WOW hock: ---the Mother of model railroad structures ---amazing work Ralph

Several years ago, I took a photo of this grain barge loading equipment on the Mississippi River at Red Wing, MN. I used it as inspiration for making a grain loading chute for Empire Grain on my layout....







Ralph

Ralph that is one more impressive complex!!! What scale is it?

Thanks Tyson, its HO.
Ralph

Some progress to report:

The large sign perched on the top of the silos is easily visible to tug boats and car floats approaching West Mill's harbor....


I've added some additional structures to accommodate grain truck unloading. I don't have a 1960-70's era grain truck so I placed a truck cab in the dock as a suggestion of how it might work. I've done some searching for pics of appropriate looking grain trucks and just might try fashioning one. The over-the-track facility may be a bit whimsical but it fits my space and I like having conveyors cross over the tracks to create a busy industrial look.









The large complex is just about finished. There are a couple of areas I need to neaten up a bit but for the most part its ready to go!

Ralph

That is a really huge industrial complex. I love it

AWESOME

Great work Ralph. You should be proud.

Great looking "conversion", Ralph...the re-purpose, re-costruction was a neat idea, well done...the little boarded-up station kinda makes me a little misty though ! Bob C.

Back in the 1960's & 1970's a lot of grain was hauled in standard refrigeration trailers as back hauls. Typically the driver or someone would "bag" the evaporator in plastic and seal all edges with tape to keep the grain from plugging the evaporator fins. On more than one occasion, the shop I worked at needed to replace an evaporator coil on a trailer because someone had started the reefer before the trailer was cleaned out. A lot of the grain came into So Cal as a back haul by a produce truck that had hauled Ca. produce to the east coast. The trailer full of grain was unloaded at a break grain terminal in the Long Beach harbor. The method of unloading was interesting as well.
The trailer would be backed onto a lift and the tractor would unhook and pull away. The trailer was then secured to the lift, the back doors opened, and the trailer was then lifted at a 45 degree angle to let gravity unload the grain. I think the grain terminals had a conveyer system to load the ships from the grain pile. Since I worked for either trucking companies that ran 100% reefers or a reefer dealer, I saw reefers hauling grain. I would not be surprised if dry vans also hauled grain.

Bigger is better!!!! Wondeful work! And very inspiring. I also have a large grain elevator to build in 2012, about 8' long, looks like I'll take some idea from you if you don't mind!



Just a question, as anyone ever tried to build a layout inspired by the ill-fated J.R. Booth Depot Harbour near Parry Sound? That would be a nice turn of century source of inspiration! Harbor, grain, bridges... everything you want!

Matt

Thanks guys!

Russ, In my photo searches I've seen photos of trailers on inclined lifts like you desribe. I've also seen trucks with trailers that could be raised like a dump truck.

Matt, go for the big! Looking forward to seeing what you do.

Ralph

Ralph Wrote:Thanks guys!

Russ, In my photo searches I've seen photos of trailers on inclined lifts like you desribe. I've also seen trucks with trailers that could be raised like a dump truck.

Matt, go for the big! Looking forward to seeing what you do.

Ralph

The biggest advantage to modeling a lift is that you don't need to find 1970's era dedicated grain trailers. You can use standard van trailers from the era for grain. Also being on the Hudson River, I wonder if there would have been ships coming up river from Elizabeth, N.J. to load out grain for Russia in the 1970's like they did here in Long Beach?

Or the 1980's after Chernobyl. I knew a commodities broker that made a fortune on wheat sales to the Soviet Union.

Russ and Mike, interesting question. Let's say that Empire Grain was (is) indeed part of those shipments!
Ralph