Loading Grain In A Refrigerator Car (1918)
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Loading Grain In A Refrigerator Car (1918) A photo from the Utah State Historical Society: https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6t445nf This photo can be enlarged quite a bit. I was well aware that this was not an uncommon practice but this is the first photograph I've seen illustrating the point. Notice the grain door seen through the open reefer door and notice the ventilated boxcar in the cut of cars. The month this photo was taken was June and the year was 1918, so the factors behind this were a grain rush, a resulting boxcar shortage and, in addition, government control of the national car fleet during World War I. Bob Chaparro Hemet, CA
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Ray Hutchison
Although, why not? An efficient way to load grain into a car, and the reefers may have been on return shipment, or simply out of season. Ery interesting, and another example of something that can be modeled ('that's not prototypical')!
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Tony Thompson
Why not? Because ice cars were always damp inside?
toggle quoted messageShow quoted text
Tony Thompson
On Sep 6, 2020, at 5:16 PM, Ray Hutchison <rayhutchison2@...> wrote:
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Josh
I saw this image and thought "huh, that looks familiar." Then I realized that I literally drove past that elevator yesterday afternoon. You can see the location on google maps here: https://www.google.com/maps/@39.3670186,-112.5858464,3a,75y,144.54h,97.16t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sP4EH_FyLKvQSwaxC7QPrlA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 This spur is screaming with "model railroad" details. There is this little elevator, an oil dealership, and a large truck loading dock where fluorite from the Bell Hill mines northwest of Delta was transferred to gondolas to be shipped to the Geneva Steel plant in Vineyard Utah. Fluorite was used as a flux in the smelting process; it's bright purple, so imagine a train of open hoppers filled with neon lavender rocks. That's a load that will set your layout apart!
You can see a larger-resolution version of the image here: https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s63208r9
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mel perry
from the looks of it, it appears to be out of service or abandoned? mel perry
On Tue, Sep 8, 2020, 1:08 PM Josh <segorailroadmodels@...> wrote:
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Josh
The fluorite docks are long abandoned, since Geneva shut down a few decades ago. The elevator though is still active as far as I can tell.
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Mel,
Why would you say that? Go to the satellite view and you can see that the spur connects to somebody's line at a wye.
It really does look very model-genic!
Regards,
Bruce Smith
Auburn, Al
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io> on behalf of mel perry <clipper841@...>
Sent: Tuesday, September 8, 2020 3:12 PM To: main@realstmfc.groups.io <main@realstmfc.groups.io> Subject: Re: [RealSTMFC] Loading Grain In A Refrigerator Car (1918) from the looks of it, it appears to be out
of service or abandoned?
mel perry
On Tue, Sep 8, 2020, 1:08 PM Josh <segorailroadmodels@...> wrote:
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mel perry
just looking at the tracks, the rails may be there, but the track doesn't look like it seen any cars?, if they ever stayed on the rails,
On Tue, Sep 8, 2020, 1:20 PM Bruce Smith <smithbf@...> wrote:
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mel perry
photo look rusty as you know what, judging by the shine on the tail end of the wye, the end hasn't seen much traffic, just observing, course if anyone has RECENT photos of the end, i would happily stand corrected ;-) mel perry
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Ray Hutchison
...except when they were dried out and used for grain service?
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Jim Allen
These ramps were also used for sugar beets.
Jim Allen
Visit www.oscaledirectory.com
-- Jim Allen Utah
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Jim Allen
Ron Mitchell and I were there about 1.5 years ago. The main the eye connects too belongs to the UP. There were numerous cars sitting on that spur for active maintenance. I’m sure that spur is not in regular use. One loading dock is still there as well
as all other buildings.
Jim Allen.
Jim Allen
Visit www.oscaledirectory.com
-- Jim Allen Utah
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Tony Thompson
Ray Hutchison wrote: ...except when they were dried out and used for grain service? THe PFE car supervisor I interviewed said they were never dry again after their first load. I don't know whether grain would be terribly sensitive to that. Another point is that produce reefers by 1940 all had floor racks. Not much fun to get the grain out from under those, though they were hinged and could be raised up. Tony Thompson
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