Grain elevators all in a row. The folks who grew up in Three Hills Alberta had somewhat unique bragging rights. They hailed from a ‘seven elevator town’ and that was a pretty rare thing even back in those days. At one time this line up was an important stop for the CNR on its line between Edmonton and Calgary but now all are gone. Better roads, bigger trucks, and the bottom line has forced farmers to haul their grain to bigger markets and that has rendered these sentinels of the prairies obsolete.

Nearly 3000 of these buildings have come down over the past 10 years but there are still a few left to visit and photograph. Even in the diesel age. But if your modelling the 70’s, or earlier of course, they’re a must for every grainger layout. Perhaps not a many but one ore two to be sure.

My three grain elevators were built from scratch simply because there was no off the shelf product to get me started but there are plenty of small scale models out there today. Just remember, they may look alike but they were all different in colour and/or detail. Keeps it interesting.