I am putting the finishing touches on my design to model a Rock Island branch in western Oklahoma. The era I'm focusing on is roughly a decade period, 1948 (when the Rock Island stopped is rural passanger service in western OK) to 1958. Of course, most of the traffic on these lines was grain, so I'll need several elevators on my layout. However, photos of these lines during that era are not common at all. I'm guessing the wood cribbed elevators would be appropriate, as would the steel silos, but what about the concrete silos that are more common now? The ones I see out there these days are mostly older steel silos or the concrete ones. Some of the concrete elevators look pretty old, but I'm not certain they're 1950's old. Any input would be much appreciated!
In the Midwest, wood-sided elevators would have largely been re-sided with corrugated metal applied right over the existing wood by the mid-1930s. There were (and still are) wood-sided elevators around, but the most COMMON type would have been sided during the Depression (easier maintenance, and a more "modern" look, which is always important to a business).
Large concrete elevators were first poured in the EARLY 1920s (technically, the first were actually poured by the Romans, but I'll ignore that for a moment). Originally not much larger than a standard wood elevator, the concrete bins with central hoist houses were HUGE by the early 1930s. By the late 1930s most of the gigantic large concrete elevator facilities that we generally think of had already been built.
Large corrugated Butler-bin type elevator add-ons would be virtually unheard of, especially in the middle of nowhere. Butler bins were almost unheard of until 1942-1943, since the US Government actually paid to have 50,000 installed across the USA (in 1940), anticipating a need to store excess wartime food production. Butler won the Government contract, and the rest is history (same with Zippo and Coke; both struggling small companies until they won big, fat wartime contracts). These were the smaller, stand-alone bins. SLIGHTLY larger Butler bins started appearing in the late 1940s, but because of various recessions there wasn't much call for them. Starting in the late 1930s standing seam, vertical, smooth-sided steel bins were far more common than Butler bins (and nobody makes a model of one). Large Butler bins similar to the Rix kits weren't marketed until around 1954, and uncommon (or at least not TYPICAL) through the 1960s.
Ray Breyer
Modeling the NKP's Peoria Division, circa 1943
orsonroyButler won the Government contract, and the rest is history (same with Zippo and Coke; both struggling small companies until they won big, fat wartime contracts)
By 1920, Coca-Cola could be found at all but six soda fountains across the United States. The drink was popular with on-the-go people, especially since prohibition was keeping bars shut down. Usually people would meet up with their friends or co-workers on their breaks....Most other advertising campaigns of the 1920's and 1930's depicted Coca-Cola as part of the American way of life. Many think that the advertisements made Coke familiar to Americans, and that is the reason why people continued to associate and drink Coca-Cola into the Great Depression.
During WWI, sales of Coca-Cola went into a decline as a result of sugar rationing. However, sales rebounded after the war, and in 1920, the US Supreme Court ruled that the name “Coke” means “Coca-Cola,” thereby making “Coke” a trademark of The Coca-Cola Company.
There are plenty of photos taken in that era in the region you model, even if not taken on the Rock Island. Many color slides were taken by railfans in that time period. (But remember, the preferences of the elevator owners were not dictated by the Rock Island.) Oklahoma elevators on other road's ranchlines, for example, ought to be much like the ones on a Rock Island Branch in that state. And it's likely many of the elevators on branchlines in the early 1970's hadn't changed much from the 1950's. (There is one famous painting of a Rock Island steam engine near a large concrete grain silo I think painted by Ted Rose, but off hand, I'm not sure of the artist, but I can picture it in my mind.)
Though you might not need photos to verify what would be prototypical for that era, they will, of course, give you some great ideas. I find photographs a great inspiration to my modeling. I agree with OrsonRoy but have seen photos of a few elevators in that part of the country not yet sided in that era, painted an oxide red. Even if most of your elevators were covered with corrugated steel, I'd have at least one without for variety and also include concrete ones, perhaps, and at least one large one.
It is my understanding that a branchline like you model in that time period with mostly seasonal grain traffic would have fairly light, old rail (no larger than code 70 in HO) and likely be grass covered. But some roads still had very active section crews that kept things in tip, top shape with cinders as ballast, weed control and brush clean up. Photos of a RI Branch in the environment you model, would answer that question.
I forget which book it is in the series, but Jeff Wilson did a great article on elevators in the industry books by Kalmbach. Not only did he includes plenty of photos, but history, track plans and operation.
Victor A. Baird
www.erstwhilepublications.com
chutton01 ..., and in 1920, the US Supreme Court ruled that the name “Coke” means “Coca-Cola,” thereby making “Coke” a trademark of The Coca-Cola Company.
