Hanna CN Railroad Station May Be Moving

This article is taken from the Hanna Herald Newspaper, Volume 94, No. 40 - Tuesday, June 20, 2006, by Karen McKinley, Hanna Herald.

One of Hanna's landmarks, the old CN Station, is about to find a new home as a tourist information centre.

Council passed a series of motions on Tuesday, June 13, to enter into negotiations with three organizations: Henry Kroeger Regional Water Services; Buchfink Construction and Olmstead and Son's Building Movers to get the station moved to its new location on Highway 9 where the current tourism booth stands.

They are entering into negotiations with Henry Kroeger because the land is owned by them, Buchfink Construction to create a basement for the building to sit on and Olmstead and Son's to move the station/

"We wanted to create a bigger, better tourist booth out of the old station to better represent our community's heritage as it used to be a CN town." said Mayor Pat Burns. "The building itself is structurally sound and the engineers approved it for transport. The west end was an add-on that will be removed.

He added the station needed a basement either for more storage space or for displays.

One hundred thousand dollars was set aside in the last budget for the project. If there is any left after the move, Mayor Burns said, they will put it towards more renovations.

The station, like in many prairie towns, used to be the hub of the community, where producers would load dairy and live cattle into cars. Remains of the old cattle loading gates can be still be seen in the reservoir just south of the Doll Palace on the east end of town, where they used to be housed at the stockyards.

It was also a passenger station.

CN no longers owns the building, it is property of the Town of Hanna, giving the town free reign over its maintenance and relocation.

Mayor Burns said moving the station by late fall is feasible if negotitations go well.


The Hanna CNR Station taken by myself in early 2006.

I hope this goes well... since Hanna has one of the few still intact rail road stations in Alberta.

Poster I received from the Elevator Kids

After a few weeks of working on it, then going to something else... my Dad and myself finally got the poster I received from Mrs. Jennifer George and the class of Grades 1 and 2 students from the Prince of Wales School in SE Calgary, Alberta, who are known as "The Elevator Kids".

The frame is made out of old barn wood... we we going to make it out of elevator chute wood, but we couldn't find a piece that would work.

BTW.. the picture of me is not that great... that's because I had just came into the house after one major cloudburst. We got at least 10 mm (4/10th of an inch) of rain in less than 10 minutes.

Crossfield, Alberta

Crossfield is lcoated north of Calgary on Highway 2, and has one elevator that I have overlooked for the last 3 years. This elevator, which is now being used as a seed cleaning plant, was originally a UGG Elevator which was built in the 1970's. You can still see the original UGG Logo where the green drop is.

Innisfree, Alberta

Innisfree is located on the CN main line which runs from Edmonton to Lloydminister.


This National elevator annex is located about .5 miles north of Innisfree on Sec. Highway 870, on west side of road



The National elevator has been proving to be a bit of a puzzle. According to my research, it was built as a National in 1909, but if you look carefully, it has text underneath the National "N" logo.


I'm not sure... but it looks to me like it says "British America" Grain elevator. Interestingly, there was a British America elevator Built in Innisfree in 1909... so maybe the two are connected? This elevator, which is one of two National elevators left in Alberta is located on Russel Melnyk's farm, south of Twp Road. 52-0 On Rge Rd. 10-3.


This UGG annex or elevator is located about 5 miles north of Innisfree on Sec. Highway 870, or about .5 miles north of Twp Rd. 51-4.

Annex WSW of Vegreville

This annex was found WSW Of Vegreville On TWP Rd 52-2 and north on 15-4. No one was around... so I will have to get info next time I am in that area.

Farion Farms

Farion Farms are located WSW of Vegreville, Alberta, and have 3 elevators in 2 locations.



This elevator is located on Twp Rd 52-2 on Range Rd. 16-1 (West Side of Road), and originally came from Vegreville. I am planning to get some more info on it on my next trip up there.



This elevator originally came from a hamlet called Dodds, which was on the CN line which ran from Ryley to Camrose. It is located on the east side Range Rd. 16-1.


The third elevator is located at Township Road 52-2, and Just South on Range Road 15-4. I have no info on this elevator yet.

Royal Park, Alberta

Royal Park is located west of Vegreville on the CN main line from Edmonton to Lloydminister.




This elevator was originally built as a Federal in 1917, and was moved by Barney Welsh to his farm located SW of Vegreville, which is located at Twp Rd 52-0, Just west of Rge Rd. 15-4.

Mr. Welsh was kind enough to show me the inside of the elevator.


Here is a shot looking inside where the weigh scale is located.


This is the leg and wheel which controled the distribution spout at the top of the elevator.


The weigh scale itself. Mr. Welsh told me he still uses the elevator, and just loaded his pickup truck earlier that day with oats for his steers.


Mr. Welsh told me that he had found the signature of a man named Olaf Borge, who helped build the elevator on August 23, 1917. You can barely see his original signature, and you can also see some of the Canadian Wheat Board Permit books from 1948-1949, which showed the elevator was originally from Royal Park.


This picture shows the cover of a magzine which shows the original paint scheme of the elevator and what it looked like several years ago before it was repainted a few years ago.

