Deggesty I recall seeing a postcard with a picture of a flatcard that was filled by three (I think that was the number; it has been too many years since I saw it) lemons.
I recall seeing a postcard with a picture of a flatcard that was filled by three (I think that was the number; it has been too many years since I saw it) lemons.
All kinds of things used to go by flat car.
https://www.cardcow.com/viewall/65600/
You'll have to scroll down, not everything is railroad related.
Jeff
Just a little nitpicking. Shucking corn refers to removing the husk (shuck) from the ear. Removing the kernels from the cob is called shelling.
As a matter of fact, can anyone find a picture of one of the Northern Pacific's potatos?
The DID call themselves "The Road Of The Great Big Baked Potato" for a while.
Johnny
jeffhergert As this picture will attest, they used to ship corn by flat car, too. http://img.kansasmemory.org/00212054.jpg Jeff
As this picture will attest, they used to ship corn by flat car, too.
http://img.kansasmemory.org/00212054.jpg
Remind me to post that picture of a fish taken from the St. Lawrence River (or was it Lake Ontario?)
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
JeffHergert's Kansas corn on the cob ...
... being drayed to its final destination in Plainview Minnesota.
photo credit Plainview Corn-on-the-Cob Days
My grandfather had a hand cranked shucker that you fed ears into and it would spit out the corn for feeding the chickens and cows he had. Wasn't using it when I was there (in the 1940's) but I played with it.
Before 'combines', stationary 'shuckers' powered by a tractor or a small gasoline engine did the work. My uncles farm had one until 10 years ago. They would shuck corn for the hog operation.
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
Most of us have seen long trains of grain hopper cars traveling to market. And before hopper cars for grain were prevalent, bulk grains often went to market in boxcars with temporary 'blocking' behind the normal railcar door. The temporary blocking allowed the sliding door to be opened without all the grain falling out. Those cars could be loaded via chute from an elevator snaked in through the door - over the top of the blocking. Or a portable motor-driven auger could be used. Of course, with these methods, the corn is first shelled (removed from the cob) by either the farmer's combine or perhaps by the the elevator machinery.
It never really occured to me how corn might have been hauled by railroads before combines were common. So I was quite surprised to come across this photo of 'corn on the cob' being transloaded - by hand - from horse drawn wagons into boxcars at {apparently} Kinmundy, Illinois.
(TD-3) Loading corn for market onto the Illinois Central at Kinmundy or Alma.
{photo can be seen full size at the link below at the Kinmundy Historical Society site}: http://www.kinmundyhistoricalsociety.org/Photo%20Archives/Trains/Trains.htm where other Kinmundy photos are also railroad related.
The photo does not appear to be dated. According to this site, it wasn't intil the 1920s that corn combines were relatively available to shuck corn in the field.
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