so I went over and photographed it for a while.

How low can you go?

The plane is an Air Tractor AT-402B, a plane custom made for spraying. It is part of the fleet operated by Ken Kane Aerial Spray Ltd. out of Minnedosa, Manitoba.

Air Tractor AT-402B

My scanner crackled to life with CN 114 calling the approach to Harte around 09:20. An eastbound would look great in the morning sun but it would be a "going away" photo for the grain elevator, as the elevator is east of the overpass I was shooting from. I had my old Canon S3 set up on the tripod to record video while I shot stills with my Canon T1i with the 70-200mm f/4 lens.

That's the shot I wanted

That overpass sure rumbled when those containers rolled by underneath. It was almost scary how close they were!

Interesting stuff in the gondolas...

How would you like your scrap steel?

After CN 114 went by, it was quiet for a while. I heard two CN trains exchanging inspection reports as they passed each other, and then I heard CN 403 call a diverging signal at Harte as they took the siding at 10:00. They crawled past the elevator, with CN 2307 / CN 8009 / CN 5480 / CN 5548 for power.

Taking the siding

When processing these photos, I was surprised to see that the conductor was photographing me!

Say cheese, foamer!

Sergeant stripes forever

The reason for taking the siding became apparent when CN 106 called the approach to Harte.

I set up to record the meet. CN 106 rumbled past with CN 8948 as the sole power on the head end, and CN 8944 as DPU in the middle of the train.

Pleased to meet you

Mid-train blues

CN 403 was rolling before 106 was past, anticipating a quick alignment of the switch so they could leave, and they got it and were on their way at 10:12. So was I, as my schedule said it was time to leave!

I passed Oberon again and took highway 5 south to the Trans-Canada, then headed east toward Winnipeg. As I passed MacGregor I saw two consecutive CN westbound trains. In both cases I pulled over to the shoulder and photographed them from the highway, as I didn't have time to do any more than that.

1. CN 2120, CN 2619, CN 2125
2. CN 5620, CN 2011

From a distance...

Passing Bloom, I noticed that poor CN 114 was stopped there. Clearly they didn't get too far after Harte before having to stop for westbound traffic.

Between Bloom and Portage I saw another train, with CN 8934 and CN 2528.

Love that zig zag!

I went around Portage and kept going. I saw I was making good time so I cut north to the Rivers subdivision just before Headingley, so I could drive alongside the CN tracks between mile 20 and mile 11 and hopefully catch just one more train. I met Brian Schuff at Diamond and we saw a CN train carry on westward  with CN IC 2699 and CN 5452 on the head end and CN 8846 pushing on the rear.

Just a few more trains and I'll be right home to you

Not bad for a (long) morning's work... 3 new grain elevators and 7 CN trains.

PS if you're interested in purchasing any of my prints, my best photos are available on pixels.com. If there's one you want that's not there, contact me and we can work it out.

CN on Wednesday

I headed home from work Wednesday afternoon, taking the long way along Wilkes to see if I could catch a CN train on the way. As it happens I saw lights in the distance just as I was about to take the Perimeter Highway. It was CN 112 on its way into Winnipeg, with GE ES44DC engine CN 2307 on the point.


The train was all containers, with this CN platform full of wheels.


Surprisingly the only two engines on this long container train were 2307 on the head end and CN 8849 pushing hard on the rear.


Little did I know that VIA 2 was coming. I did hear something about "VIA 2" on the scanner but I thought I misheard it as "CN 1 1 2". In any case I didn't have time to wait around.

Later that day, I went to the Winnipeg slide night. I enjoyed all the presentations, and delivered my own presentation on NB Southern. On my way back home, I noted lights to the east when I crossed the tracks on Shaftesbury Boulevard. I drove west a bit to find a quiet crossing and waited for the train to come. I wanted to try my 50mm lens in the dark. It is quite sensitive to light so I figured it would perform better than the wide angle lens.

As I tweeted, the train (CN 115) had CN 8811 leading, and was 10,702 feet with 156 cars.

The video is shaky, due to the lens' lack of image stabilization, my hand-holding and my shivering! Still, I think the lens is good for night shooting. Next time I'll stand back a bit and put the camera on the tripod.

This Day, 16 Years Ago

Here's a slide by David Stowe from June 26, 1994. It features CN 3578 on point with fellow MLW unit 2307 and SD40 5071 trailing. The slide was taken in Hamilton, Ontario.

Strangely enough, 3578 was the newest of the three units shown. CN 3578 was an M-420(W). It was originally built as CN 2578 in 1976, but along with many M-420s it was renumbered to the 35xx series when it had its weight and fuel reduced for branchline service. CN 3578 found a new life on the St. Lawrence & Atlantic Railroad in 1998, then was sold to the Southern Railroad of New Jersey in 2003 (CN Lines web page). There is a photo of it here showing it with SRNJ lettering but still in CN stripes.

CN 2307 suffered a worse fate. It was an older unit, an M-636 built in 1970. It was retired on January 31, 1995 and scrapped just over a year later.

CN 5071 was an SD40 built in 1968. It was retired on November 27, 1998 and was sold to National Railway Equipment. It is apparently still in operation today, in Union Pacific colours.