Funny story: In 1981 some friends & I stopped in a small place in Cripple Creek CO. I asked the waitress for a Coca Cola. The conversation with the waitress went like this.
Her: "We don't serve that here, but we have coffee, tea, or pop."
Me: "Ok, then I'll have a pop."
Her: "What kind, Coke, Diet Coke, 7Up or ..."
Me: "Ok, can I have a Coca Cola?
Here: "We don't serve that, but we have coffee, tea, or Coke, Diet Coke, 7 Up, ..."
Repeat this conversation three times while my companions were laughing their butts off.
I finally got her to bring a 7Up.
jim
Many pictures for you in this Flickr group
https://www.flickr.com/groups/43509603@N00/
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."-Albert Einstein
http://gearedsteam.blogspot.com/
Not sure if the OP would still find this of interest, but this National Film Board of Canada short "Grain Elevator" details the daily operation of a small Prairie Province (Saskatchewan Pool) grain elevator in 1981. Includes coopering and loading of a CP 40ft boxcar with grain. The narrator states it is a small operation, loading 150 cars per year. In moving those cars, the elevator operator (who apparently did everything himself) doesn't get to use a nice trackmobile, but rather a pinchbar and lots of muscle.I wonder if the operator John had his life cut short by inhaling all that grain dust without a respirator or even a dust mask...actually, if this is the same man (John Soparlo), apparently he did alright, living till he was almost 90...
This is a most interesting film. I bookmarked it a few years ago but never tire of watching it. It inspired me to build an elevator and its engine house for my garden railroad. It stands proudly served by with its own track at my flag stop. It is a must for anyone who is not aquainted with these older elevators and their operation.
Alan, Oliver & North Fork Railroad
https://www.buckfast.org.uk/
If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there. Lewis Carroll English author & recreational mathematician (1832 - 1898)
Not so much Oklahoma, but the former Rock in Northwest Texas (paralled by I 40) still has a bunch of (apparently abandoned) old-style elevators sheathed with corrugated tin - one every few miles. The only place that MIGHT have had concrete silos was Amarillo, which (with the Santa Fe presence) would be a big bite as a modeling subject.
Chuck (Former I-40 flier modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I found the same video and it's a true gem. There are plenty of resources on grain elevators during that period. I am modeling the GN in the 1950's and corrugated metal elevators were the standard. You'll see a lot of the small Butler bins around as well in photos.
Great WesternThis is a most interesting film. I bookmarked it a few years ago but never tire of watching it. It inspired me to build an elevator and its engine house for my garden railroad. It stands proudly served by with its own track at my flag stop. It is a must for anyone who is not aquainted with these older elevators and their operation.
I found it rather interesting myself. The film was made in 1981, and if that obituary was right, the operator retired the next year (1982) - wonder if they closed the elevator then.BTW, the grain elevator in the film still stands in Wood Mountain, Saskatchewan - at least Google shows it still standing as of a few years ago, still in fair shape but unused.
The concrete prairie skyscrapers have been around ever since I can remember,which is quite a while, so you'll be safe in your era. The one thing I would suggest is that you have lots of 40' box cars. In that region of the world, the railroads were still using box cars for grain hauling through the mid-60s. Yes, the Alcan center flow hoppers were around since 62, but their appearances were not that common until later. The Pullman Standard hoppers started showing up in the late 60s and by the early. 70s had replaced box cars for grain hauling. In case you're wondering how they used box cars, they nailed 1x12s across the doors on the inside up to about 2ft from the top of the opening so anyone shoveling inside the car could get out.
Jim (with a nod to Mies Van Der Rohe)
Hi I'm interested in these standing seam, smooth sided bins as I'm looking for the typical/common grain storage for the late 40's, early 50's period. I haven't seen any photos of them. Are there pictures of them available on the 'net? If no one makes them I am happy to try & scratchbuild
regards
Steve
Steve,
Most metal bins in the US have corrugated steel as the basic material. There were a few that might have smooth sides with a standing seam, but the ones I've seen were all pretty small. Harvestore bins are smooth (and tall), but no standing seams (Rix makes a kit for these BTW).
The original question wondered about concrete elevator storage never really got completely answered. I knew they were pretty common, although not as large as some of the huge modern ones, before WWII. Googling around I found a link to what looks like the very first such silo, built at the turn of the 20th century:
http://www.mnhs.org/library/tips/history_topics/70peavey.php
This seems to have become a very standard design after WWI for larger elevators, which likely quickly moved away from wood structures. Many of the really huge elevators were built then. Concrete was fire-proof and generally resistant to effects of dust explosions, which are still a hazard when grain is moved, Plus rats and other vermin can't chew through concrete.
