Return to Snowflake

Snowflake, Manitoba

Recently someone asked me about the status of a caboose near La Rivière, Manitoba. This caboose was at the Archibald Museum, which is located northeast of the town. The museum closed in 2016 but it's not clear what happened to the collection. Time for a road trip!

I convinced my family that this was a good idea. My wife always wants some kind of destination, so we decided to have supper at GG's Drive Inn in Somerset. I read the reviews and it sounded like a good place.

Heading South

We hit the road after lunch on May 20th (a Sunday). This is the route we took.

Naturally I planned to return home by a different route. There were grain elevators to see!

I took a photo of the Pioneer grain elevator near Brunkild, because I had seen some work being done to it the last time I passed through. I think it was just track work but it's always good to document when you can!

Pioneer grain elevator near Brunkild

As we passed through Carman, I took a few photos of the yard area near Linear Grain. Linear's elevator is behind these two Cando / CEMR gondolas.

Cando gondolas in Carman, Manitoba

After we left Carman, we passed by Jordan's elevator en route to Morden and Manitou. I stopped in Manitou to take some photos of Boundary Trail's two GP9 locomotives, ex GT 4625 and ex CP 8208.

Boundary Trail locomotives in Manitou, MB

We carried on to La Rivière and immediately headed north. We headed north on route 242, which is a gravel road. The former museum is located a few kilometres outside town, basically in the middle of nowhere.

The Archibald Museum

I knew the museum was closed. My intention was to see what was left - from the grid roads around it - and see if I could spot the caboose.

I stopped by the former entrance and photographed a monument there. It documents the Wallcraft Homestead, founded in 1878.

As I finished doing that, one of the property owners drove up. I introduced myself and told her why I was there. I understand they are very concerned about vandalism and theft and I assured her I would be taking my photos from the road. We had a brief conversation and she left.

I didn't see the caboose, but I did take this long distance photo of the former La Rivière train station, which was moved here.

The former La Rivière train station

This station is fairly unique. It was built in 1898 and is the last Canadian Pacific plan #3 station remaining in Manitoba. Its mansard roof is a unique characteristic.

It's a shame it's not open to the public, but that's the choice of the owners.

There's a school marker nearby, which I wrote about in a guest post on Everybody Has To Be Somewhere. That's a blog you should read if you like abandoned places.

I mentioned that the town of Snowflake was pretty close. My wife was agreeable, so we turned south and drove there.

Snowflake

The grain elevators of Snowflake, Manitoba

Snowflake is my favourite Manitoba ghost town. It has two grain elevators and several interesting abandoned buildings. The Federal grain elevator is pretty special.

It isn't exactly a real ghost town, because there are a few houses still occupied. In fact, there was a sign on the highway directing people here for "FARM FRESH HONEY AND EGGS". I thought I heard music coming from this building.

Regardless, nobody was visible when we visited here.

The town has several old businesses along the main street, which is fairly unusual as these tend to get torn down as prairie towns decline.

A few of the buildings have prominent NO TRESPASSING signs on them.

After the CP Snowflake subdivision was abandoned in 1977, the town declined. The school closed in 1992 and the United Church closed in 1994. There is still a community centre building but I am not sure if it is still used.

There are markers for the church and school in the town, and the bell from the school is mounted on a stand. My children were happy to pose by it.

The Snowflake school bell

The stars of the town, from my point of view, are the two grain elevators.

Grain elevators in Snowflake, Manitoba

Note the spout on the silver elevator, hanging in mid-air.

I don't know what happened to the top of that bin!

The Federal elevator is looking a little worse than it did when I visited in 2014.

I never actually wrote about my trip to Snowflake on this blog. I did write about it in Ten Grain Elevator Towns on the Trackside Photographer site, and David Gagnon wrote about his visit to Snowflake in 1989.

As we drove north from Snowflake, we passed this little barn? elevator? which is located in a field near the highway.

It's looking a lot worse than it did in 2014.

Somerset

Somerset grain elevator complex

The two steel grain elevators at Somerset are looking good. These elevators are owned by Delmar Commodities, who moved one of these elevators from La Rivière to here when the CP La Rivière branch was being abandoned. At that time, Somerset was served by the Southern Manitoba Railway, but unfortunately the SMR folded and now Somerset has no rail service.

The elevator still has the La Rivière name on it.

There was a Delmar Commodities truck trailer near the elevators.

Delmar Commodities trailer

We went to GG's Drive Inn and had a great meal. I had this tasty burger and we shared some onion rings.

