The Buffalo 2000 grain elevator was a bold design for the time and if it worked as anticipated, would herald in a new era for the Alberta Wheat Pool. Data suggested it’d be a success, and building this one would put theory into practice. It was not just envisioned as a means to supplement hundreds of outdated wood grain elevators the firm owned, but perhaps even replace them all.
It’s the early 1980s and the whole industry was watching.
Ultimately, however, and for a number of reasons, the Buffalo 2000 failed to deliver. The design was replete with problems and only three, of the many proposed, were ever built. This example, one of two left, is still in use and found in Lyalta Alberta just outside Calgary. It can’t be all bad if it’s still around, but that only a handful were made is telling.
Buffalo 2000 Lyalta Alberta: Something new for Alberta Wheat Pool in the 1980s. Pop history with Chris Doering & Connie Biggart (BIGDoer/Synd)
Let’s thank “The Scott Family” of Red Deer Alberta for helping out and sponsoring this post. Be like the Scotts…
This article is from 2016 and lost to a database crash from a few months back. After a bit of reworking and tweaking we’ve reposted it here for your enjoyment. We lost a lot of posts in the 2012 to 2016 range (hundreds), but they were old and due for review anyway. Rather than restore from backups, we’re inventorying the lot and picking out select ones for a do-over (some with new pics, some with originals). Watch for them in the coming months.
At the Buffalo 2000 Grain Elevator in Lyalta Alberta.
From the early 1900s to the 1980s, the wood grain elevator ruled in Alberta and in fact all over the Canadian Prairies. They were everywhere and some are still in use today. The traditional design had proven itself and worked well enough for decades, but by the 1970s was becoming obsolete. Still, they built new ones as late as 1988. The industry had a rather guarded approach at the time and innovated slowly.
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They agreed they needed something new. Something more efficient, up to date, of greater capacity and safer. Wood and grain could be a disastrous mix should they catch fire, so that aspect was of great importance. But quicker and more efficient handling proved a major consideration as well.
Enter the Buffalo series – there were two and we’ll chat about the other soon enough. They seemingly addressed all the problems and on paper looked good. The Pool planned to use them for new construction and to replace older elevators near the end of their service lives (a lot). The first incarnation, the Buffalo Slope/1000 was tried (three built early 1980s) but had limitations, so they soon adopted a second design, the Buffalo 2000.
They built the first in 1982 (Lyalta Alberta, recall) and it’s the very one seen in this report. Not long after and even before the testing phase had yet to be completed, they built another in Foremost (1983). A third in Boyle (1986) followed.
Early on problems appeared. A complex arrangement of internal pockets made them expensive to build and the cost ended up being far more than planned. Unexpected issues occurred with grain flow and clogged bins were common. After the first three, no others followed. The problems were inherent with the designs and with no easy workaround, development stopped. It began with much fanfare, but ended quietly.
Even so, a similar design to the Buffalo 2000 was developed in Brazil (thanks Steve Boyko) but we’re not sure how successful they were. Interestingly the Pool built a few wood elevators afterwards. In the end, the B2K was a failed experiment. Still, any built remained in use and that’s in spite of any functional problems.
By the 1990s, high throughput grain terminals came on the scene and are the current norm. Massive steel, concrete or some combination of the two, they are able to load a whole train’s worth of grain cars in one pass. Compare that to the traditional elevator, or even the Buffalo design, which at best could load a handful at one time. There’s a high throughput elevator just down the tracks from Lyalta, by the way.
The Alberta Wheat Pool commissioned the Buffalos, but if they proved a success no doubt other grain companies would adopt the designs. The earlier Buffalo design, known as the Buffalo Slope (sometimes Buffalo 1000 or simply Buffalo, an odd trapezoidal structure) tested some ideas and the 2000 built upon it.
Both are of concrete, but each is distinct in appearance. It would appear they had similar development timelines and by having a back-up design at the ready was a wise move, even if it too didn’t work out. These futuristic designs garnered a lot of press and were celebrated by the industry, but neither left a lasting mark. The Edmonton firm of Buffalo Engineering was the force behind the project and they closed down soon after they completed the last Buffalo 2000.
In many ways they were transitional designs and had familiar operational elements, but lots of new features too.
