Grain Elevators + Abandoned Railway Remains

Exploring grain elevators and railway buildings
in Saskatchewan, Manitoba + Alberta. There is a main focus on abandoned grain elevators and railway stations in Saskatchewan.

The prairies were established by the railways. Most towns (not all) were formed by the railway. The best way to find old towns and abandoned buildings is by following the railways. This isn’t always the easiest as many of the rail lines are long gone – pulled up and overgrown. Grain elevators were all over the prairies, each town would have multiple elevators and trains were the way to get around. Today, wooden grain elevators are no longer needed as larger concrete bins were built that hold much more and serve a large area.

Corey has always been interested in old elevators. His dad worked as an engineer for the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, so you can imagine that grain elevators were a bit part of their lives. Corey has always enjoyed photographing elevators, he follows old rail lines and documents the remains. He started in the 1990’s so his collection is quite vaste. He also inherited a collection of film images of Saskatchewan Wheat Pool Elevators from many years ago. He has scanned these images and has shared them online, the project was originally called “prairiepast”. That project has been archived and will be shared on this account.

Today, we document elevators and railway remains through photography, video and drone footage.