flour milling

[Anonymous]

A large traffic source for rrs is flour business. This can be a interesting segment to model. Forty foot, 50 and even 60 ft boxcars can be spotted at your mill for loading of sacked flr. This can be domestic or export shipments. Covered hopers can be brought in for wheat unlolading then the empties can be moved to anther track for loading of bulk feed. Airslide hoppers can be brought in for loading of domestic bakery flour or perhaps a load of cream of wheat. Some mills are bulk only while others load both bulk & sacked flr. Many mills operate 24/7. Am just curious on how many modelrs have a mill operating on their layout? is it a big shipper on your basement rr?

[Texas Zepher]

Hoping someone posts here as I am interested in the same thing.
I've got a module where the mill with storage facilities are going to be the flat along a 6 foot section.

I drove through Kansas and Oklahoma last summer and collected pictures, but I am going to have to do research to find out which are just grain elevators, which were grain destributors, and which are mills. The most interesting looking ones were in McPherson.

[ericsp]

Here is a link to Cereal Food Processors. They frequently ship flour to a local Frito-Lay plant, using Pressureaide hoppers.
http://www.cerealfood.com/

[Anonymous]

Flour mills were often the first operations in many Canadian settlements (and often preceded any formal settlement). Hotels, stores and bars frequently sprung up around these regional focal points. Flour mills survived in downtown areas well after a village was incorporated and frequently relied on water power to drive the mills.

Smart mill owners or other local community members frequently opened other operations to use the grain or grain products. For instance, Joseph Seagram (Seagram's VO and Canadian Club whiskies among other products) began his operation when he bought a distillery next to the local flour mill that used surplus gain. The distillery then spawned a cooperage (barrel-making) across the road. Seagram also used the left over grain ma***o feed his cattle operations.

When choosing industries for a layout, both vertical and horizontal intergration can create interesting and useful economic environments.

Neal

[rtstasiak]

Hello from Buffalo, NY, formerly a major center of grain milling and water-to-rail transfer for grain, feed, and flour. Here are a few ideas regarding the industry in the 20th Century:

http://www.buffalohistoryworks.com/grain/milling/milling.htm
http://www4.bfn.org/bah/h/elev/hist/1/
http://www.buffalohistoryworks.com/grain/history/history.htm

These are from a web search of "grain milling buffalo" in GOOGLE. The cool thing about the grain trade is the simplicity of the structures, ranging from concrete silos to hulking, peaked buildings. Boxcars, boxcars with hatches, covered hoppers, and even straight hoppers with improvised covers do the trick. Some milling produces oil--don't forget the tank cars. Shipping is largely in closed top cars, so staging and operating are simplified as well. Since the H-O Oats company was in downtown Buffalo, all 1:87 modelers must include an "H-O OATS" sign near their mill district!

There are still shipments by 800 foot plus lake freighters (self unloaders) and even an Orange GE 35 ton critter switching cars at ADM. Most of the abandoned elevators still stand today.

Rich

[Anonymous]

ericsp: It in interesting you mentioned Cereal Foods. They have a large mill in Wichita, KS switched by Wichita Terminal Assocation. This is part of what I model. The mill was built as Wichita Flr Mills in 1914 and in 1973 became Cereal Foods. This is now an all bulk mill. Not sure exactly where the flr loads go to. About 80% are loaded in pressure differental hoppers, rest in airslides(GACX, BNSF, UP sys)

[rtstasiak]

Follow up to previous post.

My "big" mill and elevators are only about 3 inches wide, but run 12 inches high and 6 feet long--industry plus urban scenery plus view block. Maximum traffic works out to 6 covered hoppers in and 6 boxcars out per session. Counting transfers between two yards, staging, and interchanges, these 12 cars have another 12 plus 12 plus 12 cars somewhere else in the pipeline of inbound and outbound cars--total=48 car movements. I usually keep this traffic in the range of 30 to 40 cars to hold down congestion. Not too shabby for a setout point with 8 feet of flextrack and a pair of Peco turnouts. The elevators are one Heljan elevator kit, a big homebrew styrene and PVC pipe annex, a butchered DPM powerhouse, and the bigger part of a Grusome Casket kit turned sideways.

I have a "small" mill built around a Walthers Red Wing kit in the foreground that generates 2 or 3 carloads per session, with about 6 to 8 car movements. This is set up as a specialty mill inside an urban neighborhood, needing a covered hopper and a boxcar. I try to keep this service looking pretty for visitors because it is in the foreground.

