Can't make my mind up on the position of my wooden grain elevators. I'm going to have a row them, 3 or 4, and can't decide whether to have them against the wall with the car loading side facing outward or with the truck onload facing outward and tracks running behind.
I would like to have the truck side facing out with all the lanes and ramps to model and be visible, but realize switching cars would mean reaching behind the elevators.
I like the other way also with being able to switch cars easier and see the boxcars lined up at the elevators.
Looking for some advice if you've had the same experience.
Sheldon
If you will have to reach behind the elevator to uncouple cars then that will be awkward. If you plan to have magnetic un couplers on the track leading behind the elevator then placing cars behind the elevator could be feesable.
You could mix it up, nothing says they all have to load / unload the same way.
Do you have room to put the elevators on both sides of the track? Most photo's you see the elevators are all on the same side, however, there are lots of examples of elevators on both sides.
If you have the room it would give you parallel sidings and add a little more switching to the layout.
Here is my one. I may try to squeeze another in someday.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
This is in the FYI realm. Grain elevators are most often located along sidings that resemble passing sidings for access from either side. Usually, locomotives don't go through the loading area. Cars (box cars up to early 70s, covered hoppers from mid-60s) are set in a string at the feeder end, then are pulled through by winches as the cars are loaded. The loaded cars are picked up at the other end. This isn't an absolute, but that's pretty much the process.
Hope that helps.
Jim (with a nod to Mies Van Der Rohe)
Good point, Jim. I'have also seen mills that use a modified farm tractor, with air brake controls and all, to move cars at a mill.
I've seen a good video, about the lone wood grain elevator in Canada, and the operator actually used a car moving bar to move the box car by hand.
To the OP, if you can spread thing out a bit, you might be able to do both rail and truck, with the truck area on one end or the other.
Mike.
EDIT:
My You Tube
Jim, the winch idea is a great one! I knew the cars were moved by winches but never thought of it as a possible solution.
Thanks, Sheldon
Thanks Mike and Brent for the photos and video.
Canadian Big Boy Can't make my mind up on the position of my wooden grain elevators. I'm going to have a row them, 3 or 4, and can't decide whether to have them against the wall with the car loading side facing outward or with the truck onload facing outward and tracks running behind. I would like to have the truck side facing out with all the lanes and ramps to model and be visible, but realize switching cars would mean reaching behind the elevators. I like the other way also with being able to switch cars easier and see the boxcars lined up at the elevators. Looking for some advice if you've had the same experience. Sheldon
I like the staggered idea that another has suggested. You can have the spur curve inward a bit towards the ailse at the end allowing for those elevators to be placed near the wall. Since you probaly won't be uncoupling directly in front of an elevator but off to one side, the staggered placement opens up the sides of the backwards facing elevators allowing finger room on either side.
- Douglas
I have been fortunate enough to see grain cars being spotted at elevators on the prairies, and whether it is a stub end or drive through siding, the cars were usually dropped with the first one in position for loading. I have also seen the winch in action pulling a string of cars along. There were many different setups for the winches. You might see the winch right next to the elevator with a cable running down the track a hundred metre's through a pully and back towards the elevator, or the winch may be located way down the track and the hired help would walk down to operate it. Sometimes when the cars were being winched there would be a guy on the car manning the brake wheel, sometimes not.
I have seen the elevator siding used as a runaround track by the local (if empty) and used for storage of MOW equipment and/or plows. Nowadays most elevators are sadly long gone with the siding still in place. Some of these are used for storage still today.
There are lots of possibilities for creating scenes around the old Prarie sentinels. Present day or of yesteryear.
mbinsewi Sorry for the novice question but what is a car moving bar?
Ouch. Just watched the video with the car moving bar. My back is hurting just watching that guy. Not a job I would want. So was this a pretty common method to move cars, even loaded ones?
Looks like a lever with a narrow spade tip, sometimes with a roller wheel under the heel. For some reason wikipedia doesn't have a copyright-free pic, but Google "railroad car mover tool" and you'll see lots of them. They are the railcar movers without an engne.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
If you click on the link which Mike provided, the use of a car moving bar is at roughly the eight minute and 30 second point of the video.
If you're interested in modelling one of these smaller grain elevators, it's probably worthwhile to watch the whole video. If you right-click on the words "Grain Elevator" at the upper left of the photo, you can open the video in a new tab and view it full-size.
If I recall correctly, you'll also learn the definition and purpose of a gerber.
Wayne
wdcrvrOuch. Just watched the video with the car moving bar.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
My dad had a job where he had to use a car moving bar on a regular basis. He said it was not bad getting them to move but getting them stopped was a different story.
Mike
I love that video. Very cool.
It looks like so much work. Hard to believe that process was profitable.
T e d
Blast from the past, at one time drove truck to these, same provence.
wdcrvrup831 How would you model these "winches"?
The cable for the winch was not very thick and the winches not that big. Maybe slightly larger than you would see on the front of a pickup truck. I would think it would be easy to rig up a working one with a motor under the bench. The cable just lays in the grass when not in use.
When I am on the prairies I love driving the section roads as you see so much. A couple of years ago I went exploring with my two kids. Didn't see a soul for hours and I let my fourteen year old daughter drive the truck for a while. She was thrilled to say the least. On our adventure, we came across abandon elevators suspended in time without a soul within miles of these places. What amazed me was they looked like they were still open for biz, but that was not the case. All of the equipment was still inside as if everyone left in a hurry. Took some pics.
Look at the date on the rail. Grain would have been brought to the elevator with a horse drawn wagon when this was laid down.
Next to one of the elevators was a whole pile of very old switch stands laying in the grass. I would have loved to have brought one home but just taking one goes against my nature. The fact that they are all still there decades later speaks volumes about the people that live there. Not to mention the scales and all the other equipment left for years untouched in the elevators.
My elevator is in the town of Vulcan, Alberta. Here are some pics from the real town.
Vulcan had a lot of elevators back in the day, here is one that has been modernized.
Cheers, the Bear.
That was what the big heavy link chain was for, about one foot long tossed under the wheel.
Opps I wanted to Quote CGW121's post above on "stopping the cars from rolling".
Here is what a modern grain elevator looks like.
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Where the elevator track is parallel to the main track the truck side should always be on the far side to avoid possible conflicts (and access road blockage). So if you want to have the truck side facing outwards, put the main track between the elevators and the wall. That can actually add visual interest when running a train; it will pass through the scene rather than in front of it.
cx500...put the main track between the elevators and the wall. That can actually add visual interest when running a train; it will pass through the scene rather than in front of it.
I agree. There are lots of places on my layout where the structures or scenery partially block the view of the train...
...and just like with real-life railfanning, eagerly snapping that unexpected loco often puts a not-noticed-until-you-see-the-photo telegraph- or power pole in just the wrong place...
There is a small grain elevator a few hundred yards from my house. It's on the CN (former IC) mainline. It's served by the CN but only receives a few cars a month. A couple years ago they shortened it's siding to allow more truck loading. They move the cars by pushing them with an endloader on a tractor. It's served by a southbound local and I've never seen a locomotive on the siding in the 17 years I've lived here.
You could put a magnet uncoupler just past the frog and shove the cars in or you could uncouple manually before the frog or just past the frog and shove the cars in.
On my new layout, my grain elevator is unlike the real world. Its on a stub track at an angle so you can see both truck unloading and rail side.
I've had to make similar decisions several times, since my layout is largely an around-the-walls shelf layout. For me, it works best to position the buildings so the spotted freight cars are on the aisle side of the building, in clear view - after all, I'm building a model railroad, not a model truck diorama.