Down Weyburn Way

My wife and I went to visit her best friend near Regina in late October. I had most of a day to myself, so I went in search of trains and grain elevators.

After some thought, and input from fellow railfans, I decided to head “toward” Shaunavon. There were a few grain elevators I wanted to see, especially Horizon, and there are a few short lines down there.

I started by heading west to Moose Jaw. I dropped by the CPKC yard and took a few photos of track on the CN / Southern Rails side. I’ll be honest, my Moose Jaw photos are pretty dull, mostly just documenting the area. Here’s a photo of the ready power at the shops downtown.

From Moose Jaw, I backtracked to Pasqua and drove down highway 39 to Weyburn.

Wilcox

At Wilcox there was a string of covered hoppers at some kind of loading facility.

South of Wilcox, CP 8921 was holding the main… for what?

Initially their headlights were on, leading me to believe that they were heading north. Eventually they turned them off and indeed the front door was opened. The mysteries of railway operations.

Their tail end was near the large Pioneer grain complex at Corinne. Local switcher MRI 2180 was working.

Two CPKC units, CP 5001 and 2325, were sitting on a separate track.

Farther south, I encountered a train in the loop track of the Viterra grain terminal outside Weyburn. This was new territory for me.

You can see a person on top of the cars. They open and close the doors on the car roofs.

KCS 4809 was mid train in the loop track.

I went into Weyburn, looked around a bit, then spent half an hour trying to go west on highway 13. The junction of 13 and 39 was under construction and you had to detour… but the detour was very poorly signed.

Anyway, off I went.

There used to be track from Weyburn to Assiniboine, but the section from Weyburn to Pangman was removed.

Pangman

The town of Pangman hosts an ex Saskatchewan Wheat Pool grain elevator, and is the eastern end of the Red Coat Road and Rail shortline railway.

The elevator was badly damaged in a wind storm in early 2021 (photos) but it was repaired. You can see the repairs to the top of it and to the driveway.

I spoke with a local resident and she said the elevator is still in use today.

Heading west…

Amulet

I was surprised to see a lot of track at Amulet – four tracks in total! I have no idea why there are so many tracks there. At one time there was a wye, with the CP Amulet subdivision heading north from its namesake town.

This rail is in the closest track, which is a little apart from the other three tracks. It says “CPR 80 LBS BV&Co Ld / 1903”

Ogema

Ogema is the home of the Southern Prairie Railway, a tourist railroad that runs from Ogema east to Pangman, or west to Horizon.

All was quiet when I visited. The station was closed, their 44-ton ex Maine Central locomotive was not in sight and neither was their coach, Mount Holly. I saw the end of baggage car #404925 and freshly repainted caboose #434590. I assume the locomotive was in the red building below.

The Southern Prairie also has a hi-rail pickup truck, seen below.

The string of grain cars at Ogema were lettered for GWRS (Great Western Railway).

Horizon

Horizon, Saskatchewan was one place that I really wanted to visit. It has two grain elevators – one with the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool logo proudly still on display, the other bearing faded Federal markings. What’s not to like?

One of the rails in Horizon was made in 1936, 85 pound rail made in Algoma, Ontario.

I brought the drone out, quickly, to photograph these two beauties from the air.

I was short on time – and drone battery power – so the flight was brief, but I got what I wanted.

Kayville

There was no easy way to get to Pense from Horizon. The best way was probably to continue west to highway 36, head north to Moose Jaw, then take the Trans-Canada Highway to Pense.

I never seem to take the easy way, so I took the more direct but more difficult route across many kilometres of barely paved or totally gravel roads. I was also running short on time.

Going the “back” way brought me past Kayville, a town that was on the CP Amulet subdivision until 1998. It still has a grain elevator, and a few decrepit churches.

Maybe I shouldn’t call the church below “decrepit”. It looks like the St’s. Peter & Paul Romanian Orthodox Church (established 1908) has a new roof and some new siding, but its gate needs some work.

40 more kilometres brought me to…

Avonlea

The town of Avonlea, SK was the home base for the Southern Rails Co-Operative, Saskatchewan’s first shortline railway. They serve customers from Avonlea to Moose Jaw along the former CN Avonlea subdivision.

Most of SORA’s operations are in Moose Jaw, where they handle interchanges between CN and CP with their locomotive, GMTX 2238. They serve Avonlea and Briercrest and Truax, with a loading point at Tilney.

I saw GMTX 2238 back in 2015 when it was still working for the nearby Stewart Southern Railway. Today 2238 is still blue but of course it doesn’t have the SSR on the side.

Avonlea was filled with stored tank cars, both at the elevator and south of Avonlea on the stub of the track that used to run to Parry.

Avonlea has a nice museum, including a train station.

If I had more time, I would have explored Truax and Briercrest, but it was approaching supper time and I had to get back to Pense. Another time, maybe.

From Avonlea, it was basically a straight shot north, crossing the CP Weyburn sub (again) briefly before resuming the gravel roads to the Trans-Canada and up to Pense.

It was a good trip.