Aerial Photos of Inglis Grain Elevators

A fellow named Graison Swaan posted a series of photos of the grain elevator row in Inglis, Manitoba to the Facebook Vanishing Sentinels group. These photos were taken using a drone (a DJI Phantom drone I believe) and are absolutely stunning. He was kind enough to permit me to post a few here. There are more in the Facebook group.

Inglis Elevator row - by Graison Swaan

I think that might be Graison standing on the road.

Drone photography opens up a lot of possibilities for the railfan or the landscape/grain elevator photographer.

You can refer to my visit to Inglis in late June. They looked great on the ground but they look just fantastic from the air!

I love this perspective.

The above photo reminds me of the Manitoba Pool Elevator calendar photos. The Pool had an annual calendar with aerial photos of towns with their elevators in them (I have two on my wall), and this would be right at home in those calendars.

The image below is my favourite - looking straight down on the N.M. Paterson elevator.

You can find Graison on Instagram (@graison) and Twitter (also @graison).

Thanks for those photos!

See also:

• Inside the Inglis grain elevators
• Northwest Grain Elevator trip - The Promised Land / Inglis

Please note that some of the links in this article are affiliate links, meaning that I earn a small commission when you buy something after following the link, at no additional cost to you.

Inside the Inglis Elevators

As part of my northwest Manitoba grain elevator trip, I visited the elevator row in Inglis, Manitoba. I wrote about the outsides of the elevators here and now I'm going to write about the interiors.

Inglis has two elevators that are open to the public, the N.M. Paterson elevator on the end and the Reliance grain elevator in the middle of the five elevators. The Paterson office holds the site office and gift shop, so stop in here to find the tour guide and pay your fee for the tour. Don't do what I did and wander into the elevator on your own! :)

The N.M. Paterson Elevator

The Paterson elevator in Inglis is open to the public. You can stick your head in one of the 20 bins to look up to see how far up it goes.

A bin in Inglis' Paterson grain elevator

I used flash to illuminate it as far as I could. I think this bin has been modified somewhat as I don't think they would have had those horizontal boards - a place for grain to accumulate.

This is the selector wheel, used to select which bin the grain would flow into.

Grain elevator selector wheel

This is the manlift for the elevator. Basically you step on it, step on the bar across the floor to disengage the brake, then pull on the rope hand-over-hand to pull yourself (and the platform) up. There are counterweights to make the job easier. On the way down you simply step on the brake lever and you glide down.

The counterweights are calibrated to be a little less weight than the operator. Obviously people who weigh significantly different than the operator can't use the manlift very well. The manlifts at Inglis are immobile, fortunately.

Grain elevator manlift

The balloon annex is filled with a photo gallery and a little movie viewing area. It is all very nicely done. When I visited, they had a display called "Echoes From The Dust: The Disappearing Prairie Grain Elevator".

Most if not all were by Tim Van Horn, who has a great collection of grain elevator photos on Flickr.

The Reliance Elevator

One of the Reliance elevators is also open to the public.

Here's the elevator's "leg" with the door open to show the individual cups that bring the grain to the top for distribution into the bins. The selector wheel is visible at the top.

Grain elevator leg

Here's a look up the manlift "shaft". It's not really a shaft at all and the manlifts are pretty crude as far as person-elevators go.

Manlift shaft

This is the driveway in the Reliance elevator, showing the grating in the floor where the grain was dumped.

Reliance driveway

The Reliance Office

Every elevator had some kind of office, either attached or nearby, where the elevator agent worked. The agent was responsible for the elevator and worked from here when he wasn't in the elevator itself.

The engine that drove the elevator's leg were generally located in the office building, to reduce the risk of fire from the engine. I'm guessing the tin on the walls was to help reduce the fire risk as well. I've seen tin on other elevator office walls as well.

Signs and Details

Here are a few signs in and on the Inglis grain elevators. I've seen some of these at other elevators, especially the second "no smoking" sign.

I love the Ukrainian text

Always make your nightly inspection before closing

A very common sign on grain elevators

Thanks for my guide - she was very helpful - and thanks for reading!

