To follow up on Leo's comments. In eastern Iowa and Western Illinois, by the
late 60s farmers began trucking their grain directly to the Mississippi
river to load in barges. By the 80s almost all were doing this, as highway
and truck designs improved while rail service deteriorated. And yes grain
elevators preferred covered hoppers, once covered hoppers with a trough
design came into common use for grain loading, ie the mid 70s, and if their
track could support the weight of the larger cars. Many older elevators
could only load boxcars well into the 80s, when those still operating
shifted completely to trucks. There was a major shift in grain service as
exports grew, covered hoppers came into use, and elevator designs changed.
Then unit trains came into being. The old wooded elevators faded out of use
because they were too small. Those that survived are often used for local
storage and/or truck service only.
Attached are a few photos of older wood grain elevators, showing double
spouts for loading boxcars or for loading hopper cars. Also are two photos
showing how a boxcar was loaded. The CN shows the spout was plenty high
enough to top load if needed. I took the shot of the Albert Lea elevator
along the former MSTL, you can see the new spout opening directly above the
original. I also took the photo of the Nodaway IA elevator 4 years ago,
along the CBQ mainline. It too shows two spouts.
Doug Harding
www.iowacentralrr.org
-----Original Message-----
From: CBQ@groups.io [mailto:CBQ@groups.io] On Behalf Of Leo Phillipp via
Groups.Io
Sent: Saturday, April 13, 2019 10:10 AM
To: CBQ@groups.io
Subject: [CBQ] CB&Q Grain Elevators,Grain Covered Hoppers
I'll take a try at answering Tom's question about Grain elevator preference
but before that I'd like to discuss the train in the photo. While we will
never know for sure I don't think this is a wayfreight. With the exception
of the Fox River wayfreight, the Roustabout and the Rockfalls job all Aurora
Division wayfreights by this time had a single geep or an end cab switchers.
None of the two unit jobs went anywhere near Sandwich.
It was my experience the elevators that had the capacity much preferred the
Covered Hoppers because of rate savings,easeof loading(no Grain doors to
cooper) and no lost Grain and claims. The box cars were sieves, train crews
were equipped with rags in the waycar tool lockers to stuff in holes,etc.
Keep in mind by this time the Qs online Grain business was a shadow of the
former volume. I have a report by a Aurora Division special asst. dated mid
to late 60s in which he summarizes his Station by Station loading/car
traffic by stating"Grain traffic has left the railroad". I once asked a 90
plus year old farmer when did the Grain start leaving the railroad. He
thought for all of about 5 seconds and replied when the Illinois River was
deepened and locks installed in the early 1930s. Farmers simply trucked
their grain to river terminals directly or the local elevator did it. This
process took years to reach the point it was in the late 60s.
Leo
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Cedar Buffs KS grain elevator.jpg
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Albert Lea 08 (10).JPG
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loading grain CN002944.jpg
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LoadingGrain_Grundy Center.JPG
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Nodaway Elevator (7).JPG
Description: JPEG image
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