How many of the inquiring minds here miss the old grain elevators on sidings? The prairies seemed to be less flat with the grain elevators seen in the distance marking a town of any size.
But I guess it is more economical to have the super sized cement elevators and I heard that the old wood grain elevators were fire hazards.
Doc
for an old elevator and old tracks go on the M&W(former wabash track) to Jewell and Oakalona ohio.I like Hamlers elevator because csx and the I&O can access it both.have seen the I&O pull cars off the csx siding right by the elevator then go north.with this ethenol boom going to be alot more action at the elevators then just at harvest time.
stay safe
joe
As we travel the backroads of the midwest by car, the elevators always call our attention. Then we observe where the ROW used to be. Occasionally we do see one still in use, with a few hopper cars set out. A sighting of wood structure is rare. Here is a link to pics for sale of a limited number of sites.
http://www.grainelevatorphotos.com/photogallery.html
You’ll find that most grain elevators located on shortlines or regionals will still see rail action, unless the shortline operator can’t get decent car hire from the Class I connection (a big problem through the Northern Tier).
Even those that no longer receive rail service are still valuable to the farm community, since grain storage is still a vital function of the farm economy.
The problem with the loss of carload service to smaller elevators is that it has put a lot more trucks on those county and state roads, and the taxpayers end up paying for the railroad’s decision to consolidate. Kind of runs counter to the AAR claim of “we’re taking trucks off the roads!”[V]
As for those older wooden grain elevators, those things are built solid, and many will continue in use indefinitely unless they burn down. The wood used in those things has a very high resale value, more often than not that lumber was cut from huge old growth trees back in the day. In fact there’s an outfit around here that offers to tear down old wooden grain elevators for free, then they turn around and make their money selling the used lumber. That kind of wood is highly coveted.
Up here on the Canadian prairies both Canadian Pacific and Canadian National have abandoned a lot of grain lines. Thus a lot of lines have been pulled up, forcing farmers to truck their grain to the nearest elevator. So one can imagine how wear and tear this is putting on the roads.
I was in Colorado in April and drove US50 back most of the way thru Colorado and Kansas, about every 10 15 mile you will see active grain elevators. They were all painted white with the name of the co-op proudly painted on the tops of them. I live in central Illinois and they have hundreds of them here, Corn & Soybean country!
Hill Milling was a unique grain elevator in Malad ID. They specialized in inedible grains – milling them into flour for sizing, wallpaper paste, and plywood glues among other applications. Typically shipped 2 or 3 hoppers a week. Most grain was received by truck. The location is still served by rail and the elevator is still there but I am not sure if it is operational.
dd
The elevators are built by laying 2x lumber face down and nailing the next layer on top of it. The base lumber is probably 2x10 and it reduces as the building rises to 2x8, 2x6 and finally 2x4. The nails are driven through 3 or 4 layers of wood in a very specific pattern to avoid driving into one of the spikes below the one going in. The ones I have seen come down have had large sections of the walls cut out with a chain saw but I doubt these panels can be taken apart board by board in any profitable manner. I wonder what formula you local demolition team uses to salvage the wood. Most people seem to be locals trying for the lumber bonanza but end up losing their hind ends on this venture. Too many of the elevators go up in flames to train volunteer fire departments in how to fight elevator fires.
Somewhere around 1985, I sold 4 truckloads of 2X8’s, and 4 pallets of 20 penny, ring shank nails to an elevator company that was building it’s last wooden elevator somewhere in the SD/MN/Iowa area. It was all hand-nailed in layers, by big, burley guys with arms like javelin throwers. They are petty much welded together, and I doubt anyone could salvage much usable lumber out of one. In S.D., the elevator burning down usually precedes the time when the town dries up and blows away.[V] The elevator was also the landmark use
I doubt if any of the old wooden elevators are still in use, at least in the USA. They became to expensive to maintain and had a very small capacity. Coops were created and larger, modern elevators with substantial capacity have replaced them. Larger grain dealers like Cargil, Collingwood and ADM have built huge elevators and provide additional services like assisting farmers in futures selling or trading. Todays farmers are educated and very economically sound.
The RR’s did not desert the small elevators but rather, with the advent of good roads and trucks the individual farmers used sound economic principals and associated with many others to create what now functions very well
Some of the old wooden elevators around here are still used by individual farmers for their own temporary storage. I can think of a few large concrete elevators that are no longer in use because of changes and consolidation in the ag industry.
In 1912 the Ft. Dodge Des Moines and Southern RR replaced it’s wooden high bridge with a steel one. This is the high bridge the Boone & Scenic Valley still uses. The salvaged lumber was sold and used to build two elevators in central Iowa. At least one still stands, but is no longer in use.
Jeff
In my town in KS wheat country, we have a 5 million bushel grain elevator connected to a large flour mill (Horizon Milling) of which i was employed for 17 yrs. The mill & first set of grain tanks were constructed in 1918. Later additions to grain storage took place in 1936, 1941, 1950 & 1957. The mill grinds about 17000 bushels daily into bulk bakery flour. Some of the flour goes out by rail, some loads by truck. Up till about 15-20 yrs ago, most of the wheat into the mill arrived by rail. This was prior to ATSF selling off nearly 900 miles of KS branchlines which in turn, the shotries since closed down a large percentage of the area branches which in turn has forced the area COOPs to truck the grain out of the country elevators. I clearly recall while working at the mill, bumper wheat crops and ATSF switching our two unloading trks four times a day while we unloaded 40-42 cars a day! Now the mill is lucky to receive 40 loads a yr. Yes those were the good ole days, never to return.
There are a fair amount of them being used in the SD,MN,Iowa area. They are now covered with tin, so they don’t neccrsarily look like a wooden elevator. None are on railroads, though.
On a weird parallel, one of my builder customers built a 4-story grain elevator on a rural property 8-10 years ago. The owner, a doctor, built his own little heaven on a tree covered acerage, down by a creek and nature area. His compound, also includes a log cabin home, cabin in the woods, boathouse, private pond with boardwalk around it, a windmill, and a covered bridge. He doesn’t store grain in the elevator, but when you take the hand-powered elevator to the fourth floor, the view is fantastic. (Yes-some people have too much money[;)])
There are still allot of the older evevators in our area that are still in use… Some have rail service and some do not…Allot of the old structures have been internally updated and expanded with steel bins and continue to serve as a vital link in the local ag economy…However, even many of the more modern elevators truck allot of grain over to the new unit train loading facilities that are springing up all over the place.
My home town, Erskine, Minnesota is home to such a unit train facility…this is the first grain unit train loadout in the State of Minnesota to make use of a “LOOP Track” …this continous loop enables three large locomotives and 110 grain hoppers to come off the main line and remain coupled as the cars are stopped under the spouts to load…Fast…Five local elevators can be credited with building this new facility, and other patron elevators, as well as allot of the area farmers truck grain over here…Ca
There was a grain elevator explosion last night or this morning just outside of Galesburg IL at Cameron which closed the BNSF CHI - Denver main for a while. Track were covered w/ debris and grain. Hopefully no casualties.