Aylesbury Sask

This Parrish and Heimbecker elevator was recently destroyed, so here is a model of it!

Fairlight and Herschel Saskatchewan Wheat Pools

Here's some of my newer elevators... Herschel and Fairlight Saskatchewan!

Saskatchewan Update

Well, after a lot of work... I managed to get all of the town in Saskatchewan that at least have a history book... not just gave to go to North Battleford, Lloydminister, Saskatoon, Swift Current, Regina, Moose Jaw and Prince Albert... estimate I have about 1000 town in the entire province to search out... with an estimated 200 without any data.

Hopefully I can get this started in the spring, since the weather (as it is) is a bit unpredictable... and I don't want to get stuck in the central part of Sask in the middle of a blizzard!

Check out the main site at: http://web.me.com/difdbs/Vanish_W_Sask/Welcome.html for more info on Western Saskatchewan!

Cheers!

Jim!

Late August update

Greetings!

Well... it will be a week tomorrow of my quick trip to North Battleford, where I found 4 new elevators, including two that no one had the co-ordinates for... one from Tako, Sk... which is located south of Unity on Highway 21, and two farm elevators near Revenue and Luseland.

Also, I had an interview with the Western Producer newspaper out of Saskatoon after I sent them a press release on the Sask website, and so far have received phone calls from Vancouver BC, Churchbridge, Oxbow, Val Marie, Stony Beach and a couple others from people who read the article and who are willing to help out with info they have on their elevators.

Pays to advertise and put out press releases.

I am also planning on heading to Val Marie on October 2nd, to attend a fund raiser they are having there to raise money to help save their two elevators there, and to watch them release ferrets into the Grassland National Park, which is south of the community. Also, they will be having tours of the elevators by a fellow who was an elevator operator in Orkney... so I should be able to get some info on some of the Sask elevators in the area as well.

I am also planning on photographing vators on the way down there as well, including the Pioneer at White Bear!

Hopefully should be a good trip!

August Update

Well... I did it again... haven't updated this again in a while... so here's what's been happening!

- Completed a photo survey of Southern Saskatchewan, from Fox Valley to Consul, east to Coronach and Wood Mountain, up to Moose Jaw and Gull Lake (and all points in between), then up to Leader on Highway 32... which is one of the roughest highways I have ever been on.

- Planning to go up to Marsden, Paradise Valley Alberta, and also to re-shoot the Winter elevator, as well as find some elevator near Tramping Lake, and maybe get to the WDM in North Battleford too.

- Been working on two new calendars... one for Western Saskatchewan and another for Alberta.... this time with farm vators and ones we have lost this year!

- And finally... head down to Central Saskatchewan, and get all of the photos from Laporte to Kenaston, down to Moose Jaw again, and to Beechey, Main Center and a farm south of Verlo.

Will update when I get back from the North central quick trip!

Cheers!

Been a while!

Well... it's been a while since I was on here... but here's a quick update on what I've been doing since March.

- I've designed up a HO scale elevator, and designed up the Rowley, Alberta elevators for a customer near Montreal.

- Designed up an N scale Morinville, Alberta elevator

- did a major photo excursion of NW Saskatchewan, from Fusilier -Rex-Meadow Lake - Shellbrook - Watrous - Biggar - Coleville and other places as well... found at least 161 elevators, which is including the earlier trip in September, 2008. I still have to get to Marsville to find the 2 elevators as well.

- Getting prepared to head down to Southern Saskatchewan in early July for a photo survey down there, and hopefully a quick trip to Fleming.

Other than that, and a planned trip to central Sask as well as Moose Jaw and Regina for research in August... not much else happening.

I will be at the Drumheller Farmers Market on July 1!

Other that that... it's kinda quiet around here! :)

Cheers!

Jim!

Hussar Grain Elevators - 1957

I just received this photo from Dick Clark, taken in 1957. You can see 2 Alberta Wheat Pools, an Alberta Pacific, Pioneer and one other. I remember seeing Hussar with an elevator row years ago.... but it looked quite different from this!

Thanks again Dick!

Finally... an N Scale Cardstock Elevator

After about 9 hours of work.... I finally designed up an N-Scale elevator of the now demolished Morinville, Alberta United Grain Growers elevator. I have it next to a Alberta Wheat Pool from Stirling Alberta to show the difference in size!

All in all, I think it turned out pretty good... but I will admit I hate doing hip roof elevators... they can never seem to fit together perfectly!

Enjoy!

Shonts and Poe Elevator Closeup

This weekend, I was up in Edmonton, and decided to come back home thru the Ryley / Tofield region, and got some new closeup shots of the Shonts and Poe elevators.

This is the Shonts "Hannan and Carver" elevator, but it also has more company names on it as well.

The closeup here shows not only the "Hannan and Carver" name, but two other names (?)... one being Northern Grain Co. and another may have "Co-operative" underneath the "Dirt Shorts"... which makes me think "Alberta Wheat Pool"?

This is one the north side of the elevator, and you can clearly see "Northern Grain Co. Ltd." besides the "Hannan and Carver" name.

This is one of the last standing National elevators in Alberta at Poe. 

Once again, you can see "Northern Grain Co. Ltd." on the north side of the elevator.

I was wondering if anyone has any information on these two elevators. When I did the book, I didn't notice these extra names on the elevators, and didn't find anything in the history books... unless I overlooked something. If you can help, please send info to ncc2920@telusplanet.net.

Thanks!

Trochu Elevator Demoiliton

Trochu UGG grain elevator taken August 27, 2006.

The elevator's annex was taken on February 6, 2009... but I didn't know about it happening until I was notified by a friend in Red Deer about it!

Long shot of Trochu from the east... the Ex-Agricore is to the left, and the UGG is to the right, beyond the steel bins.
Looking at the elevator from the SE.... the bins on the south side are gone!
Looking south.... the annex is gone, and you can see the Ex-Agricore to the left.

Here is the elevator from the west... the whole side has been ripped off!
Panorama view from the west looking at the debris field to the north (left) where the steel bins used to be the south (right)

All the above shots were taken by myself on February 8th, 2009.

Trochu Elevator Demolition Part 2

Panorama view of where the elevator once stood. The elevator was aprox. dead center in the photo.

Long shot looking SE from the north rail crossing... the UGG is gone, but the ex-Agricore / Alberta Wheat Pool is still up.

Demolition of the elevator is complete, but you can notice the concrete supports to the right of the left backhoe

Trochu's ex-UGG elevator has been torn down. It started Feb. 6 with the demo of the annex... and today, on Feb. 14, 2009.... the cleanup continues. 

We are now down to 255 known elevators left in Alberta.