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***!!!First Grain Train!!!***

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  • Member since
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Posted by CShaveRR on Thursday, April 17, 2008 7:40 PM
 JOdom wrote:

 Mookie wrote:
 cacole wrote:
It must have been corn if it was on its way to an Ethanol plant.  I haven't heard of using wheat or soybeans for that purpose.
  Was there something in the news about using soy also?  Something in the back of my mind thinks there was another grain that they were testing for ethanol. 

Haven't heard of another grain being used or tested for making ethanol.  There has been talk of using sugar beets for making it, and different organizations are doing research into using switchgrass or wood fiber.  A plant is being built near Soperton, GA (west-northwest of Savannah) which will use wood fiber to make "juice" of some kind.

I've heard that cane sugar would also make good ethanol.  The switch-grass option was also rated higher than corn.  Most intriguing source I've heard about:  kudzu.

Carl

Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)

CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)

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Posted by Mookie on Thursday, April 17, 2008 9:45 AM

If you ever get a "good" grain train, they are just as long as most coal trains - about a mile+....

So keep noticing and maybe someday....

She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw

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Posted by Mr. SP on Thursday, April 17, 2008 9:08 AM
The grain was corn. The second unit grain train left Salina Kansas on Tuesday si my guess is that it will arrive this weekend some time. BN wanted to abandon the line through here after driving away the shippers it had. When BN took over from SP&S the train was around fifty cars each way daily except Sunday. By 1990 the train was down to just a few cars and ran as needed.
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Posted by SALfan on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 3:26 PM

 Mookie wrote:
 cacole wrote:
It must have been corn if it was on its way to an Ethanol plant.  I haven't heard of using wheat or soybeans for that purpose.
  Was there something in the news about using soy also?  Something in the back of my mind thinks there was another grain that they were testing for ethanol. 

Haven't heard of another grain being used or tested for making ethanol.  There has been talk of using sugar beets for making it, and different organizations are doing research into using switchgrass or wood fiber.  A plant is being built near Soperton, GA (west-northwest of Savannah) which will use wood fiber to make "juice" of some kind.

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Posted by Mookie on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 11:43 AM
 cacole wrote:
It must have been corn if it was on its way to an Ethanol plant.  I haven't heard of using wheat or soybeans for that purpose.
  Was there something in the news about using soy also?  Something in the back of my mind thinks there was another grain that they were testing for ethanol. 

She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw

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  • From: Sierra Vista, Arizona
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Posted by cacole on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 6:48 AM
It must have been corn if it was on its way to an Ethanol plant.  I haven't heard of using wheat or soybeans for that purpose.
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Posted by Mookie on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 6:36 AM

We see grain trains through here year round.  I assume they are filled from elevators, so could hold just about anything that goes to a grain elevator. 

Winter wheat will be up for cutting not too long from now and then corn and don't forget soybeans.  So we pretty much have year round crops and storage. 

 

She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw

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Posted by Dough on Monday, April 14, 2008 8:30 PM

Wow, yeah what kind of grain?  Corn isn't even in the ground here in GA.  Was it wheat?

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Posted by tatans on Monday, April 14, 2008 6:18 PM
By '' grain" do you mean corn or wheat????
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***!!!First Grain Train!!!***
Posted by Mr. SP on Sunday, April 13, 2008 6:46 PM
The first unit grain train went through Rainier Oregon on the way to the ethanol distillery near Clatskanie. The train arrived Rainier 12:30 hours today with two BNSF C44-9's on the point followed by 108 grain hoppers and another BNSF C44-9 on the rear. The power was in DPU mode. The train took eight minutes to clear the street running on "A" Street.

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