Re: (erielack) Feed Loading (40' Box)

[Frank Mellott <fmellott_@_pa.net>]

if it was FEED, it was in bags.   100# bags.  Unloaded by hand if being 
slung onto a truck or stacked 3 at time on hand cart and rolled in to 
building.   Fertilizer came in 80# bags then was reduced to 50# circa 
1980.  (either the metric system or oil prices was the biggest factor 
for the change, as 50# cost almost as much as 100# used to)

Bulk grain was carried in boxcars using grain doors.   Originally it was 
shovelled out into an auger or elevator to get from the car to the bin 
or truck or whatever.  At some point, and I can't say when or how common 
it was, a vacuum similar to what was on the grain trucks to load at 
farms  was used to unload.  Since bulk grain by boxcar was fairly rare  
by 1980 in the east, I am guessing vacuums were primarly seen from maybe 
1965 on.    I also think we talking about 2 different types of vacs.   
For salt, flour etc, the vac latches right onto the pneumatic outlet on 
the LO and commodity never leaves the confines of the tube.   A grain 
vac is  a giant shop vac or leaf vac. 6" or 8" hose runs from the truck 
or building into the car.  it's only long enough usally to reach the 
center of doors, so once you get enough sucked out, someone has to climb 
in the car and shovel it into the vac.  A much more common way would be 
put an elevator or auger  by the car and shovel into it. Either method 
leaves a pile of grain on the ground.  RMC has had several articles over 
the years showing transloads. The ones I can think of use LO's dumping 
into a pit between the tracks and augured out, but a box car would work 
the same way only no pit needed.

Since the northeast imports grain, what you saw at your typical Agway or 
Eastern States Coop or Purina, Mastermix, Wayne Feeds, etc dealer would 
be the following:

Bagged feed milled at a central  mill and shipped in CL or LCL 
quanities.  The town I  lived in had 3 feed mills, 2 on a rail siding, 
but the Agway rep we dealt with was out of town and drove a small 
straight truck to OH, some times as far as western OH to get supplies. I 
have a hard time believing there was much bagged feed shipped by rail.

The 2 rail served mills in town got a few boxcar loads of grain (wheat 
or corn) and OCCASIONALLY (like every 2 or 3 years), would have a 
surplus and ship out a carload of oats or barley or corn.  The most 
dependable move was a single 40'  XM  a year in of baler twine. 

20 or so miles away a much larger Agway mill got strings of covered 
hoppers in, maybe 5 or 6 4750's a week on average.

 If one was modelling a small town using say a Walthers Sunrise Feed 
Mill, your siding should be big enough for 2 or 3 40' box cars cars at 
most. Typically spot 1 there and at times have none.   In today's world, 
that size  mill is almost extinct and essentialy never has service.  The 
1960's and the advent of PS 2 , Southern's Big John and unit trains 
revolutionized grain transportation.  If your mill or elevator couldn't 
handle 25 or 50 LO's at time, you quickly found you had to move to some 
place large enough to support that much volume.  I don't know what EL 
had for online traffic, but from the quanity of LO's that went from EL 
to CR, it had some grain traffic, probably in OH.    If you are 
modelling 1965, your LO's need something like the Walthers ADM elevator 
to serve and your 40' box cars are only seen on the feed mill siding, 
except for the fall rush when the local elevator would load whatever it 
could get.  But your local mill isn't set up to handle LO's.   And the 
big elevator or mill doesn't like box cars but can deal with them.

Your small town mill also often sold fertlizer, salt, molasses, etc that 
could have come by rail.  Maybe for every 3 cars you plan to ship out, 
waybill in  1 of fertilizer, and  1 car of salt about every 6 months and 
about  1 of molasses.  If your mill only consumes..like almost all in 
PA, NJ  and NY would have,  for every 3 cars of corn in you'd have  1 
1/2 or so of fertilizer in and the salt and molasses would be about the 
same. 

Today BNSF is doing all it can  to make the standard unit train 110 cars 
and unless it has recently changed, won't accept fewer than 80 cars at 
unit rates. 

Keep in mind I said USUALLY  a lot.   I grew up on a shortline abandoned 
in 1983 and can't remember PC locals, just CR locals.  And if you live 
in OH or IN you have a different view of the grain business than a PA, 
NJ or NY resident.   I am sure you can name lots of exceptions. I am 
trying to describe for those who never saw it what the typical operation 
looked like.

Hope this helps.

Frank



>
>
>
>
>
>  



	The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List
	Sponsored by the ELH&TS
	http://www.elhts.org
	To Unsubscribe: http://lists.elhts.org/erielackunsub.html

------------------------------