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David Przednowek, CN, Canada, provides an overview of the evolution of the grain supply chain in western Canada.
here has been a lot of change in the end-to-end grain supply chain in western Canada since the first elevator was built in western Canada in the early 1880s. Before the country elevator arrived, grain was bagged, delivered to flat warehouses, and shipped by rail in boxcars. Wooden elevators dotted the country landscape in western Canada through the 20th century, with the peak number of elevators hitting approximately 6000. Over time, wood has given way to high capacity concrete and/or steel facilities loading 100+ cars in a
single placement, and the horse-drawn wagon and 3 t grain truck have been replaced with the Super B delivering 40 t of grain or more at once. It was only the early 1990s that saw the first-generation 100+ car loading facilities begin to emerge. There has been a flurry of activity in new elevator construction over the past seven years in particular, and CN is proud that customers have chosen to locate 70% of the new high throughput elevators built in western Canada since 2015 on CN lines.
Figure 1. Davidson, Saskatchewan, Canada.
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