Further reading:

• My northwest Manitoba grain elevator series
• My southwest Manitoba grain elevator series
• Inglis' web site
• A nice video tour of the Inglis elevators

Northwest Manitoba Elevator Trip - The Promised Land

This is part 3 of my northwest Manitoba grain elevator trip. To start at the beginning, go here.

This post will cover the section of my trip from Dauphin to Inglis, on June 27, 2015.

I arrived in Dauphin at about 8:15 AM. Driving downtown toward the train station, I noticed CN 853 was just leaving the town... very slowly.

The station is quite impressive! Back to that soon.

I drove over to the sole remaining grain elevator in Dauphin, a Cargill concrete grain terminal.

I think CN 853 must have lifted a few cars from here as it had more grain cars on it than when I saw it in McCreary and Makinak.

I returned to the Dauphin train station to take a few photos. The sun was dodging between clouds so I had to wait for the right opportunity... that's the story of most of the day, really.

It's quite an impressive station. It was built by the Canadian Northern Railway in 1912 and is now a heritage building. There are a few different businesses and organizations in the station, including a railway museum. Unfortunately it was too early to be open when I was there.

Caboose CN 79727 is located beside the station.

I hit the road west toward my major destination, Inglis. On the way I stopped at two elevators. The first was at Gilbert Plains.

Gilbert Plains

The elevator is lettered for "Federowich Farms". I have no idea if the elevator sees rail service or is in use at all.

Dutton

A few miles down the line, we find the Parrish and Heimbecker elevator at Dutton. This elevator is in active service and is often worked by CN 853/852. Since I arrived ahead of 853, I didn't see it doing its thing. I was on a schedule - no time to wait around!

These cows were unimpressed by my presence.

The Dutton elevator has a LOT of bins. It has a total capacity of 16,500 tonnes which is quite large compared to Gilbert Plains, for example, which has a capacity of around 4,500 tonnes. This large capacity allows it to survive in the era of concrete terminals.

I arrived at the town of Roblin before heading south toward Inglis. Roblin has a train station that is now the home of The Starving Artist, a cafe/bistro/art gallery. I looked inside for a couple of minutes and it looks very neat!

Inglis

For those who don't know, Inglis hosts the only intact elevator row in Canada. Warner, Alberta used to be the other one until the demolition of two of its elevators last fall. Fortunately Inglis is a National Historic Site so it is protected from demolition. I've always wanted to visit Inglis and this day I did.

Inglis was at the end of the CP Russell subdivision, which extended 23.9 miles from Binscarth to Inglis. Originally the subdivision only reached to Russell but it was extended to Inglis in 1922. Grain shipments continued for 73 years until July 1995, and a notice of discontinuance was issued on March 31, 1996 for the entire subdivision.

The site features five elevators, left to right in the photo below:

1. UGG
2. National
3. Reliance
4. Reliance
5. N.M. Paterson

The UGG (United Grain Growers) elevator seen at left was built in 1925 to replace the original that burned down. Note its balloon-type annex at right and the extended driveway protruding from the left.

Next up is the National grain elevator, built by the Northern Elevator Company sometime between 1920 and 1922. It became part of National in 1940 and still bears the National logo.

The elevator was purchased by Cargill in 1974 but was acquired by N.M. Paterson who operated it until its closure.

The original 1930s office is still there. The elevator has two annexes, one crib-style (the tall one on the left) and one balloon-style.

There are two Reliance grain elevators in Inglis.

The smaller elevator was built by Matheson-Lindsay in 1922. It was purchased by the Province Elevator Company in 1928, and that company became Reliance in the 1930s. The larger elevator was built in 1941.

Finally, the N.M. Paterson grain elevator completes the quintet of Inglis grain elevators.

The Paterson elevator was built in 1922 and is open to the public for guided tours, along with the first Reliance elevator.

You've probably noted the CN boxcar. This is exhibited to show how grain was originally carried in boxcars prior to the dedicated grain hoppers of today. Note the grain door used to hold the grain in.

So that was Inglis. I highly recommend you explore their web site, and make the time to visit the site in person!

One parting look at Inglis before we head north toward Swan River and beyond.

PS - I have posted some interior photos of the Inglis elevators.

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