Noobish Question

[ARTHILL]

Randall, I got through college hand shoveling grain out of those box cars. Was Flax ever dusty. Corn was the best. That was 55 and 56. We loaded with a chute in the side of the box car, after we nailed in the grain doors ( wooden pieces 3 feet high and long enough to go across the opening. They were nailed from the inside. We ripped them out with a long metel pole as the car was spotted. Those were not the good old days, but they did make me lots of money

[AltoonaRailroader]

Try looking at the book series called "Trackside Industries" from Kalmbach, they may even have one specifically for grain silos and other midwestern industries.

[timbob]

Hi

Thanks for all the great posts.

Tim

[alco49]

Dehusman: hehe, sorry i forgot to mention that. Hmmm, hummm the sun is yellow.

[dehusman]

Up until the 1980's a lot of grain was shipped to Mexico in boxcars, even as most of the US used covered hoppers.  I went to a burnt off journal derailment.  the axle had burnt off and the truck side dropped, the wheel hit the wood floor of the boxcar and broke it open and the whole truck was buried in corn.  As we dug through the corn to get to the problem, we knew we were getting close to the journal when we hit popcorn.

Dave H.

[Geared Steam]

Yep, Milwaukee Road , Northern Montana Division used boxcars before grain cars, no matter how hard they tried to seal the cars, they would loose much grain along the rails.

 

[Randall_Roberts]

If you're modeling transition era or earlier the grain was often shipped in boxcars with "grain doors"... often just cardboard nailed over the open dooway.  Here's a photo of grain being emptied from such a car:

Best! 

[dehusman]

Grain hopper:

 

Not a grain hopper:

 

Grain hopper:

 

Not a grain hopper, not a grain hopper, not a grain hopper, not a grain hopper......

 

Grain hopper:

 

Not a grain hopper:

 

Dave H.

[dehusman]

Here:

Enjoy

That's a plastic pellet car or a resin car, not a grain car.  Note the small round hatches on the roof.  That screams plastic pellets.  Note the narrow outlets with the tubes in them, that's where they vac the plastic pellets out of the car.  See the car right above the NAHX reporting marks?  That's a grain hopper.  3 bays.  Large rectangular outlest, long trough hatches on the roof.  Grain.

Dave H.

[GraniteRailroader]

A small garage to house a farm tractor with a knuckle on it for moving cars wouldn't be a bad idea.

 

[alco49]

Here:

Enjoy

[timbob]

Hi

Thanks for the responce.  Would you happen to have some pics of the grain hoppers?

Tim

[dehusman]

The elevator can be pretty much alone.  A small metal office building would look good, but it could be alone.

Grain hoppers tend to have 3 bays, with square/retangular outlets and long hatches down the middle of the car roof.

2 bays are not grain.

Little round roof hatches are not usually grain.

Bottom outlets with a round tube across the bottom are usually not grain.

Dave H.

[timbob]

Hi

I plan to build a simple grain elavator.  Will this grain elavator look bad without any other buildings?

 

Second question(this is the embarassing one)What do grain hoppers look like?(pics wanted)

 

 Tim