Just to add a bit more historical perspective to the grain traffic
conversation.
What about grain doors??? Mostly wood, but in the "latter days" paper grain
doors came in.
Every country station with an elevator had a supply of wood or paper doors.
The railroads had divided their lines into territories some used all wood
doors and some paper.
These doors were shipped into each station via a company service boxcar.
Section men unloaded the doors either on the depot platform, in the freight
room or probably in most cases right at the elevator. It was the
responsibility of the shipper to "cooper" (install the doors) the cars. Most
grain doors were 8 ft long. These would work nicely with the usual 6 foot
door 40 box. Sometimes in times of car shortages cars with a 10 foot door
would be used. Doors then had to be spliced and almost always that didn't
work and the thing leaked.
Along with the wood doors there had to be a supply of nails (double head) and
caulking paper which was stuffed around the doors to theoretically make the
seal grain tight. During harvest season elevators would hire a couple of
guys to do nothing but cooper cars to prepare them for loading.
As to grain inspection...this was a tremendous "albatross" around the
railroad's neck. Leo mentioned grain inspection tracks. Every terminal had
one or more. Grain cars would come into the yard on an inbound train. Said
cars would be switched to the grain inspection track. This track then had to
be "blue flagged" for the inspectors to work. It was pretty informal in my
operating days. About all that was done was that someone would tell the
yardmaster that the inspectors were working on a particular track and he
would try to avoid kicking any cars in there.
The inspection process involved the inspectors prying open the car door.
Climbing up the little ladder they carried with them, crawling over the grain
door and then into the car and taking a probe (usually three I think) of the
grain. Climbing back out over the grain door down the ladder and then trying
to shut the door. Those of you who have worked around boxcars know that
opening and closing a door could became a major task and sometimes required a
"come along"
After the track had been inspected it would be again switched and cars placed
on proper tracks to again go out of town or to a particular elevator or mill.
During the 1960's origin sampling began to come into play and I believe now
that most sampling and testing is done at the loading elevator, hence
eliminating most if not all terminal grain inspection.
Think of the saving to the carrier of not having to switch each car of grain
three additional times.
As to the handling of grain doors. At major terminals and export elevators
cars were unloaded by a "dumper". A ram device was used to shove in the
grain doors and start the flow. This was a bit hard on the wood doors. The
cars was then raised and tilted back and forth until all, or most all, of the
contest were dumped out.
The grain doors were salvaged and reclaimed by the WWIB (Western Weighing and
Inspection Bureau)..Who remembers them? Doors were then loaded into boxcars
and returned to the proper carrier for distribution back to the origin points.
Paper doors of course were a one way proposition.
Think of the tremendous savings to the carriers when grain began to move in
covered hoppers with origin sampling.
My limited knowledge of what I have put here comes from my time as Manager of
Freight Claims for the Rock Island and dealing with a huge volume of loss
claims for grain shipments. These claims would come in by the hundreds and
were settled in batches according to these categories. Clear record car (no
evidence of leakage), Grain door leak, Defective equipment etc.
So I get a CB&Q mention here. Prior to my RI Freight Claim days, I spent 3
summers as a trainman on the Lincoln and Wymore Divisions in the 1950's. I
have probably spotted grain cars at most of the elevators on the division and
have a bit of first hand knowledge on the shipping end as well as the claim
paying end.
To think of how far in the past those "grain in boxcar" days were, a couple
of years ago at our Lincoln Railfans Club meeting someone showed a slide of a
boxcar loaded with grain. One of the younger members asked. "How in the
world could you ever load grain in a boxcar"????
Grain in boxcars could be a good Burlington Bulletin subject.
Pete Hedgpeth
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