Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: engine

When I was on a birding day trip with a group of friends, going SE of Calgary on Saturday, 15 March 2014, we called in at the small hamlet of Blackie. I had been there with other friends two days earlier and I had spotted a couple of very distant Eurasian Collared Doves in a tree. When I mentioned this on Saturday, the expectation (lol!) was that, despite my dreadful sense of direction, I would find the same tree again - amazingly, I did, and then my friends spotted about six of these birds in various trees. While we were walking along one of the streets, we saw this massive Cargill grain elevator. Not exactly the most beautiful of structures and definitely not as photogenic as the three old, wooden elevators that apparently used to be along the railway line, just a very short distance away, but still rather impressive. Luckily, a Canadian Pacific train came along while we were there - the wagons that you can see behind the engine on a different track at the far left of the image were already parked there. In 2004, Blackie apparently had 3 elevators, an Ex-Agricore, Pioneer and Agricore United steel elevator. The large, green, wooden elevator was torn down in 2005 and replaced by this huge, modern grain loading terminal. The other wooden elevator, the Pioneer elevator, was torn down in December 2012. It was a fairly modern, seemingly well-kept elevator. Wish I had seen these, but I hadn't plucked up courage to drive SE of Calgary back then. "There were 1,651 elevators in Alberta in 1951, but by 1982 a total of 979 elevators remained. The 1990s spelled the death of the wooden “country” or “primary” elevator. At the end of the 1990s, as the full impact of both of the ending of the Crow Rate in 1995 and further impending rail abandonment was felt, the pace of demolition accelerated at an unprecedented rate. At the end of the 1996-1997 crop year, there were only 327 elevators left. Alberta’s largest cooperative grain companies, the Alberta Wheat Pool (which amalgamated with Manitoba Pool Elevators in 1998 as Agricore) and United Grain Growers, ultimately formed a new corporate entity known as Agricore United in 2001, issuing issued public shares. Demolition of country elevators has continued, and in 2005 there were only 156 wooden elevators of any kind still standing, only a handful of which are used by the grain trade. The Government of Alberta has recognised the significance of the traditional wood grain elevators, and has designated 12 as Provincial Historic Resources. They are located in the following communities: Andrew, Castor, Leduc, Meeting Creek, Paradise Valley, Radway, Rowley (3 elevators), Scandia and St. Albert (2 elevators)." www.grainelevatorsalberta.ca/articles/HRM-history.pdf www.bigdoer.com/2848/exploring-history/grain-elevators-an...

This small model train was one of several that were sent over from England to me, after my Brother died last Christmas. My Father was a keen collector of model trains and also did a huge amount of photography of the various steam trains of the UK and a few parts of Europe. Will be giving each of my kids one of these models to keep, as a reminder of their Grandpa. "The Dean Single, 3031 Class, or Achilles Class was a type of steam locomotive built by the Great Western Railway between 1891 and 1899. They were designed by William Dean for passenger work. The first 30 members of the class were built as 2-2-2s as the 3001 Class. The first eight members of the class (numbers 3021-3028, built April–August 1891) were built as convertible broad gauge 2-2-2 locomotives, being converted to standard gauge in mid-1892, at the end of broad gauge running on the Great Western Railway. A further 22 were built in late 1891 and early 1892, this time as standard gauge engines. Due to their long boilers these engines were unstable, particularly at speed. It was decided that future members of the class would be constructed to a 4-2-2 wheel arrangement to reduce the weight on the front wheels. 3001-3030 were also quickly rebuilt as 4-2-2s. In 1900, George Jackson Churchward replaced the boiler on number 3027 Worcester with a parallel Standard 2 boiler. Twelve further engines were similarly converted in 1905 and 1906. Despite the locomotives' speed, the 4-2-2 design was soon found to be outdated and unsuitable for more modern operation. Although Churchward proposed converting them to more modern 4-4-0s, they were scrapped between 1908 and 1915." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GWR_3031_Class