Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Postscript: Portage's UGG Grain Elevators

In June, 1984 CP 6021-5995 lead a 70-car grain train eastward into Portage la Prairie from CP's Minnedosa Sub. Featured in the initial post, UGG's Portage elevator at Eighth Street from the north side. A map of grain loading points shows the grain elevators northwest of Portage that the Dundonald high-throughput elevator replaced. Red lines are CP, black lines are CN and the greater the tonnage shipped,the larger the circle, with single-elevator points in light green. Most of the lines shown radiating from Portage will be featured in future Trackside Treasure posts.
Portage's newer UGG elevator outlasted its older counterpart and country elevators at Westbourne and Rignold. Since UGG's Westbourne 2,190-tonne UGG facility already comprises two elevators, rationalization had already taken place here some time ago. Westbourne is at Mi 16.4 of CP's Minnedosa Sub, only two miles from today's concrete Dundonald monolith.
Many unpainted, wooden annexes were added during World War Two, to accommodate additional grain harvested for the people of England and the war effort.
Several cars are being loaded at UGG's 2,300-tonne elevator at Rignold at Mi 9.9 of CN's Gladstone Sub , during this 1984 visit. It's a pale shadow of Dundonald's massive 62-car spot:

Running extra...

Watch for CN's Oakland Sub, CP's Carberry Sub east of Portage, CP's Carberry Sub west of Portage, CN's Rivers Sub in future posts. As wooden elevators are replaced by concrete plants, these classic Canadian granaries are definitely viewed as treasure at trackside. I was fortunate to be able to borrow my aunt and uncle's car to visit them in their heyday.

The tree is up, the lights are strung, the balls are dangling and the stockings are hung by the chimney with care. (Did you know the oldtimers did this to dry out their sodden socks by firelight overnight?) Actually, I could start quite a conflagration by setting alight all the advertising flyers in the newspaper. Poof!

Nothing says Christmas like a train under a tree. CP's Holiday Train (with a tree atop the locomotive cab) is again travelling across Canada gleaning money for food banks along the line. See Jeff Keddy's lineside video of the train at speed at Marquette, Manitoba.

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