Thanks for those two pictures, Dave. I had no seen those before. I attached latest color photos taken while it was mineral red. I misspoke about the date of the latest mineral
red picture I have being 1954, it’s 1957. I think it came form on of Spoor’s books, and I scanned and cropped it. If the book caption date is correct, the elevator was painted in early 1957 (between January and April). I also attached one of several pictures
you sent to me of the elevator in the 1970s, and I notice the head house is lighter than the elevator, so perhaps the head house was white and the elevator was galvanized metal or light gray. A 1953 Sanborn map has a note that the elevator was ‘iron plated’.
I never have been able to find out exactly what that looked like or the size of the plates. I stopped construction on the elevator because all of the available corrugated siding didn’t scale well on a selectively compressed model. I’d really like to know more
about the metal sheathing on the elevator before completing the model.
Rich posted photos of the Mt. Morris elevator, and I could see large rectangular plates on the sides. It’s possible that the Burlington elevator was plated like that, but I
can’t see any photographic evidence to support that assumption.
I never saw the elevator. I moved to Iowa City in 1982, and at that time, model railroading wasn’t on my radar.
Nelson Moyer
From: CBQ@groups.io <CBQ@groups.io>
On Behalf Of Dave Lotz via groups.io
Sent: Friday, July 17, 2026 3:17 PM
To: CBQ@groups.io
Subject: Re: [CBQ] Structure colors - Montgomery IL
Nelson,
Here’s a glimpse of the mineral red elevator behind the depot in 1955. While it doesn’y impact you model,the second isfrom April of ’57 showing it was a greyish, almost a flat aluminum color, not white.
Dave
From: CBQ@groups.io <CBQ@groups.io>
On Behalf Of Nelson Moyer via groups.io
Sent: Friday, July 17, 2026 3:33 PM
To: CBQ@groups.io
Subject: Re: [CBQ] Structure colors - Montgomery IL
That must be why there is so much white paint in the three Q facilities books from Morning Sun. Most of those pictures were taken after 1960, and I found all the white paint disappointing because I model 1953.
That must also the reason that color pictures of the Burlington export elevator show mostly white paint. The last mineral red color photo I have was from 1954, and I know of only one or two other color pictures before it was paint white.