If you're ever in the Somerset area, drop in for a meal!

The Return Trip

CRGX 602 in Elm Creek, Manitoba

After our meal, we headed north to Rathwell, then headed east along highway 3 to Winnipeg. Along the way, I photographed the elevators in Elm Creek, Culross, Fannystelle and Starbuck in the sweet evening light.

Cargill grain elevator in Elm Creek, Manitoba

Paterson grain elevator in Culross, Manitoba

There was some work being done to the Culross elevator.

Note the small elevator to the left of the Viterra elevator, below.

Viterra grain elevator in Fannystelle, Manitoba

Pioneer grain elevator in Starbuck, Manitoba

Cargill, Paterson, Viterra and Pioneer - most of the big names in grain in Manitoba. I wrote a post about the grain elevators of the Glenboro subdivision back in 2014.

That was our trip to La Rivière and Snowflake. I like these trips... and we're taking another one in a few days to Boissevain. More grain elevator photos to come! ;)

You might want to read my marathon Southwest Manitoba Elevator Trip series to get ready! ;)

That's My Fun Day

Head on into Sunday morning

I wish it was Sunday
That's my fun day
My I don't have to run day
- Manic Monday, Bangles

You may have noticed that I sometimes go out railfanning on Sunday mornings. Sunday is indeed my "I don't have to run day" as the Bangles so aptly sang. Saturday morning is usually spent at my son's curling rink and weekend afternoons are family time. Sunday mornings... often they are my time.

This past Sunday (February 12th) was one of those fun days. I woke up at a reasonable hour, had breakfast, then hit the road. I had a notion to visit the CN Rivers subdivision for a bit, then head up to the CP Carberry sub and hopefully catch a train there.

Track 1 - Manic Monday

First catch was an early train on the Rivers, a westbound heading out of the early morning sun. Not the best light, but you do what you can. I parked near Carman Junction and got the photos above and below at that location. The train was led by CN 5708 (SD75I) and CN 2153 (C40-8W) and featured a lot of autoracks.

CN 5708 rounding the bend at Carman Junction

I hopped in my car and headed west to try to catch them around Diamond. It was not hard to get ahead of them, as the road conditions were good. I shot them splitting the west-facing signals.

CN 5708 splitting the signals at Diamond

I didn't chase them any further. I wasn't really sure whether I should head up north to CP yet.

I had a feeling there was going to be an eastbound freight coming along. I'm not sure why I felt that way.

Track 2 - In A Different Light

I went westward a bit along the CN Rivers sub, and at the route 424 crossing I saw a headlight to the west. I looked around a bit for a suitable location and found a snow ridge to stand on to get a bit of elevation.

As the train hurtled closer I saw that it was a potash train, led by another SD75I, CN 5672, and a Dash-9, CN 2536. They were really moving!

CN 5672 and a lot of potash cars in the snow

Fortunately a westbound train in the morning put the train in a different light than the earlier eastbound.

Those PotashCorp hoppers kicked up a lot of snow.

Mmmm, potash

I decided to give chase and maybe get ahead of them for another shot. Since they were an eastbound, the light would be a lot better.

Track 3 - Walking Down Your Street

As I pursued them, it became clear that there was going to be a meet, as the headlights of another westbound were visible in the distance. I had one thing on my mind - to catch the westbound train quickly, then resume the chase.

Dash-9 (C44-9W) CN 2644 was leading the third SD75I of the day, CN 5716, and a solid grain train.

A different light - side light, in fact

The lighting wasn't great and the location wasn't so good either, but hey, I took a few quick shots and I was back on the chase again...

Track 4 - Walk Like An Egyptian

(man, I loved that song)

I passed Diamond, finally catching up to the end of the potash train. As I slowly gained on the train, car by car, I saw another westbound train rolling by on the south track - a container train. I made a quick decision and gave up on the potash train.

A quick U-turn brought me back toward Diamond to get the container train. No cops - maybe they were hanging out at the donut shop. I pulled over down the road and ran out to grab CN 2968 (ES44AC) at the head end of what I assume was Q101, a hot intermodal train.

CN 2968 leading a container train outside Winnipeg

The train rolled along pretty swiftly, and after a few minutes the mid-train DPU came into view, an ET44AC, CN 3069.

CN 3069 mid-train outside Winnipeg

It was turning into quite a nice morning!

Remember these chairs? Still here, apparently.

