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Let's see your grain elevators

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  • Member since
    March 2006
  • From: Holland MI
  • 624 posts
Let's see your grain elevators
Posted by CSXFan on Sunday, November 11, 2007 3:57 PM

Hi all,

I've always been fascinated with grain elevators, mostly because there are about 10 of them within 5 miles of my house. I'd like to have a somewhat accurate model of a grain elevator on my N scale layout, but I need some inspiration. So if you have a grain mill, elevator, bin, silo, or anything that has something to do with grain, please post some pics here. It doesn't matter if it's stock, kitbashed, or scratchbuilt, I'd love to see it. Thanks in advance.

If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space...Wink
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Posted by tatans on Sunday, November 11, 2007 5:58 PM
New or old?? wood or cement? I have trouble calling anything cement an elevator, on the prairies of Saskatchewan there are still  a few older  wooden "elevators" and new cement elevators, these are usually called inland terminals as they replaced many of the dismantled wooden types, and they are quite abit farther spaced so large trucks must haul farther, there is a grain (wheat) museum in Calgary, Alberta that has operating models of an elevator along with a huge HO train layout with grain trains, I'm sure they could send you plans (blueprints) of old elevators. I'll try and find their website, does anyone out there know?
  • Member since
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  • From: OH
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Posted by BRAKIE on Sunday, November 11, 2007 6:05 PM

This one is located on the Bucyrus club layout.

Larry

Conductor.

Summerset Ry.


"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt  Safety First!"

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  • From: Baltimore, MD
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Posted by CSX_road_slug on Sunday, November 11, 2007 6:09 PM

This isn't anything of mine but, since nobody else has responded, I'll go ahead share this link from the Atlas forum.  It was posted by Jim Six, who wrote the artitcle in GMR 2008 about Tom Johnson's Indiana Northern shortline.  These are all pictures that Kalmbach didn't use in GMR.  There are several different grain elevator shots mixed in there, but you'll need to hunt for them within the group: 

http://forum.atlasrr.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=42124 

BTW - this is really bandwidth-intensive, so beware if you're on dial-up 

 

-Ken in Maryland  (B&O modeler, former CSX modeler)

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  • From: Oklahoma
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Posted by OKrlroads on Sunday, November 11, 2007 6:22 PM

Shot of a Walthers ADM elevator, one of the first kits I did.

 

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Posted by Don Z on Sunday, November 11, 2007 7:14 PM

Here's a shot of the grain elevator on the layout of my friend and mentor, Chuck Ellis:

Don Z.

  • Member since
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  • From: New Milford, Ct
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Posted by GMTRacing on Sunday, November 11, 2007 7:40 PM

Actual grain elevator on the BNSF just south of Topeka Kn.

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  • From: Alexandria KY
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Posted by Zandoz on Sunday, November 11, 2007 7:58 PM
 OKrlroads wrote:

Shot of a Walthers ADM elevator, one of the first kits I did.

 

I'm hoping to include one of those on my little N layout.  The Walther's ADM Elevator is very close to the Landmark elevator I passed too and from school every day for 8 grades.  I have no idea when it was actually built, but my memories of it go back to the late 50s.

Reality...an interesting concept with no successful applications, that should always be accompanied by a "Do not try this at home" warning.

Hundreds of years from now, it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove...But the world may be different because I did something so bafflingly crazy that my ruins become a tourist attraction.

"Oooh...ahhhh...that's how this all starts...but then there's running...and screaming..."

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  • From: Corpus Christi, Texas
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Posted by leighant on Sunday, November 11, 2007 9:42 PM

Haven't built it yet, plan for N scale model, using techniques from construction article for model on MR&T layout, Mod RRer Nov86 p.78

Elevator would hide track entracne to staging.

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  • From: Phoenix, Arizona
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Posted by canazar on Monday, November 12, 2007 12:37 AM

 

Here's mine.  Kinda cheesy but I hd to crank out in an evening before a show to do a last minute fill in on a module for our club.  10 foot peice of plastic drain pipe, some balsa wood and scratched out the building on top. The pipe are from model spru's.  I want to do a better one, and take more than say 2 hours it took me to do this but it has served its purpose.