Inland, Alberta

Inland used to be on the CN line which ran from Vegreville to Ryley to Camrose. This Annex is from the Alberta Wheat Pool, and is located about 1 mile North Of Twp Rd. 52-0 On Rge Rd. 15-3.


This is looking at the annex from the east and rear side.


This is looking from the west, and you can see the Alberta Wheat Pool logo.

Carbondale, Alberta

Carbondale is located on the CN line north of Edmonton which runs thru Morinville. I have been trying to find information on the elevator located there, and as far as I know, there was one there in 1955.


This picture shows the location and history of the railroad station that was there. If anyone has any information on the elevator in Carbondale, please let me know!

Whitford, Alberta

These two elevators were originally located in Whitford, Alberta. The Pineview was originally a Searle elevator, and it and the Pioneer were moved to their present locations in 1975. They are located on Rge Rd 16-0, north of Twp Rd. 57-4.

Boyle, Alberta

Boyle is located on Highway 63, about 1.5 hours NE of Edmonton. This elevator is known as a Buffalo Bin, and there are only three of this type in Alberta, although this one appears to be slightly different in design from the ones in Lyalta and Foremost. It was built in 1986, and was closed in 2000 when Agricore-United opened the elevator in Star, which is about 50 miles to the south. The elevator was bought by two local farmers, and ironically... this elevator is now leased by Agricore-United.

Duffield, Alberta

This elevator has been one of the toughest to find in Alberta. It is located south west of Duffield on Secondary 520, and south on Range Road 3-5. It is about 1.5 miles south of the highway, and can only be seen properly from the SE. It is (as far as I know) the only elevator that has both Searle and Federal logos on it. Searle was bought out by Federal in 1967.

Pictures From AGES Meeting

I was at the Alberta Grain Elevator Society annual meeting up at the Alberta Central Railway Museum, SE of Wetaskiwin on June 10. I met a number of interesting people, got a major update on the elevator histories, and went for a train ride with meeting antendees. All in all it was a good day!


This is in one of the rail cars where we were treated to good coffee and excellent donuts.


Here are all of us sitting in one the passenger cars waiting to go for a ride on their circular track.


Here is our conductor who told us about the history of the rail car, and some of the details about it.

The Elevator Kids

I was at the Prince of Wales Elementary School in SE Calgary today, where I met the Elevator Kids. They are in the Grades 1 and 2, and their teacher, Mrs. Jennifer George, invited me to speak to them after she had read about me in the Calgary Herald last November.





I met with the kids today, and was very impressed with the amount of knowledge they had about elevators. I showed them a slide show presentation I did on Powerpoint, and gave them a copy of the Vanishing Sentinels maps, while they sang me two very cool songs, and showed me a DVD of them going to Edmonton and talking to Gary Mar and Premier Ralph Klein.

I also received a very beautiful poster of grain elevators and a story which the last years class did... when one of the children read it to me... it took a very hard effort to prevent myself from crying. It was that touching!

After I was finished... some of the kids gave me these drawings that they had done of elevators... and they are posted below! These were done by Grade 1 and 2 students, and are very impressive!











Finally... this is an model elevator one of the kids showed me, and I believe he said that he and his dad put it together... this is a really nice job!



All in all... it was a great experience talking to the kids... just wish I had more time to spend with them! I am really glad to see someone is teaching kids about elevator history... because they are our heritage!!!

Here's their website: Check it out! http://www.galileo.org/schools/district-cbe/princeofwales/stories/index1.htm

Indus - Fulton Farms

It's odd... you can go by a location several times and never notice it... until today. This elevator is located about a mile east of Indus, Alberta on Highway 22X, east of Calgary.

Many thanks to the following people

I'd like to thank the following people:

Neil Cory and Al Clark (Info On Beaver River)
Shannon Jansen (Lamont County)
Dale Brown (Nemiskam, Fourty Mile County)
Mrs. Marion Byers (Info on Cherhill)
Donna Mae Grant (Lacombe County)
Don and Ron Law (Info on Chigwell)
The Cochrane Public Library
Noreen Robertson (Strathcona County)
Dan Pritchard (Info On Blue Ridge)
and Larry Bilbin

For all of their help in either getting me information or forwarding me onto someone who could on the history of the grain elevators in those towns.

Without your help... getting this information would have been impossible!

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!!

Naco, Alberta

This ghost town (literally) is located about 21 kilometres north of Cereal, Alberta, on Secondary 886. Virtually nothing of the town is left, except the old store, but this is the site of where Alberta Wheat Pool built it's second elevator in Alberta.


Here is a closeup of the plaque on the cairn.

Loverna, Sask (Now NE of Esther, Alberta)

I have been looking for this elevator since I heard about it last year. This Saskatchewan Wheat Pool elevator was moved from Loverna Saskatchewan to it's present location about 10 kilometres NE of Esther, Alberta around 1983-1984. It can be seen from Secondary 889 going north of Esther to Altario, looking to the east.


You may notice that this elevator is a Saskatchewan Wheat Pool (No. 381), and also has part of a Federal Elevator as well.