Grain Elevators

[Gloriousnse]

A classic US industry! Please keep this thread for 'originating' elevators which primarily exist to load product, and not ones which are part of a larger industry like a corn processing or ethanol plant.

The grain elevator can vary from vast, hard to model subjects right down to....well look at this one. (With apologies to those who will have already seen this industry elsewhere!)

Just West of Waukesha WI, on former Milwaukee trackage now operated by Wisconsin & Southern lies a small double ended grain elevator track serving Williams Grain. What I love about this one is it looks like something from another time and place...you almost wouldn't be surprised if an old 2-8-0 puffed round the curve and left a couple of boxcars for loading rather than a modern regional with SD40-2s and covered hoppers...


WSOR 4011 T4 Williams WI by Train Chaser, on Flickr

Believe it or not that rusty ol' elevator is still a rail shipper, and various images (including Bing's aerials) show covered hoppers on the spur for loading. There are other shots showing MOW gear stored in there too which would be another use for the spur.

Bing's shots can be found here: http://binged.it/Qja1jc

Oddly enough for a minor rural location Google Streetview has it too:

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Waukes ... .2,,0,6.84

[Gloriousnse]

The other (less modelling-friendly!) end of the scale is something like this - Western Grain Marketing of Adair IL, they have a unit train loading loop for quick and efficient loading of an entire grain train in one hit...it doesn't look too bad to model till you realise the loop can take a 115 car train!

Overhead view: http://binged.it/Z1aXyb

Their page on BNSF's website - showing capacity and a photo.
http://www.bnsf.com/customers/grain-fac ... e2461.html
(That's a useful site - as it shows all BNSF connected elavators with track capacities, and often a useful photo!)

A nice detail in the image is the yellow rail which is a support for a safety harness for the guys opening and closing the top hatches...

Fascinatingly when you look up the location on Google maps it's there on the overheads, but hasn't been built yet on the streetview!

[Gloriousnse]

Back down to manageable proportions! This is the Cameron Grain Corp, of Cameron IL, on the BNSF (ex Q) main line just West of Galesburg. BNSF's website reckons their spur can load just 3 cars, a bit more manageable in scale than 115! It's also proof (if any were needed) that small, manageable industries do still exist out there on the main lines of todays modern, multi-track CTC super-railroads...


Cameron IL, Grain Elevator, Cameron Illinois, Warren County IL by Tourismguy, on Flickr

Cameron is a common railfanning spot, being the place where the old Santa Fe line 'flys over' the Q on it's way west, and where BNSF built a new linking chord in it's formative years to allow trains to swap from one route to the other...so this elevator gets a lot of love as a 'photo prop' **Lots** of shots on Flickr either of the elevator, or with it as a backdrop.

This shot scales it nicely too - whilst it's 'small' it's pretty imposing, at least at full scale...


Z DENCHI9, Cameron, IL by CAZamostny, on Flickr

[geofftiller]

I had a look at the Cameron Elevator, it looks like it would make a nice model. I also had a look at the earlier one you found

The other (less modelling-friendly!) end of the scale is something like this - Western Grain Marketing of Adair IL, they have a unit train loading loop for quick and efficient loading of an entire grain train in one hit...it doesn't look too bad to model till you realise the loop can take a 115 car train

No understatement there! It wasn't clear how big it was at first until you compared the size of the grain bins to the truck trailers! 115 car trains WOW, thats a whole modular layout about twice over let alone a module.

[BrianMoore]

Here's the elevators that I put together for the Anson Yard layout; just semi-flats, made out of styrene sheet etc, following a study of the huge amount of pictures available on the web. On the Anson layout, they were alongside two stub-end tracks, with one serving each. They now live on Mike Hughes' home layout.

Anson elevators by bxmoore, on Flickr

D&RGW 5512 by bxmoore, on Flickr
And here's another two, built in even less time, but still hopefully looking the part:

Geeps at the Elevators 1 by bxmoore, on Flickr
A small elevator or two provides an excellent way to use a collection of interesting and colourful cars in a prototypical fashion. The brown elevator No. 889 also has some side doors that can be served by boxcars.

[torikoos]

That is the kind of industry I was contemplating for my new 'to be build' module.
a grain elevator can add some operational interest to the module, with a related corn syrup facility at another spur.
A small scrap yard is also amongst the contenders, but these have lots of character, and easy to build.

Koos