The Road to Regina, Part 1

Recently I had to travel to the Regina, Saskatchewan area for work. I elected to drive from Winnipeg using my own car, rather than fly there and then rent a car. This gave me some flexibility on the route and how long I took to get there, so I used that to do a little exploring.

I have traveled the Trans-Canada Highway through Saskatchewan several times, especially the Winnipeg-Regina portion, so I wanted to take a different route to explore new territory. I also wanted to fly my drone over the Isabella and Beulah, Manitoba grain elevators. I missed that opportunity in my 2019 adventures because it was raining.

I set out at 8:16 AM with the Manhattans crooning their big hit, “Shining Star”. A good start.

There wasn’t a lot moving on CN as I drove to Portage la Prairie. I saw a westbound tank train roll into the city but I didn’t manage to capture the head end, except for this long distance view of them crossing the road into town, approaching East Tower.

The tail end was better lit!

Around Portage la Prairie I went. There was no time to dawdle, as I had a lot of road to cover.

West of the city, I saw one eastbound CPKC train rolling into town but I wasn’t able to get it. However, there was another one hot on its heels. It stopped briefly at mile 64 of the Carberry subdivision, just west of highway 305 (and south of the Trans-Canada Highway), near where the Burnside grain elevator used to stand.

They were stopped for only a couple of minutes before they started rolling, so I grabbed a quick video and then continued on my way west.

Just west of Virden, Manitoba, I spotted the resident locomotive of the Parrish & Heimbecker facility out in the sunshine. I took a few minutes to snap photos of it before heading north on highway 83 toward Harmsworth, Miniota and Beulah.

This venerable locomotive is 7 years older than I am! Built as CP 8157 in August 1960, this GMD SW1200RS likely toiled in yard service for many years before its retirement from CP. It was sold to Louis Dreyfus, the previous owner of this grain facility.

I stopped briefly at Harmsworth to photograph the beautiful grain elevator there.

Passing through Miniota, I noted their signs for South Railway Avenue and North Railway Avenue, but there is no track between them any more. Miniota was the terminus of the CP Miniota subdivision, which ran from Brandon to Miniota. It was abandoned in 1980.

North of Miniota, the CN Rivers subdivision passes under the highway. There’s a siding here but not much else. Old telegraph poles linger on, long obsolete.

Finally, Beulah!

By this time, it was getting very windy. I was thinking about whether it was safe to fly my drone, but I reasoned that it was very open near the elevator and there was nothing to collide with – other than the elevator itself.

Unfortunately, none of the USB cables I had with me were working, so I could not use my controller with my drone. I could have done what I did in Plum Coulee last winter – fly it “blind” taking pictures and hoping they would turn out – but I didn’t want to risk getting no good pictures of the elevator. Beulah more than 3 hours’ drive from my house so it was unlikely I would get back there any time soon.

Fortunately I remembered that it was possible to control the drone with just my phone. The drone has a wifi node onboard, and you can join its network with your phone and control it that way. After some online searching, I found the procedure and connected successfully.

I popped the drone up and took a few shots. The drone was not happy with the wind, giving me warnings in the app. I didn’t fly it very high, since the wind generally increases the higher you fly. I got the shots I wanted and landed the drone safely.

Since I was there, I figured I might as well go to Isabella as well. It’s a 11.5 km drive on a gravel road from highway 83, but in general the road was in decent condition.

Isabella has a paired set of grain elevators, lettered for the Manitoba Pool (#188). The old Western Canada Flour Mills Co. Ltd. lettering is showing through on the smaller elevator.

Unlike Beulah, there is a small town around the grain elevator, so there are lots of obstacles. I was very careful where I launched my drone – upwind from the elevator in a clear area.

The drone was really fighting the wind, tilting to offset the force of the wind, and I did not fly for very long before I brought it back down.

Returning to highway 83, I continued north through Birtle and reached highway 16. I considered driving through St. Lazare – a place I have never been – but I wanted to go through Yorkton and Melville. I guess it’ll still be there for another trip.

Heading north toward Russell, I passed Binscarth and the two grain elevators there.

I was surprised to see that CP was working at the Viterra grain elevator.

CP 8817 and KCS 4768 were at the head of a very long grain train.

The Viterra elevator is on the remnant of the CP Russell subdivision that used to run from the main line in Binscarth through Russell to Inglis.

From the highway, I was able to capture some of the train as it slowly pulled past the elevator.

There were a lot of grain cars on the other side of the elevator, too. The facility was recently expanded, with the addition of the three giant bins visible above, and more track to accommodate up to 134 grain cars.

I wished I could stay longer and photograph the train from another angle, but time was a-wasting.

Quickly passing by Russell, I crossed the border into Saskatchewan near Harrowby. I paused briefly to take a selfie…

I look a little terrified..

In part 2, we’ll continue through the wind and rain through Bredenbury, Langenburg, Waldron, Melville and Balcarres before finally arriving in Regina. Stay tuned!