BY CHARLES W. BOHI AND LESLIE S. KOZMA/PHOTOS BY CHARLES W. BOHI


FOR MORE THAN FOUR DECADES I HAVE been prowling the prairie provinces of Canada and the Northern Plains states photographing the grain gathering net- work that took local crops, primarily wheat, to market. A stint in Edmonton as a Fulbright Exchange teacher in 1980 brought Les Kozma and me to- gether for many successful trips. In many ways these decades have been a time of “chasing markers” — trying to get as many photos of depots, elevators, and prairie branch lines as possible be- fore they were gone. By the early years of the 21st century it appeared that all that was going to be left was main lines hauling 100-plus car grain shuttles from High Throughput Elevators (HTP’s) to single destinations. As they say in western melodramas, “Came the Dawn.”


28 MAY 2013 • RAILFAN.COM


Dawn in this case was brought about by a new method of oil recovery called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” for short. This allowed the development of the shale oil fields in the Bakken For- mation in western North Dakota, east- ern Montana, and southern Manitoba and Saskatchewan in Canada. All of a sudden, the Bakken Formation came alive


with oil exploration activity.


Much of the new oil being recovered is trans-loaded from trucks and moved by unit trains to points as far away as the Port of Albany, N.Y., and Saint John, New Brunswick. These new transloads are quite literally springing up throughout the region and transform- ing prairie branch lines given up for dead. It has also made some regional railroads significant movers of oil. Because so much oil for the Port of


Railfanning the Oil Patch


Perhaps the first thing you should consider before heading for the “Oil Patch” is accommodations. So robust has been the oil boom that motels are often full; this is especially true during the fall hunting season. In some places motels are also very expensive, some- times as much as $300 a night. In Minot I paid $165 at a chain that prides itself of “reasonable rates.” Given my


Albany (not far from my home in Ver- mont) came from Stampede, N.D., that became my main goal. Because of the rapid changes occurring in the region, it was fortunate that Les Kozma and friend Bern Kelker could join me for a quick reconnaissance of new oil han- dling facilities in southern Manitoba and Saskatchewan.


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