This is my third rr with a grain elevator and I'll never understand why it took me nearly 30 years in the hobby before I got hooked up on the grain train.

Rich

[egmurphy]

Rich

That sounds like an excellent concept and execution. Any plans on your part to post any photos in the forseeable future? I'd love to see the mill/elevator complex.

Regards

Ed

[ericsp]

QUOTE: Originally posted by sammythebull

ericsp: It in interesting you mentioned Cereal Foods. They have a large mill in Wichita, KS switched by Wichita Terminal Assocation. This is part of what I model. The mill was built as Wichita Flr Mills in 1914 and in 1973 became Cereal Foods. This is now an all bulk mill. Not sure exactly where the flr loads go to. About 80% are loaded in pressure differental hoppers, rest in airslides(GACX, BNSF, UP sys)

The cars that come out here come from one of the Utah mills (I forgot which one). Fortunately, they use Pressureaide cars and not Pressure Differential, I think the Pressureaide cars are much better looking.

[XG01X]

At the Local flour mill I noticed a couple PD hoppers and two trinity 5161 hoppers. Do they load flour in the 5161's or is it inbound wheat?

[ericsp]

At the Local flour mill I noticed a couple PD hoppers and two trinity 5161 hoppers. Do they load flour in the 5161's or is it inbound wheat?

Most likely the 5161s are bringing in loads. I have never head of shipping flour in regular covered hoppers.

[R. T. POTEET]

I don't have a mill operating on my layout but I do have umpteen hundred and forty-two covered hopers circling aimlessly around the oval looking for a place to unlolade.

[Dave-the-Train]

Here is a link to Cereal Food Processors. They frequently ship flour to a local Frito-Lay plant, using Pressureaide hoppers.
http://www.cerealfood.com/

Interesting thread ... and interesting spin-offs...

Can anyone guide on the various uses of boxcars, plain covered hoppers, pressureaide covered hoppers, airslides... anything else?  Please?

I'm also intrigued by the difference between products... are feeds a bi-product of flour or would they be seperate mills?

Whiskey is an obvious bi-product... what about industrial alcohol and, these days, ethanol?

TIA for help

[exPalaceDog]

One interesting aspect of flour milling is "milling in transit". The wheat is shipped to the mill, unloaded, milled, and re-loaded in the same car.

Have fun

 

[pastorbob]

I model the Santa Fe in Oklahoma in 1989.  Included on the railroad are 13 grain elevators and 3 flour mills.  One in particular was the Pillsbury (1989 remember) mill at Enid, switched by the UP, BN and ATSF.  Enid also has some of the largest grain elevators in the nation, and I have scaled down models of them.  They were owned by Union Equity Coop until 1989 then sold to Farmland, so I have covered hoppers lettered for both.  I have other elevators in different towns for various coops, plus General Mills and other major elevator companies.  Coop however was the major player in 1989 in Oklahoma.

I have around 250 ATSF covered hoppers, 50 plus Farmland, plus another 100 other grain cars, and unit grain trains are a major part of the operation.  I grew up in Enid and still visit back there often, even though I am stuck in Kansas City.

 

Bob

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

I found that this type of industry was an ideal source of traffic for my around-the-wall layout.

I made a grain elevator complex and my flour mill by kitbashing from plastic kits. The flour mill goes around a corner as you can see. My grain elevator ships to the flour mill and to my brewery complex.

 

[Andrew Falconer]

Search this term:

Minneapolis Milling District

Andrew

[Andrew Falconer]

GATX AIRSLIDE Covered Hoppers are used for transporting and thoroughly unloading the fine grain products like flour, sugar, and salt.

Andrew

[wgnrr]

On the 11th, my eBay package with 2 grain elevators (built) should arrive, and then I can show 'ya what my flour/grain/feed complex will look like.

I always liked the actual switching process, and am investing most of my time (and $$$) in equipment and engines. I have 2 Walthers SW1's--one in Cargill paint, and the other in ADM paint--and a Bachmann 44t, which will be decaled in Cargill lettering.

I also have a Hejan Feed mill, and a Walthers Clarksville Depot. Why a depot? On trips to North Dakota, I saw many Milwaukee Road depots that were moved away from the tracks, and turned into a feed mill complex.

What other (smaller) buildings are out there? I am looking for something modern, but still has a 80's small town feel to it. It would be a place where you could buy cracked corn and sunlower seed from.

Was flour also milled in small complexes like feed mills, or was it only milled in something big like Walthers' Red Wing Flour Mill?

Phil