I want add a facility that will allow me to operate a fleet of covered hoppers on my N scale railroad. I know almost every city in the Midwest has missile silo like grain storage facilities. And I
have seen facilities like the new Rix grain storage facility that are groups of round metal containers surrounding some sort of tower.
What I don't know, is, what happens at these facilities from a railroad operations standpoint. Do trucks bring product to the storage facility for future loading into covered hoppers? Do railcars
deliver the product and it is later trucked somewhere else for processing at a mill ?
Any info from the experts would be appreciated. Replies from NYC, Philadelphia, LA, etc. will be read but somewhat suspect :>)
I'm in the same state with NYC - in the milling end! Incidentally, NYC, Philly and LA are major sites in this process you are asking about. You need to pay attention to the farming industry and
its relationship to railroads, not some romantic idea about farms!!!
Four sorts of grain operations are useful for modeling. The huge elevators (and not so huge) located in farming areas collect the harvest and hold it for sale. Grain arrives by truck. The Lonestar
Wilson trailers are perfect. It leaves by train. Because the harvest comes in rushes locomotives available for switching can be in short supply. It is not uncommon for a elevator to own its own
locomotive or Trackmobile. Several elevators in a town may share a locomotive. Model Railroader had an article a couple of months ago on modeling these large facilities. There are a lot of useful
kits on the market. Wooden elevators with extensive additions of metal bins are still common.
Second is the smaller operation that receives grain during the harvest, but also sells feed year around. This sort of operation will receive hoppers of grains, silage and feeds not grown locally. As
well as boxcars and trucks of bagged feeds. Again, a lot of stuff on the market.
Third is the "export" facility where grain is loaded into barges, ships, containers, bags - what have you - to go long distances. These places are gigantic. They will have their own yards and
locomotives - sometimes a fairly substantial railroad. [N] is a great scale to model this sort of facility which could be located in LA, Chicago, Buffalo, NYC, New Orleans or Philly.
Finally are the mills that receive grain in hoppers and ship product in all sorts of trailers, containers and rail cars. For example, flour mills, Frito Lay factories, cereal factories and so forth.
Walther's Red Wing Mill is a tiny example of this sort of facility.
Christian Tucker
I would say that Christian got it pretty right for someone who lives so far from real Midwestern farms. Facilities in Illinois (and I live in suburban Chicago so one of the down-staters might end
up correcting me) tend to be one of the first two types that Christian mentions.
The elevators store grain that is brought directly from farms during harvest season by truck. I'm not familiar with the brand and model of truck used around here, they remind me most of dump trucks,
and that detail may vary around the country. Drive on Illinois country roads during harvest season and you are guaranteed to get up close and personal with them. Many grain elevators are on line and
ship the collected grain by rail to either larger storage facilities or processing plants. There may be truck only facilities these days but we wouldn't be interested in those.
Grain elevators are not just found in cities. They are common in small towns in farming country and may stand isolated out in the countryside. I'm sure that one we pass on the way to mom-in-law's
house has no more than 5-6 houses, a tavern, and a tiny, long disused depot clustered around it. In this part of the country Christian's second type is quite common. The feed operation will receive
processed animal feed, often by rail in covered hoppers, for sale to local farmers. It is quite helpful to have an income source for the other 11 months of the year!
I'm not sure how farmers get their seed grain. It may come in by rail to the feed operations. The volume of seed grain is much less of course, so truck shipments may be used instead. Anyone know for
sure? I seem to recall that grandpa Hutchinson got his seed grain in burlap bags, so if it arrived by rail it probably came in boxcars. That detail may very with era; large farms these days may have
equipment to handle seed grain in bulk for all I know.
Large storage facilities and processing plants are quite likely to be found in large cities, even (gasp) NYC, LA, or Philly. That is where a lot of human consumers for grain products live and that is
where port facilities for water shipment are likely to be. Processing plants in rural areas are not unknown though. The animal consumers for grain products are likely to be nearby. Gibson City,
Illinois (which is a city more in name than size) for example has a fairly large Central Soya soybean processing plant. I drive by it on occasion, I can tell you that it has respectably large rail
and truck service terminals, but I don't know what it produces or exactly what goes in or out by rail. Some of our fellow forum members live somewhat near by and may be able to comment on this.
Ken Hutchinson