Alberta Terminals - Lethbridge, AB
Posted by: 
T0SHEA
N 49° 41.915 W 112° 48.138
12U E 370032 N 5506677
Right in the city of Lethbridge, this is one of the BIG inland terminals in Alberta.
Waymark Code: WMMJJ2
Location: Alberta, Canada
Date Posted: 09/28/2014
Views: 2
There are three large inland terminals in Alberta, this being the smallest of the three, the other two being in Calgary and Edmonton. The city of Lethbridge began lobbying the federal government for a terminal as early as 1914, with approval finally occurring in 1930. Construction took eight months, at a cost of $950,000, equivalent to $16 million today. The terminal was operated by the federal government from 1931 to 1980 and by the provincial government until 1991.
Owned and operated by Cargill since 1991, the 17 story, 194-foot tall grain handling facility was completed in 1931. It has 63 annex bins and 56 workhouse bins and is a landmark on the city skyline. The terminal was built with a natural gas fired grain dryer.
Apparently much forethought went into the construction of the terminal, as the "pit" was made large enough to handle a "Super B" truck (tractor and two trailers with eight axles and 30 wheels), which is substantially larger than were trucks of the '30s. The scales are large enough to handle contemporary hopper cars, also larger than were the box cars of the '30s. In seven hours the terminal can load 56 rail cars, 95% of which head to terminals in Vancouver for export. Cars may be loaded two at a time as there are two scales in the terminal.