Best Regards, Big John

Kiva Valley Railway- Freelanced road in central Arizona.  Visit the link to see my MR forum thread on The Building of the Whitton Branch on the  Kiva Valley Railway

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Posted by tomkat-13 on Monday, November 12, 2007 5:37 AM
These 3 elevators on the CB&Q are gone now.....so if you see one you might want to model take those photos now!







I model MKT & CB&Q in Missouri. A MUST SEE LINK: Great photographs from glassplate negatives of St Louis 1914-1917!!!! http://www.usgennet.org/usa/mo/county/stlouis/kempland/glassplate.htm Boeing Employee RR Club-St Louis http://www.berrc-stl.com/
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Posted by steinjr on Monday, November 12, 2007 5:51 AM
 CSXFan wrote:

Hi all,

I've always been fascinated with grain elevators, mostly because there are about 10 of them within 5 miles of my house. I'd like to have a somewhat accurate model of a grain elevator on my N scale layout, but I need some inspiration. So if you have a grain mill, elevator, bin, silo, or anything that has something to do with grain, please post some pics here. It doesn't matter if it's stock, kitbashed, or scratchbuilt, I'd love to see it. Thanks in advance.

 I am working on a layout set along a piece of Hiawatha Avenue in Southern Minneapolis - lots of grain silos and elevators. Did a bit of research, and learned that there are in principle three kinds of elevators:

 - Country elevators
 - Receiving elevators
 - Terminal elevators

 A country elevator is a collection point where local farmers deliver their grain. It _ships_ carloads of grain of various kinds.

 A receiving elevator is e.g. at a mill or a brewery - it ensures that the business has a supply of grain. As the name indicate it is a _recipient_ of grain traffic.

 A terminal elevator is typically owned by grain merchants and holds grain until it is sold and shipped onwards (by train, barge, ship or truck). It will be both the recipient and the shipper of grain loads.

 Elevators generally consists of two things : a number of storage bins and a mechanism to elevate/lift the grain from ground level (or below ground) to the top of the bins. For a terminal type elevator usually housed in a square building taller than the top of the storage bins.

 A magnificent example of mill with storage containes and an elevator can be found if you search on the model railroader forums for the word "mill" and user DrWayne - his CERN plant looks darned good!

 Smile,
 Stein

 

 

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Posted by rogerhensley on Monday, November 12, 2007 7:37 AM

Here is a sample of an older elevator. 

Roger Hensley
= ECI Railroad - http://madisonrails.railfan.net/eci/eci_new.html =
= Railroads of Madison County - http://madisonrails.railfan.net/

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Posted by steinjr on Monday, November 12, 2007 1:19 PM

 More background info on elevators:

http://www.vanclevedevelopment.com/downloads/VanishingGiants.pdf

A seriously cool model RR mill structure from poster DrWayne:

http://forum.zealot.com/t110626/

 An earlier thread showing quite a few modelled elevators:

http://www.trains.com/trccs/forums/344123/ShowPost.aspx

 

 A couple of "Mill City" (Mpls) prototypes: 

 General Mills in Minneapolis, 1958 (from the Minnesota Historical Society image archieve online)

 Cargill's elevator on Hiawatha Avenue ca 1931:

Smile,
Stein

 

 

 

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  • From: Colorful Colorado
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Posted by Texas Zepher on Monday, November 12, 2007 2:36 PM

 CSXFan wrote:
I've always been fascinated with grain elevators
Me too.  I've got hundreds of pictures of them.

I'd like to have a somewhat accurate model of a grain elevator on my N scale layout
The biggest thing I've seen in grain elevator models is that they aren't tall enough.  Personally I would use the Walthers HO scale one as a base for an N-scale model.

Growing up in Wichita Kansas. I always considered these to be the "standard" for a grain elevator.  These are only about 1/2 mile long.  The ones 90 miles to the northwest in Huchison are about a mile long. I understand some even larger ones are now being built in the area.

Old and New together.  This is Bazine Kansas on the old Santa Fe Scott City Branch.

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Posted by mr moto on Monday, November 12, 2007 5:01 PM

Here's mine.  Completely scratchbuilt and completely fictional.  Based on all the old ones my son and I see on our annual cross country road trip.  Needs some other buildings added.  Oh yeah, and a layout to put it on.

 

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