Here's a link to lots of pics of metal bin storage. Simply substitute "concrete" for "metal" in the search terms and you'll get lots of pics of metal bins.
https://www.google.com/search?q=metal+grain+elevator+storage+history&biw=1147&bih=762&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=NwvJVJXJEJOtyATPuYCwCw&ved=0CB0QsAQ
I also found this great general history resource on grain handling facilities:
http://www.horizonview.net/~ihs/GrainElevators/GrainElevator_Types1.html
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Mike, thank you for this. Your links are really useful. I actually have several possible elevators to go on the layout - all older style ones. The specific issue is that I I can find pictures of old elevators with modern additions but I don't know what was used for additional storage before Butler style bins became common. As farm yield increased this must have been a problem, as now. This is why I asked about the smooth bins mentioned above. If I can find a picture, I can scratchbuild. It's the same with grain dryers. Farmers must have dried grain before the advent of Farm Fan type dryers but the earliest picture I have seen is 1967. What did they use in 1950? I actually mocked up a grain dryer (in N scale) before I realised it was probably too modern. Any ideas are welcome
thank you
Steve, grain drying became more common with the evolution of harvesting equipment. When all corn was picked and stored on the cob, it was air dried and usually shelled at the use as opposed to at the time of harvest. Cereal grains were first dried in the shock before thrashing, later grain was dried in wind rows before combining. During the 1970's harvesters changed with the wide scale use of picker shellers and then true combines for corn. Grain driers came into wide use in the 1980's.
Old wood elevators were often expanded by the addition of similar wood storage bins utilizing the original elevator to move grain up to either a chute or auger that moved grain to the expansion building. There is a good web site on Inglish, MB elevators that shows four elevators in a row, one which has an expansion building. I plan on scratch building an expansion for a Campbells model.
James covered it well. I'll add a little. The corn on the cob was stored in what was called a corn crib, basically a barn with slatted sides. Corn was allowed to dry down in the field, then picked. That's the way it was done until after WWII. The changeover in the Midwest to the use of combines instead of pickers was well underway by 1960 and nearly complete by 1970, although you'll still see a few folks picking ears to dry on the cob.
My uncle and aunt put up their first big dryer in the late 1960s, when these were still rather novel. Before that, most bins had a fan and heater assembly that blew air in ducts to a pierced metall floor, where it flowed upward, carrying mositure with it. It was hard to get even drying unless the corn was rather more dry, so the big dryers came into use to take a lot of moisture out qucikly, then it was moved to the bins to dry further there.
About a decade ago I was a frequent flier along I-40, which parallels the Rock route through northern Texas. The rails were gone, but all those corrugated iron country elevators were still standing. At least they were when I started. A couple of them disappeared before I quit.
There are big concrete silo elevators in Amarillo, still served by the BNSF. I imagine they were built well before the transition era - slip-form reinforced concrete construction dates to post-WWi in Texas and earlier elsewhere. Most of the concrete elevators in the region are either much larger than the small rural type or of recent construction. [The elevators along Feedlot Alley (US60 southwest of Amarillo) were humongous, but only date from the feedlot raising of cattle. A present-day satellite view fails to show most of the ones I remember. I wonder if the widespread shift of corn from feed to ethanol caused their elimination.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - where trees were the only crop)
Chuck,
The biggest factor in the demise of smaller elevators was unit grain trains. It's hard to load a 100-car train out of a small elevator. Even if they had the grain available, loading would take too long and they just didn't have the track capacity to load these trains in order to take advantage of the favorable shipping rates offered for them.
wabash2800 I forget which book it is in the series, but Jeff Wilson did a great article on elevators in the industry books by Kalmbach. Not only did he includes plenty of photos, but history, track plans and operation. Victor A. Baird
Jeff now has a new coming out (very soon) in Model Railroaders Guide To Industries series about the grain industry entittled The Model Railroader's Guide to Grain. I plan to get this book, although I still need to get Jeffs first industry book. I highly recommend getting all of the Industries Along the Tracks books, they are great source books and even if the book has some industries that don't partain to your particular modeling tastes, the information inside still worth having.
You're welcome for the name drop I guess Jeff/MR/Kalmbach, haha.
Most of the replies here correspond with my memories growing up in rural Iowa (1962-1980ish) and living in the that area most of my life. I did want to emphasis that you have the sequence of construction materials wrong. Wood sided first, followed by wood framed but steel sided, then concrete for medium to large facilities until the 1990s when the big courragated steel bins (much larger than earlier farm storage steel bins) took over for new construction. The smooth sided steel structures found on farms since the early 1960s are for forage (silage) rather than grain storage.
I just got the Guide to Grain and agree it's an excellent resource.
I just noticed, if you flip the mouse over the SHOP button the Modelers Guide to Grain is the first book to show up.