We are approaching another harvest here in corn
country,although a much smaller one, and once again my mind has turned to a
question. I have asked this before so this time I'll try a different tact.
Does anyone know of a book,magazine,trade or historical pub
article that deals with how grain moved ,by rail,back in the day once it
got to the "grain inspection track" in some major terminal ? We've already
discussed at some length how the locals distributed the mtys and moved the loads
to the big terminals. I have found the notations in earlier ETTs about certain
dinkies stopping at Hawthorne to p/u grain inspection reports for the Board of
Trade downtown in Chicago. I know the grain inspection trk in Cicero was a low
numbered track in 'D" yard from the guys who put the cars on it. I've
talked at length to the old timers over the years about distributing the
mtys,plugging holes in the car sides and many other nuances of the local grain
business. I even have some of my own experiences with the few remaining
elevators that shipped by rail in the 70's.
But what I'd like to learn about is where and how did the
grain go once it had been inspected ?
Today everything "goes to the river" in a truck and is barged
to a down river terminal or a port for export but prior to say the late 50s
early 60s things were different. Or it goes in unit trains to the west coast. I
have A. Prathers 1964 report to Supt Saylor stating "grain has left the RR"
after he had toured stations in Western Illinois. The latest Classic trains
issue on the 05's mentions very briefly the need to bring them from storage for
export grain to Russia. Did it ship out of the Great
Lakes/Chicago/Cleveland/Buffalo ?
Thanks for any leads,
Leo Phillipp