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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! ;)

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!

Chasing Down the Glenboro

In early September I found myself out at Diamond, looking for a little train action. When I arrived there at 11:15 AM I found a CP train waiting to go south on the CP Glenboro subdivision.

CP 8610 waiting at Diamond

The train, as it were, was two CP locomotives and zero cars. CP 8610 and 8917 were patiently waiting for their turn to cross the diamond. They waited... and waited...

Half an hour later, a westbound CN train rolled into view, led by CN 2302 and CN 5656.

CN 2302 at Diamond

The CN train rattled and banged across the diamond. I tried my timing to capture the CP train between two freight cars. After numerous photos I did manage to get it.

You can see that the CP crew had opened the front door by this point, maybe to let a bit of air in.

After the CN train passed, the CP crew got the light to cross the diamond and they did so just after noon.

CP 8610 and 8917 crossing highway 427

The chase was on!

I decided to continue west on 427 then head south on 424 to meet up with highway 2. The track crosses 424 near the community of Springstein. At one time there was a CP siding in Springstein, together with a post office, school and church. It still has a church but otherwise it is a collection of houses.

I was able to get there ahead of the pair of "toasters" to capture them approaching the highway crossing.

Toasters in Springstein, MB

After that, it was a simple matter of getting on highway 2 west toward Starbuck. I arrived well before them and had a quick look around. There were no cars at the Pioneer grain elevator so I knew they weren't going to stop there. I decided to try to incorporate the two model grain elevators into the shot so I walked around a bit to get the right angle. Soon the locomotives rolled into town.

As it happened, they stopped at the highway 332 crossing for the conductor to flag them through, so I had time to grab a quick shot of the locomotives and the elevator before getting back to my planned shot.

Here's the shot I had planned.

Back in the car, and off to the next spot...

I couldn't resist trying to grab the locomotives on the curve out of town, with the elevator behind them. In retrospect I should have gone just a bit farther so the elevator and the engines were closer together.

The next spot was Fannystelle. Again I arrived well before they did, so I had a few minutes to decide what to incorporate into the shot. I decided to try to include the Stevens Lumber building. Here's my attempt.

I'm sure the crew were sick of seeing me by this time!

Here they are passing the Viterra elevator in Fannystelle. Notice that there are railway cars spotted near the elevator. I believe there were 4 or 5 BNSF grain cars there, but the CP locomotives carried on without stopping.

I decided to grab them between Fannystelle and Culross, and I framed up the handy hay bale to include in the shot.

That might be my favourite.

I wanted to get the locomotives with that nice white Paterson elevator in Culross. My 18-55mm lens was not quite wide enough but I did manage to fit the whole elevator in. Barely.

The problem here is that the highway was right at my back so I couldn't go back farther without standing in the road, and that's not terribly safe!

Elm Creek was next. Surely they were stopping at the Cargill elevator there!

Nope... they rolled right past the giant fire hydrant in Elm Creek and through the town.

The Elm Creek fire hydrant really is that big

I guess they were going all the way to Rathwell. I gave up the chase at this point (13:05) and photographed the new-to-me Cargill switcher in Elm Creek.

Cargill switcher and grain elevator

That green structure to the left of the elevator proper was added recently, and I believe a track or two were also added.

CRGX 602 is an SD38, originally a Penn Central unit.

CRGX 602 in Elm Creek, MB

It's new to Elm Creek, presumably acquired after the expansion of the Cargill facility there.

That was the end of my chase. Here's the map showing where I chased. For most of the trip, highway 2 runs very close to the Glenboro subdivision.

That was fun! :)