Another ES44AC was on the tail end, CN 2961. This one was pretty snow covered, which made me wonder if maybe this was the leader on an eastbound train earlier, and was now heading back west.

Ummm, you have a little something on your face.

After that, I figured if I was going to go see CP, I'd better get on with it.

Track 5 - Standing in the Hallway

I headed up the Perimeter Highway to the CP Carberry sub. There were two CP trains there, passing each other on the two tracks!

I was amazed, because it's good luck to see even one CP train these days. One was heading east into Winnipeg and one was heading west. I had no chance of getting the eastbound before it reached the yard, so I went west, young man.

It took a while to catch up to it, as you have to slow to 50 km/hr through Rosser and the road isn't parallel to the track all the way along. I got ahead of it before Meadows and elected to shoot it with the elevator. Here's the "coming" shot as they approached the Paterson grain elevator, which was off to the left of the photo.

CP 9371 West through Meadows, Manitoba

Since it was morning and the sun was in the east, I couldn't shoot a conventional "passing the elevator" photo without some severe backlighting. I decided to try this shot instead. I'm fairly happy with it.

CP 9371 and the Meadows elevator

Note the birds deserting the elevator as CP 9371 and CP 8702 rumbled by.

I moved around a bit to try different angles as the seemingly endless container train rolled by. I shot the DPU locomotive, CP 8828, from more of the sun side.

CP 8828 passing the Meadows grain elevator

I tromped through the snow to get the last shot of the tail end of the train passing the elevator. Good thing I had my winter boots on!

Container train and grain elevator

I see that CP is carrying Canadian Tire containers again. For a while they were on CN... maybe they are on both now. Anyone know?

So that was fun, but it was time to start heading home.

Track 6 - Return Post

I passed through Rosser again - 50 km/hr grumble grumble - and as I approached the Viterra elevator by the Perimeter Highway, I saw headlights on the rails. Another train!

The funny thing was that the headlights were high on the hood, not in the nose like Canadian locomotives have. At first I thought it was an American locomotive like a Norfolk Southern engine, but it turned out to be CP 2304 running long hood forward.

CP 2304, running long hood forward

CP 2304 is a GP20C-ECO locomotive, one of the rebuilt Geeps featuring a standard cab and an 8 cylinder 710 prime mover. I'm not sure why it was running long hood forward; I'm sure the crew wasn't big fans of the reduced visibility.

I'm quite sure this locomotive and train were headed to Portage la Prairie. The train had the following cars:

• CRYX 5362, 5349, 5359, 5353, 5590, 4037, 4033, 5374 - Cryo-Trans refrigerated cars, likely for McCain Foods in Portage;
• TGRX 854834 (lettered for Richardson) and GACX 10003 (lettered for GATX) - for the Richardson plant on the west side of Portage;
• TILX 793096 (Trinity Industries Leading) - refrigerated car for Simplot just west of Portage; and
• CRYX 5381, CRYX 5377, CRYX 5364, and CRYX 5296 - probably also for McCain

CRYX 5296 and other refrigerated cars

Often there is a CP locomotive stationed in Portage la Prairie, but I understand that recently the crew either takes the locomotive from Winnipeg to Portage or taxis from Winnipeg to Portage.

I didn't chase the train, but instead headed south. I had some time left so I thought I'd touch base with a few grain elevators and maybe get lucky and catch one more train.

Track 7 - If She Knew What She Wants

There was nothing moving on the CN Rivers sub, nor the CEMR Carman sub, so I headed down the CP La Riviere sub toward La Salle and Domain.

The La Salle grain elevator

The La Salle grain elevator looked much the same as the last time I saw it. The elevator has a bit of a lean toward the track, but it's had that for several years at least. Hopefully it doesn't get worse.

I went to the south end to shoot and a few snowmobilers were zooming by, so I caught one of them in the photo.

Snowmobiling in La Salle, Manitoba

I'd say this looks like fun, but I haven't been on a snowmobile since I was a child. My dad was involved in two snowmobile incidents and let's just say that they didn't exactly endear me to snowmobiles.

1. While we were living in the Soviet Union, we were staying at a dacha [cottage] outside Moscow for a few days. My dad borrowed or rented a snowmobile, which happened to have a broken windshield so it had a jagged edge on it. While driving it, he managed to get into an accident and cut his chin on the windshield, requiring stitches... without anesthetic, of course, because this was the Soviet Union.

