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Driving east along Hwy 13 in southern Saskatchewan, I looked over to the south as thee were a couple of old grain elevators in the distance. And, somehow, from about 2 KM away I picked out what looked to be an engine, rather than the usual grain cars. Talk about luck!!! The hamlet of Horizon is something else. The two existing grain elevators are historically unusual, and the "town" is reduced to a church, perhaps closed, and a couple of houses by the look of it. Might be 10 people there, all told; for it lost its status as a community more than 40 years ago. A Saskatchewan ghost town!! The road in is rough gravel, and the main introduction to the place is a decrepit old shack at the first intersection, surrounded by weeds and neglect. When checking google maps I found it rather hard to believe the drive up to the elevators off the "main road" actually qualified as streets and were given names. And it was very surprising to see a ballast train of the Great Western Rwy to be parked on the siding here; as this is actually trackage of the Red Coat Road & Rail. This is operated by the adjacent Great Western, but I noted a long line of stored cars had severed the two roads, so expected to find nothing but the Southern Prairie Rwy at nearby Ogema, which is a tourist operation and I thought it was now the sole reason for the Red Coats' existence. But the ballast trains' presence suggests a brighter future ahead. GWRS 2000 and 2002 with 5 cars of ballast await the start of the work week, nestled between two of the most unusual elevators I have seen in a while. (The other is to my back) This pair of M420s I suggest have very few years of service left. They were built in 1973 & 1974.
Copyright Notice: This image ©A.W.Mooney all rights reserved.



Caption: Driving east along Hwy 13 in southern Saskatchewan, I looked over to the south as thee were a couple of old grain elevators in the distance. And, somehow, from about 2 KM away I picked out what looked to be an engine, rather than the usual grain cars. Talk about luck!!! The hamlet of Horizon is something else. The two existing grain elevators are historically unusual, and the "town" is reduced to a church, perhaps closed, and a couple of houses by the look of it. Might be 10 people there, all told; for it lost its status as a community more than 40 years ago. A Saskatchewan ghost town!! The road in is rough gravel, and the main introduction to the place is a decrepit old shack at the first intersection, surrounded by weeds and neglect. When checking google maps I found it rather hard to believe the drive up to the elevators off the "main road" actually qualified as streets and were given names. And it was very surprising to see a ballast train of the Great Western Rwy to be parked on the siding here; as this is actually trackage of the Red Coat Road & Rail. This is operated by the adjacent Great Western, but I noted a long line of stored cars had severed the two roads, so expected to find nothing but the Southern Prairie Rwy at nearby Ogema, which is a tourist operation and I thought it was now the sole reason for the Red Coats' existence. But the ballast trains' presence suggests a brighter future ahead. GWRS 2000 and 2002 with 5 cars of ballast await the start of the work week, nestled between two of the most unusual elevators I have seen in a while. (The other is to my back) This pair of M420s I suggest have very few years of service left. They were built in 1973 & 1974.

Photographer:
A.W.Mooney [2139] (more) (contact)
Date: 10/02/2016 (search)
Railway: Great Western Railway (search)
Reporting Marks: GWRS 2000 (search)
Train Symbol: mow ballast (search)
Subdivision/SNS: RCRR Assiniboia Sub (search)
City/Town: Horizon (search)
Province: Saskatchewan (search)
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Photo ID: 25739

Map courtesy of Open Street Map

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6 Comments
  1. The elevator at Ogema loads on a regular basis, as does another producer at Viceroy, so the line does have a future. The M420′s are currently for sale

  2. Is this another digital Mooney shot I see?

  3. Thanks for the info on elevator activity !! And Docta, yeah, another digital. But note they are of stationary subjects. The digital I have is already acting up and I lost some great shots trying to use it. :o ( So I relied on the 30 yr old film camera for most of my photos.

  4. Nice.
    Imagine that before World War 1. My grandfather was a Presbyterean Minsiter to several towns in Saskatchewan. He traveled by horse and buggy in summer and horse and sleigh in winter. I don’t know whether Horizon was one but in that general region.

  5. Simply incredible how you continue to sniff out really cool stuff! Believe 2002 is the ex P&W unit.

  6. Thanks, Stuart. Yeah, I’ve been lucky. It is nice to know that I will never find out what I have missed, though. :o )

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