In 2016 I would like to try to start my layout in stages/sections. The first is a grain elevator or feed mill my question is what color to use for the buildings/silos. I have looked at a lot ot picutes and most look white but I’m a poor judge of colors. time fame 80’s to mid 05. south east area.
I dunno, gator, but if you’re not sure that you’re seeing white, how useful will our suggestions be for other colours[:-^][swg][(-D][(-D]
I’m modelling the late '30s, and used the cheap paint of those days - barn or boxcar red:
This one is still in use at Enon Valley, Pa.:
I’ve seen present-day ones in cream (off-white) and in green, but have no photos of them.
Wayne
Most concrete grain elevators are painted white (at least in the western US) however, I have also seen some that were never painted and are gray. Also, we still have a lot of functioning wooded elevators covered in tin.
Era does see changes in paint technology. But region is also important. In the Midwest, most are some lighter color. That’s because a dark-colored silo or elevator will tend to be hotter than a light-colored one. Go north, and things are cooler, the need for keeping grain cool is less…
Most are white around here, but since white can pick up local dust and weathering, that likely accounts for what looks differences in color.
Heven’t been to the southeast much, but I’d guess that light colors tend to apply in that recent of a time frame.
When you are talking about grain elevators, the type of material used to construct them makes a difference in color. Wood grain elevators are typically red. The round steel ones are of a galvanized metal with rust patches. The concrete ones are usually white, but there are some that are a weathered concrete color.
[:-^]
Will is partially correct. Especially in the early days a lot of wood elevators were that tuscan red color, but in later years the Companies that owned them developed their own color schemes for them. There were orange ones, “Federal” & “Pioneer” a lot of silver/grey ones each with their own distinguishable logos. But even in the early days there were silver/grey ones.
My Grandfather bought grain for Ogilvies in the late 20s early 30s and his elevator was silver/grey. The old “Lake of the Woods” Milling was that color as well as Parrish & Hembecker, Federal and others. Up here the reddish ones were owned by the Provincial “Pool” Elevators and National Grain.
Johnboy out…The grain dust in getting really thick in here.
WHALE… There are different kinds of grain elevators. The small independents were found in each town, they could have been painted red, but all of the ones that I have seen were painted white. These elevators collected the grain from the farm and then sold the grain to others who eventually sold the grain to the mills. You will still see these elevators in use or more likely you will still see them around in disuse. There in Richardton the Railroad demanded that the local dealer tear his down because it was unstable and could colapse blocking the main line. Never mind that this operater was a dozen operators removed fro the ones who built the elevator, the lease was always the same. And so he had to pay to tear down his elevator.
These small merchants have largely been replaced by steel grain bins, but even that was really a non-starter… Railroad tariffs are the deal here. Shuttle trains of 50 to 100 cars are where the price break in shipping makes the system profitable, so larger co-ops and other firms built huge concrete elevators, the one in Gladstone replaces dozens of local elvators all across three counties. In Gladstone they started with four towers, they now have 16. These are collection points and farmers just truck their grain a little further than before, but this is no big deal given the size and effency of trucks and the much better price that can be gotten for the product.
Then there are the mills. There may have been small “local mills” but what would a boy from New York City know about this. In North dakota there is the State Mill (shaades of communisim, but we were doing it before Lenin got any ideas from Marxx. (We also have a state bank)… ) these are huge mills situated on the junction of two or more railroads and have fifty maybe more towers.
I suppose you could build a small mill that serves a local economy. Baker Boy in Dickinson receives flour (not raw grain) from a mill for its baking process. A Big commercial baker are they. Flour and Sugar