Distillery

[sailormatlac]

I know that the distilleries here in town (Old Taylor, Old Crow, Old Grand-Dad, and Schenley's George T. Stagg Distillery) were receiving grain in covered hoppers by the early 1960's. But as late as 1978-79, we'd often get the odd box car of grain (usually rye or malt). I remember us getting box car loads of malt or rye in FDDM and RI box cars that were probably loaded at elevators on poorly maintained branch lines.

The covered hoppers gradually grew in size with 100 ton capacity being the norm by the late 1960's. Most of the corn came from elevators in southern Indiana or Louisville and was usually shipped in L&N "Big Blue" covered hoppers, although it wasn't unusual to see private owner covered hoppers such as Indiana Farm Bureau. We got a lot of SOO Line "Color Mark" cars which I always liked because of the wheat logo on them.

As has been previously mentioned, your best bet is to try and locate photos for distilleries in your era and see what types of cars show up in the photos. It would be safe to say that at least through the 1950's that most of your grain would be received in box cars.

Thanks Ed for the first hand account. So I guess boxcars will be the rule for my era. I kind of expected this! I'm curious about the unloading process. I've seen pictures and videos at elevator. Was it a similar process for at the distillery? Time to read again the excellent thread about distilleries.

BTW, your schema of Old Grand Dad distillery was very uselful to understand how Montmorency Distillery worked.

SOO Line "Color Mark" have always been one of my favorite grain car ever too. Nowadays, they are completely weathered and rusted, you barely see the wheat logo anymore. It was my first ever Intermountain Railway car when I was in high school and probably my first prototypical car ever.

I'm actually stripping online archives in Quebec. So far, only pictures of corporate headquarters and portraits of Board members and CEO show up. I'll continue, who knows. Showing a siding full of car isn't very glamour! I'll try the local historical association. I remember they once made a short article about this very industry. Maybe there's still people who worked there that are still alive. QRL&PCo once served 3 distillery at a time.

Matt