Can’t make my mind up on the position of my wooden grain elevators. I’m going to have a row them, 3 or 4, and can’t decide whether to have them against the wall with the car loading side facing outward or with the truck onload facing outward and tracks running behind.
I would like to have the truck side facing out with all the lanes and ramps to model and be visible, but realize switching cars would mean reaching behind the elevators.
I like the other way also with being able to switch cars easier and see the boxcars lined up at the elevators.
Looking for some advice if you’ve had the same experience.
If you will have to reach behind the elevator to uncouple cars then that will be awkward. If you plan to have magnetic un couplers on the track leading behind the elevator then placing cars behind the elevator could be feesable.
You could mix it up, nothing says they all have to load / unload the same way.
Do you have room to put the elevators on both sides of the track? Most photo’s you see the elevators are all on the same side, however, there are lots of examples of elevators on both sides.
If you have the room it would give you parallel sidings and add a little more switching to the layout.
Here is my one. I may try to squeeze another in someday.
This is in the FYI realm. Grain elevators are most often located along sidings that resemble passing sidings for access from either side. Usually, locomotives don’t go through the loading area. Cars (box cars up to early 70s, covered hoppers from mid-60s) are set in a string at the feeder end, then are pulled through by winches as the cars are loaded. The loaded cars are picked up at the other end. This isn’t an absolute, but that’s pretty much the process.
I like the staggered idea that another has suggested. You can have the spur curve inward a bit towards the ailse at the end allowing for those elevators to be placed near the wall. Since you probaly won’t be uncoupling directly in front of an elevator but off to one side, the staggered placement opens up the sides of the backwards facing elevators allowing finger room on either side.
I have been fortunate enough to see grain cars being spotted at elevators on the prairies, and whether it is a stub end or drive through siding, the cars were usually dropped with the first one in position for loading. I have also seen the winch in action pulling a string of cars along. There were many different setups for the winches. You might see the winch right next to the elevator with a cable running down the track a hundred metre’s through a pully and back towards the elevator, or the winch may be located way down the track and the hired help would walk down to operate it. Sometimes when the cars were being winched there would be a guy on the car manning the brake wheel, sometimes not.
I have seen the elevator siding used as a runaround track by the local (if empty) and used for storage of MOW equipment and/or plows. Nowadays most elevators are sadly long gone with the siding still in place. Some of these are used for storage still today.
There are lots of possibilities for creating scenes around the old Prarie sentinels. Present day or of yesteryear.
mbinsewi Sorry for the novice question but what is a car moving bar?
Ouch. Just watched the video with the car moving bar. My back is hurting just watching that guy. Not a job I would want. So was this a pretty common method to move cars, even loaded ones?
Looks like a lever with a narrow spade tip, sometimes with a roller wheel under the heel. For some reason wikipedia doesn’t have a copyright-free pic, but Google “railroad car mover tool” and you’ll see lots of them. They are the railcar movers without an engne.
If you click on the link which Mike provided, the use of a car moving bar is at roughly the eight minute and 30 second point of the video.
If you’re interested in modelling one of these smaller grain elevators, it’s probably worthwhile to watch the whole video. If you right-click on the words “Grain Elevator” at the upper left of the photo, you can open the video in a new tab and view it full-size.
If I recall correctly, you’ll also learn the definition and purpose of a gerber.
I’ve only used one to move dead steam locomotives at a museum/ storage site, but provided the track is level, it actually doesn’t require that much muscle power, it’s just very slow and very repetitious, plus I was a lot younger!!
My dad had a job where he had to use a car moving bar on a regular basis. He said it was not bad getting them to move but getting them stopped was a different story.
The cable for the winch was not very thick and the winches not that big. Maybe slightly larger than you would see on the front of a pickup truck. I would think it would be easy to rig up a working one with a motor under the bench. The cable just lays in the grass when not in use.
When I am on the prairies I love driving the section roads as you see so much. A couple of years ago I went exploring with my two kids. Didn’t see a soul for hours and I let my fourteen year old daughter drive the truck for a while. She was thrilled to say the least. On our adventure, we came across abandon elevators suspended in time without a soul within miles of these places. What amazed me was they looked like they were still open for biz, but that was not the case. All of the equipment was still inside as if everyone left in a hurry. Took some pics.
Look at the date on the rail. Grain would have been brought to the elevator with a horse drawn wagon when this was laid down.
Next to one of the elevators was a whole pile of very old switch stands laying in the grass. I would have loved to have brought one home but just taking one goes against my nature. The fact that they are all still there decades later speaks volumes about the people that liv
Forum member C&O Fan aka Terry in Texas made a working car puller winch set up for his coal tipple, perhaps I’m not looking hard enough but this is what I did find.
