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Moving Forward
Although I pass through the hamlet of Lyalta AB often enough, for some reason I've never taken the time to shoot a photo of the very unique "Buffalo 2000" elevator that resides there, serviced by CN rail on their Drumheller sub that today ends just east of Lyalta.
This grain elevator built by the Alberta Wheat Pool, followed on from the original Buffalo elevator built at Magrath in 1979, a 170,000-bushel, pre-cast concrete "Buffalo slope" elevator, followed in 1982 by a "Buffalo 2000" built at Lyalta.
The elevator at Lyalta has a capacity of about 190,000 bushels of grain in 30 bins. and although owned by the Pool initially, once the Pool merged with UGG, the elevator was sold to Canada Malting, the owner today.
I understand that the Buffalo design was discontinued because of difficulties during the construction process. The concrete used in the chutes had to be poured under a specific temperature range, or the grain would not flow freely down the chutes. This lead to an unacceptable increase in construction costs.
I find it interesting that this design built from concrete was to replace the old style traditional wooden cribbed elevators, several of which were built after the Buffalo 2000 was constructed!
Interesting design regardless.