The Pool had three Buffalo Slopes/1000s made and two still exist. Like the 2000s, they were a dead end design, but still functioned good enough to use. You can see one here: Grain Elevators of Magrath.
The Alberta Wheat Pool dates to 1920s and functioned as a farmer owned cooperative. For much of its history it held title as the largest grain handler in the province and nearly every loading point in Alberta (a lot) had a “Pool” elevator.
The company merged with a rival (in 1998, becoming Agricore) and then merged again (becoming Agricore United) and again (becoming Viterra) and since then…we’ve lost track. They dumped the collective mindset somewhere along the way.
The Pool’s successor Agricore, sold the Lyalta Buffalo 2000 elevator to Canada Malting just after 2000. This new owner is specialized player who still uses the facility and who graciously allowed us access. Outside a few modifications here and there, nothing major really, the machinery inside is pretty much as built.
The elevator retains its Pool colours and with the the old Agricore sign blanked out. You can see the town’s name on the structure and this was a tradition since the early days.
The routing control panel is interesting and in comparison to its contemporaries of the era, a futuristic feature. The old style man-lift would not be out of place in a 1920s era wood grain elevator.
Canada Malting malts grains – who would have guessed? Read on…
“Malt is a cereal grain – most often barley, wheat, rye or oats – that’s grown under controlled conditions and then dried. You’ll find malt’s distinctive flavour in beer, distilled spirits, vinegar, cereal, baked goods, and many other delicious things. Malting is a process and art that we’ve been perfecting for more than 100 years.” – Canada Malting.
Canada Malting buys and stores malt barley in the Buffalo 2000 at Lyalta and processing is done at other elsewhere.
In the past there were two other grain elevators in Lyalta and both were traditional wood-crib style from the 1920s. These also belonged to the Alberta Wheat Pool (with differing lineages) and together had around half the capacity of the 2000. It was not odd for a grain firm, through acquisitions, to have more than one elevator at a grain shipping point.
A couple years after the completion of the Buffalo 2000, the firm demolished the pair. Perhaps they held them in reserve while testing the new design. One of the earlier facilities included a house for the operator in back. It’s long gone but the layout of the trees, some fence bits, and other details mark the location. That area is full of retired machinery and bits, including a 1930s Marshall Road Roller.
The railway line out front dates from the 1910s. Built by the Canadian Northern Railway, under the Alberta Midland Charter along here, it ran from a point near Edmonton and on to Calgary. Another line continued on to Saskatoon. The CNoR went bankrupt and subsequently became part of Canadian National Railways, along with some rivals, in the early 1920s.
Much of the former Alberta Midland is history and now the Lyalta elevator is at the very end of the line on the Calgary end. Other parts are in service but a lot of the lines spoken of are gone.
Canada Malting can still receive railcars for loading, although it’s been a while since that happened. Instead, they send the grain out by truck. Sometimes the railway stores surplus or temporarily out-of-work railcars on the main track out front.
The town of Lyalta is not far east of sprawling Calgary and at night you can see the glow of the city from here. Founded in the 1910s, with the coming go the railway, the oldest section is home to a couple dozen people at most. However, a large housing development (with a golf course) is just north and has been has been encroaching on the original community for some time. It almost swallows it up in the process.
A 1930s Marshall Road Roller on the property.
There’s a couple old-ish buildings on Main Street (the only street) but not much else.
Footnote: the owners of the Boyle Buffalo 2000 demolished it a few years back and it was not an easy nor cheap undertaking. All that concrete and steel resisted to the end. Could it be this which kept the others from a similar fate? Might as well use them since the work and cost to tear them down is prohibitive? One Buffalo 1000 was demolished as well and we suspect it was similarly quite the task.
“Love the articles and blog posts. Very informative and interesting. Chris and Connie do a great job of researching and writing. The photos are amazing! Love it all.” Lila Cugini.
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Date of adventure: January 2016 and January 2013. Location: Lyalta, Alberta. Article references and thanks: Canada Malting, Ryan Dodd, Alberta Wheat Pool archives, book – Along the Fireguard Trail: A History of Lyalta-Ardenode-Dalroy Districts, Canadian Trackside Guides and the late Jim Pearson.
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