We did some traveling this weekend to western S.D. I actually saw 4 moving DM&E trains out there, and dozens of pieces of MOW equipment. At Wall, S.D. there were about a dozen boxcars spotted on the siding to the grain elevator. Does anybody ship grain in boxcars anymore?
I know that I have seen railroads (it seems like just shortlines) put cars into various industry sidings/spurs to sit for a while, my guess is they are waiting for the receiver to make room for them or are waiting to be interchanged. I have seen Center-beam flatcars, tank cars, plastic pellet covered hoppers, and other assorted cars at cotton bale warehouses. So, those cars may have just been shoved there to wait.
I considered that, but it’s 50 miles to the nearest destination(Rapid City) that would need anything other than grain cars. Also, the next track over was an empty siding. That’s what made me wonder.
The ADM silo’s in N.K.C., MO. regularly has box cars in their sidings on the receiving tracks. When there are not enough covered hoppers available door boards and boxcars still work just fine. The CH’s only reduced the box cars role but never eliminated it.
Would a railroad be more apt to use boxcars for grain, if their track (in this case DM&E) wasn’t in such good shape, as they would be lighter than hoppers?
Well into the eighties no less a RR powerhouse than the BN was using 40’ box cars for grain shipments off of a branch from Wenatchee to Mansfield because the track wouldn’t support 100 ton C-6s and the traffic volume didn’t justify track upgrading. The branch has since been abondoned but the same rationale would probably apply in the case you’ve cited.
I just drove across Kansas. One elevator had 20 or 30 hoppers and 5 box cars. I wondered that same as M. S. I have also heard that there a few grain buyers that prefer box cars.
dd
Maybe the grain buyers are on old, worn trackage as well?
Last December while touring the Minnesota State Museum in downtown Saint Paul I saw a beautifully restored 40-ft. Soo Line boxcar on display among the indoor exhibits. Inside the car, at various elevations measured upwards from the floor, are stencilled marks showing how full to fill it with corn, oats, wheat, or barley. Apparently loading the car with one of these commodities to its designated fill line would top out the weight capacity of the car. I seem to recall that it had a 140,000-lb. capacity and was equipped with friction (brass) bearing trucks.
During the summer of 1973 the prettiest grain train I ever saw was moving at speed southbound along the Chester Subdivision mainline of the Missouri Pacific in southern Illinois. It was an all 40-ft. boxcar consist, about 100-cars long, composed entirely of Chicago & North Western system equipment. The paint jobs were none too shiney, but they sure were historic with “The Overland Route” and “Route of the 400 Streamliners” slogans appearing on many of the cars. A few were even equipped with grossly oversized “C.& N.W.” billboard lettering. CNW, CMO, CGW, and a few MSTL reporting marks were scattered throughout. The equipment looked like it had been sprung from a scrap yard, and, surprisingly, just about every journal box lid had a brand new black rubber seal affixed to it. Only the locomotive and the caboose had roller bearing equipped trucks!
Watching that train roll by the Chester depot was an historic event, one whose likes I’ll probably never saw again.
From 1981-1998, I worked in a KS flour mill and can recall only once seeing a inbound rail shipment of wheat arriving in a boxcar. I never did work in the elevator dept, so i was not involved in unloading it. This was a load of spring wheat that was used to blend into winter wheat to boost protein. This was in Feb 1983, a GN car and I did not investigate on just exactly where it was loaded up north. There may have been more boxcars in that batch but I don’t have anything elese listed in my notes and memory has long faded about that one interesting day so long ago.
The percentage of grain moved in boxcars was once very high. In older elevators, boxcars were the cars of choice, since they did not have the capability to unload a hopper. On the Buffalo waterfront, if a boxcar of grain was to be unloaded at a lake or river front elevator, it was shoveled out by the same men called “shovelers” that dug the grain out of the holds of lake boats. I last saw grain moving in boxcars just a few days ago, so it is not over yet, likely due to those old elevators that their owners do not want to put money into, if it can be avoided.
I know that some elevators around here use boxcars for bagged grain. Does that Wall elevator have a bagging room adjacent to the grain storage silos?
It would be helpful to know what type of box cars these were. The DM&E line is perfectly capable of hauling the 263K covered hoppers, if not the 286K cars, so box cars would not be needed for that reason. Bagged grain or grain product is a distinct possibility.
I didn’t get to stay around long enough to check them out very well. It is quite possible, that they are loading bagged grain. I know that DM&E hauls 286K cars, as I saw them on a train coming through as well. I do wonder about the track conditions, at least in S.D. I have yet to see a DM&E train moving at much speed. A man my brother knows works for DM&E in western S.D. He said they were replacing every third tie, to try to increase track speed(?). I did see a lot of MOW equipment at Wall, New Underwood, and Box Elder, as well as lots of new and old ties along the line.
Its not just elevators that may not be equiped to unload box cars but grain shippers that may only be equiped to load boxcars. CH’s (covered hoppers) are designed to load from above and unload below. BC’s (boxcars) load from the side and unload from the side. Older and smaller elevators may not have been able to afford CH equipment. ADM I beleive uses a vaccum/sucktion hose which is not as fast as centerflows but sure beats shovels. I really beleive it is a equipment availability issue thou. Any port in a storm. No hoppers! Then send me some boxcars with door board.
Going to follow Dave and Carl’s thoughts some…
Jaco down here gets a dozen boxcars a day of bagged grains, every thing you could imagine, rice, wheat and corn…along with “loose” car loads of things like dried peas, even lentil gets here in box cars with partitions over the doors.
Reason is they use a conveyor belt system to unload the cars, instead of a pit and auger…they load directly onto ships and barges.
So what are the odd that the elevator you saw had a bagging room?
Ed
Odds are pretty good, I’m sure. I seem to recall from an earlier trip out there, that there is a big sliding door on the side of one of the buildings, adjacent to the tracks. What struck me about the boxcars and the elevator, was that it reminded me of photos of old elevators and boxcars on forgotten Canadian Pacific branch lines. This elevator had sort of a classic look to it, looking like it had corrugeted tin tacked on over blistering paint sometime in the 1950’s.
Those Soo Line and Chicago & North Western Boxcars are what I would like to see more photos of sometime soon.
The C&NW Boxcars with the billboard lettering we
Andrew’s post above got me wondering. Murphy, is it possible that you saw a movement of potatoes? I seem to remember to have seen a picture of Bangor and Aroostook boxcars with sacks of potatoes being unloaded onto a conveyor and in a ship.
greetings,
Marc Immeker
Marc: Wall S.D, is far from potatoe growing areas. Poor soil, and little rain mean that the only major local crop grown is wheat. In fact, most land there is used for grazing cattle, or supporting the local jack rabbit population.