2. Back in Canada - either before or after our trip to the USSR, I'm not sure - we were visiting my mom's parents at their farm outside Fredericton. My dad had a snowmobile and I was on the back, and we headed out to run over the farm land. My grandparents had a few hundred acres so there was plenty of room to ski or snowmobile. I did a lot of cross-country skiing there.

Anyway, at one point I fell off the back and my dad didn't notice for a while, so I was left alone in the "wilderness" for a while until my dad noticed and came back for me. I wasn't interested in snowmobiling after that.

Track 8 - Let It Go

After La Salle, it's a short drive over to Domain to see the ex Manitoba Pool grain elevator there.

I love these Prairie town signs

I'm pretty sure the elevator is privately owned now. I've seen single grain cars spotted at the elevator so it is still in use.

The Domain, Manitoba grain elevator

That was the end of my "fun day" morning. I hope you liked it, and I'll leave you with a question:

What is your favourite Bangles song?

Leave a comment and tell me why!

Finishing the Job: Part 2 - CP's Turn

This is part 2 of a series photographing grain elevators in Manitoba. (Back to the start / ahead to part 3, part 4, part 5)

Binscarth

After I finished photographing the grain elevators of the former CN Rossburn subdivision, I carried on to Binscarth, mile 76.6 on the CP Bredenbury subdivision.

The town of Binscarth was the junction of the Bredenbury and CP Russell subdivisions. There is still a remnant of the Russell subdivision, a wye and a few miles of track. This was (maybe is still?) known as the Agricore spur and leads to this Viterra grain elevator north of town.

Viterra grain elevator, Binscarth

This elevator was an Agricore elevator, built to replace the Manitoba Pool elevator that was in town.

Mile 1.05, Agricore spur, Binscarth

There were several maintenance-of-way (MOW) cars on the wye.

Gons on the wye

There is a much larger grain elevator southeast of town, the Paterson inland terminal.

Paterson inland terminal, Binscarth, MB

This baby can hold 21,600 tonnes of grain. There were quite a few grain cars nearby, including this interesting Union Equity car, reporting mark GROX 60652.

I grok the GROX

There is one more grain handling facility in Binscarth, Marquette grain.

There were also quite a few maintenance of way vehicles on side tracks in and around Binscarth. I guess track work is being done on the Bredenbury!

Read more on Binscarth's grain elevators.

That was fun, but there were many more elevators to see. On to another spot on the Bredenbury subdivision...

Solsgirth

Marooned car in Solsgirth

The town of Solsgirth looks like a classic Prairie ghost town. It has all the elements: decaying grain elevator, abandoned houses, empty churches, no school... but there is still a bit of a pulse left to this town.

For one thing, Canada Post still delivers here (postal code: R0J 2B0). Another thing: it still has active railway tracks - mile 51.2 on the CP Bredenbury.

When I visited, there was a string of empty flatcars in the siding. They are obviously to carry the maintenance vehicles I saw in Binscarth, based on the rails mounted on the flatcars and the ramps seen at the end of the train.

Flatcars in Solsgirth

The grain elevator is an ex Cargill elevator, the former Manitoba Pool "A" elevator. I don't think it is being used any more but I could be wrong.

You misspelled "GRILL"

There are a few of this "modern" style of Manitoba Pool grain elevators around. Niverville comes to mind right away. The rectangular style with the machinery perched on top may have been modern and efficient, but to my eye it is not attractive at all.

You may have noticed the marooned hopper (SOO 125084) in the first photograph of Solsgirth that I posted. This hopper is up on blocks, for reasons unknown, and its trucks are nowhere to be found. I have no idea what if anything it is being used for.

SOO marooooooned

More on Solsgirth and its history.

Solsgirth is only 15 miles away from where I was last on the Bredenbury sub, at Shoal Lake.

After photographing the two churches in Solsgirth (more later), I moved on to Birtle, mile 59.2.

Birtle

A busy little elevator

The Birtle grain elevator was a little hard to find! The town of Birtle is located in a valley formed by the Birdtail River. I followed highway 83 into town, expecting to find the elevator in the midst of town like most prairie towns. However, the elevator (and rail line) is not located there, but is north of the town above the valley. After a few minutes I found the elevator, at mile 59.2. There are a few CP maintenance-of-way buildings there.

CP MOW buildings at Birtle

The elevator is obviously in use.

In downtown Birtle I saw this little elevator in front of the Hewson's store, a nice callback to the Angusville grain elevator.

That was Birtle. Now I left the CP Bredenbury and went on to abandoned rail lines, at Beulah. Ahead to part 3!