Cameron- In the early 1950's,

Cameron-

In the early 1950's, I would venture to say that most grain was still shipped in boxcars fitted with temporary grain doors to keep the product in.  My own prototype didn't own any covered hoppers until 1952 or so, and they were for dry cement lading.  

Jeff Fry  

40 foot boxcars

40 Foot boxcars and lots of them. Covered hopper for grain service really didn't start to take off until the 1960's with the advent of the 100 ton grain hopper. Some branch lines never saw covered hoppers and were 40 foot territory until the end of the 70's as the rail and roadbed couldn't handle them. Most of the short ones you would have seen in the 1950's would have been for cement, sand, or other dense heavy products. Make sure you have a pile of the wood grain doors around your elevator for those boxcars.

Paul

Thanks that really helps!

Thanks that really helps!

I have wondered about this

I have wondered about this too.  I will probably set my layout somewhere between 1920 and 1950.  Can you describe what the "grain doors" would look like.  Thank you.

There were no Grain hoppers

There were no Grain hoppers in the 50's and there woulod have been no ADM grain terminal either, what was used was 40 foot boxcars setup for grain handeling, which was usually planks stacked behind the door and when each plank was removed the grain would flow out, one of my 1st jobs as a kid was to be hired by the Grain Elevator to push the rest of the grain out with snow shovels, thats how I made my weekend money.

Hope this helps.

MG

A short history of shipping grain on railroads

Here is a link to a pdf file witten by Don Holbrook called "INTRODUCTION TO BULK GRAIN HANDLING". http://www.modelerschoice.com/Articles/grain.pdf
It might answer a few of your questions.

Rick Luther

grain doors

Modelers Choice offered some very nice laser cut ones as pictured here but they have temporarily halted production of all their products. Sunshine offers one and some have been produced in paper.

Making Grain Doors

Look at the photo posted by calflash, doodle up an appropriate pattern on paint or draw in your computer, print them out in paper width strips, cut to size and place in the occasional open boxcar door.  Making a pile of them to lay on the ground where cars are unloaded, or on a dock where they are loaded would prpbably require using wood.

Jeff Fry   

informative article

I just PDFed an article from RMJ Sept '92 available online at: http//www.trainlife.com/magazines/pages/97/6948/railmodel-journal-september-1992-pg6 

All you need to know and them some.

Cal

Re: Making Grain Doors

"Making a pile of them to lay on the ground where cars are unloaded, or on a dock where they are loaded would probably require using wood."

Unless you're modeling single-use paper grain doors of course.  I haven't seen a model of those being stacked for use - might be interesting.

Hopper cars

The same for cars hauling rock salt. In the 1950s, at least where I lived. Rock salt was hauled from New York State to Westfield, MA in box cars with planks in the doorway to keep the salt in the boxcar. A beat up truck from a local trailer truck company was used to push the box cars around some.

Rich

This is a great Thread

I really enjoyed the PDF om Grain cars and their progress this has turned out to a great learning experience as I had never considered the evolution of grain cars.

Dan

ADM grain elevators

Why Mike you say there wouldn't be an ADM facility beats me , there first concrete grain facilitys where built in 1925 , this is from there website http://www.adm.com/en-US/company/history/Pages/1920-1939.aspx

Greetz Jan