I'm thinking I need to build a grain facility for my grain trains. How does a 60's 70's facility handle grain trains in that era? I assume the trains get loaded as a unit and then put on a ready track for departure. Arriving empty trains get stored in a nearby yard.... or vice versa. Grain elevators are big storage facilites, correct? So trains would arrive during harvest season and fill the silos, then be off to farming communites for more grain? what would be a realistic operation? We often speak of car forwarding systems, but how does a modeller simulate a place such as this? Can a car forwarding system simulate this kind of traffic? Do we just park a string of cars by it and pretend it gets loaded without bothering to run all the cars under the filler pipes. I think we had a large thread on agro railroading a while back I will have to dig that out and look at it.
Geeky: History of grain elevators: http://www.buffalohistoryworks.com/grain/history/history.htm Grain elevator operation from the USDA: http://www.usda.gov/gipsa/reference-library/vrml/intro.htm BNSF grain elevator directory. More pictures than you can imagine: http://www.bnsf.com/business/agcom/elevator/elevmenu.html http://www.bnsf.com/business/agcom/elevator/menu/kslist.html Large grain elevator in Ft Worth. One of four in this complex. Fifteen million bushels and 110 car yard capacity: Real layout size elevator and port loading facility in Houston. Cargill Company. Six million bushels and 300 car yard capacity. Looks like the yard has just been expanded. [ 28. November 2004, 21:02: Message edited by: sapacif ]
Flash, boy you are right about that BNSF site, thanks for posting it. lots of good modeling ideas there. Joe
Joe- This may not help much, but it's neat site. I can't get it to come up tonight. Dunno why. http://www.grainelevatorphotos.com Boxcab E50
