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+--- Thread: Loading a grain box car/Grain Elevator (/showthread.php?tid=3941)
Loading a grain box car/Grain Elevator - bdw9535 - 04-18-2011
Came across this video of a grain boxcar being loaded at a Canadian elevator <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.nfb.ca/film/grain_elevator">http://www.nfb.ca/film/grain_elevator</a><!-- m -->. Especially enjoyed the section where the gentleman running the facility had to move the car by hand. Its not a modern era but still very interesting.
Bruce
Re: Loading a grain box car/Grain Elevator - railroader9731 - 04-18-2011
It sure helps to know what went on behind closed doors so to speak. Thanks for the post
Re: Loading a grain box car/Grain Elevator - steinjr - 04-18-2011
One has to love those online films of the National Film Board of Canada. There is another great one here - http://www.nfb.ca/film/railroaders - 20 minutes on operations around Revelstoke in the Rocky Mountains.
Smile,
Stein
Re: Loading a grain box car/Grain Elevator - Chuck - 04-18-2011
Loved the video! I always wondered how those old elevators worked -- Thank you for sharing this!
Re: Loading a grain box car/Grain Elevator - e-paw - 04-18-2011
Great vids.. My hats off to you guys for finding them...
Re: Loading a grain box car/Grain Elevator - Russ Bellinis - 06-16-2011
I was surprised. I have always heard that the wooden grain elevator disappeared shortly after WW1 to be replaced first by sheet metal elevators and later by the concrete type. That pickup in the parking lot in the opening scene is a Chevy or GMC built between 1973 & 1987, unless the Canadian models might have lasted even longer with that body style. I didn't realize that they were still using box cars for grain instead of covered hoppers that late.
Re: Loading a grain box car/Grain Elevator - BR60103 - 06-16-2011
The date on the film is 1981; I trust it is accurate.
Re: Loading a grain box car/Grain Elevator - FCIN - 06-16-2011
It's my understanding that box cars are still used for grain loading on many Canadian branch lines due to the condition of the branch and very light rail. Like in the U.S., a railroad isn't too likely to upgrade a branch line to handle cars weighing 130 tons plus that only sees traffic moving on it a few times a year. We had many such light branch lines here on former RI, CBQ, GN, and MILW lines to name a few, but they are pretty much all gone now.
Even back in the late 70's we'd still receive an occasional 40ft box car loaded with grain at the distilleries around here. I remember seeing a couple of former CBQ 40ft box cars (restenciled BN) equipped with 8ft plug doors that also had grain loading doors in them. Another one seen a couple of times was a 40ft box car with 6ft doors that carried FDDM reporting marks. The distillery used a vacuum hose to unload the cars. Seems like they were loaded with barley.
Re: Loading a grain box car/Grain Elevator - bdw9535 - 06-17-2011
While going thru boxes of MRR mags came across an issue of Railfan and Railroad from September 2001 that had a story on the vanishing wooden grain elevators in the Saskatchewan area of Canada. The small local elevators were being torn down and replaced with massive grain elevators called high through-put elevators or HTP's along the mainlines. The wooden elevators were in abundance in this area even in 2000 but by 2001 many had been razed.
Bruce
Re: Loading a grain box car/Grain Elevator - ngauger - 06-17-2011
That's SO cool!!! I found about a dozen Safety Violations though
Re: Loading a grain box car/Grain Elevator - bsmall - 06-29-2011
For sure there are a lot fewer of them than there used to be but there are some wooden elevators still around.
This one from central Alberta is still active.
Re: Loading a grain box car/Grain Elevator - doctorwayne - 06-29-2011
Hi bsmall, and
to Big Blue. Wayne
Re: Loading a grain box car/Grain Elevator - MasonJar - 06-29-2011
They're not all gone, nor are they exclusively a western structure. While Kemptville demolished theirs some years ago, the one in Berwick, Ontario (sw of Ottawa) is still standing:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=berwick+on&ll=45.174523,-75.110967&spn=0.001679,0.003369&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&gl=ca&t=h&z=18">http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=berwick+on ... a&t=h&z=18</a><!-- m -->
Not sure if it was ever rail served.
Andrew