Ken,
We try to limit the BRHS list to BRHS business. But I don’t know if you’re on the CBQ group. So I am answering on both groups but any further discussion s/b on the cbq group not the BRHS group.
I’m sure these cars were around General Mills at West Chicago when I switched it in the 1970s as a brakeman and Condr. Also at Eola where everything for the plant was staged when I spent a wonderful summer there on 4PMs in ‘74.
So here’s probably more than you wanted to know. But when you ask …. It’s like Forest Gump said “you never know what you’re going to get”. Thanks for bringing back the memories.
The General Mills West Chicago plant in the 60s/70s was set up to produce breakfast cereals, think Wheaties, Cheerios and the like. The other main product was boxed potato mixes, i.e. Au Gratin, scalloped, etc and then those slivered versions, i.e. sour cream and chives. I also seem to remember Bugles.
On this serious of cars, if you look at them on the BRHS flicker site, you will notice the setup on the bottom gates for hose connections. These are food products so they are unloaded in a closed system. Note the stenciling on cars sides to open the top hatches before unloading. Why ? Because they are vacuum systems . If the hatches aren’t cracked that covered hopper will look like a crushed beer can in very short order. No I’m not exaggerating. Been there seen that with both covered hoppers and tank cars. There’s another version of “whale belly” when talking about the condition of certain freight cars. As a side bar the locos could not enter the buildings at West Chicago because of the exhaust. We worked with idler cars.
So these covered hopper cars would go to the “old warehouse” which was east of Towne road where all inbound raw materials were unloaded. This was the former Zenith TV plant. These cars would have contained various version of ground corn,oats,wheat,flour,sugar and powdered potatoes. Molasses, veg.oil, and corn syrup came arrived in tank cars which were used as the idlers at the “old warehouse”. Keep in mind the yard outside the plant with four tracks held around 60-70 cars(we kept one track clear as a runaround and lead to the plant. The old warehouse would cherry pick which covered hoppers, box cars and tanks they wanted spotted each night. Switching the old warehouse was quite a challenge but I’ll save those stories for another time.
The best part of switching General Mills was the “recoup”. That’s where all the cases of damaged product was locked up in a fenced in area that resemble a large chicken coup in the “new warehouse”. The distribution plant. Us railroad guys were allowed to show up with two of the old fashion paper groceries bags one assigned day of the week. We could pack as much we could cram into those two bags for $2 each. I’m not sure but I think this solved what had been a problem of the nose of a GP7 being used as a wholesale shopping cart by a certain engineer who had a sizable family. When his shopping trips in the “new warehouse” came to light he was told to leave the job and never go back to General Mills.
Yes that’s 45-50 years ago. Sometimes it seems like yesterday.
Leo
On Feb 8, 2023, at 5:43 PM, ken thompson <mailboat4@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello Group,
I know that CB&Q covered hopper series 85200 to 85299 GATC dry flow hoppers were assigned to General Mills service at West Chicago, IL. My question is what commodities were shipped to or from General Mills in these type cars?
This would be in the early to late 60's period.
Thanks,
Ken Thompson
S. Milwaukee, WI
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