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January 3, 2016 at 2:46 pm #5438bargetanikaParticipant
I want to have rice elevators and a rice mill on my layout, around 1945 to 1950. I remember seeing cylindrical concrete rice elevators in small towns, but really I know almost nothing about the business.
So, here goes. I believe that rice was collected in elevators at remote locations in elevators, brought in by farmers and stored. Then it was shipped to the mill, placed in elevators at the mill and stored until processing , after which the processed product was shipped in bags to big grocery distributors. Am I basically correct?
There are various wood and cylindrical concrete elevators available. These could be either at the collection point or at the mill, right?
What I don’t know is what this is:
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3124
This looks like a collection point thing. I’ve seen these at corn operations and rice operations. I really like them, they scream ag branch, but I have a feeling they are too modern for 1945.
Any help would really be appreciated.
January 3, 2016 at 7:21 pm #7690princessclyne69ParticipantHere are some ideas. My knowledge revolves around wheat, but I’ve seen plenty of rice elevators and the storage practices aren’t that different. Note that I’m a city kid so I didn’t grow up with this, but they’ve been part of the scenery for as long as I’ve been around.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_grain_elevators
This article talks about the big concrete grain elevators, most of which were already in existence by your timeframe. But there could be some other useful stuff mentioned here.
I have spent many years driving along the Big Friendly at places between Rosenberg and Eagle Lake, Texas, and at places like Iowa, Louisiana. These are local collection elevators and they have a mix of concrete assembled silos with steel tie-rods holding them together (oldest), concrete slipformed silos and tall steel silos. These are rice elevators, generally smaller than the midwest grain elevators but the same basic idea. There are lots of the smaller steel grain tanks as you show, on individual farmers’ property, and possibly at smaller dealers.
That small piece of equipment is a grain dryer. I don’t recall seeing those in rice country, but can’t say for sure. It could be they’re not needed for rice.
Back to the grain tanks, which are often called ‘Butler bins’ where I came from. http://butlermfg.com/en/about_us
The first part of this article is enlightening for its history, but I think it definitively answers the question that, yes, there would have been at least a few of these things around by 1945. I believe there could have been a few bins made from flat steel like a water tank, which would have preceded the corrugated steel ones, but those were probably rare.
Ron Merrick
January 3, 2016 at 8:45 pm #7696peggyrothschildParticipantPat
Not sure how far Fenton, Louisiana is from your place but they have an 1890’s rice elevator still standing. If you go, just watch the speed traps per my google search.http://villageoffenton.com/historical-pictures-of-fenton.htm
I have several books on grain elevators and when I was looking up to see what I could find on rice mills or elevators only Fenton was documented.
Ron
If you can get this book through inter-library load its a great resource.“Grain Elevators of North America: A 5th Edition of Plans of Grain Elevators Illustrating and Describing the Latest and Best in Construction, Arrangement and Equipment of Facilities for the Mechanical Handling, Cleaning and Storing of Grain, Field Seeds and Feeds in Bulk Recommended by the Progressive Designers and Builders of North America During the Quarter Century 1917-1942”
There are five editions first in 1917 and the last in 1942. I first came across the 1917 edition in the St. Louis Public library and was able to buy the 1942 edition 10 years ago. Lots of plans and photos of terminal and country elevators and feed mills. its format is somewhat like the Car Builder’s Cyclopedia.
January 4, 2016 at 4:17 am #7698bargetanikaParticipantFenton is about 200 miles away from here, but the rice facility on the town web site looks almost just like the elevators in Rayne and Crowley, where my mothers family moved to 100 years ago. We are going over that way to a wedding in a few weeks so I’ll probably go photograph them then. I’ve got an old Heljan concrete elevator kit I’ll start with. I also have the Walthers centennial mills facade version, to build one day.
Those corrugated metal bins with the conveyors, I’ll look at them too while over there.
My retirement is probably going to be this autumn. I’ll have plenty of time for field trips after that, when I become a full time model railroader.
January 4, 2016 at 4:17 pm #7700alexortiz25ParticipantResin Car Works is offering grain bins similar to the Butler bins that Ron mentions.
http://resincarworks.com/scene.htm
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January 6, 2016 at 11:46 pm #7709peggyrothschildParticipantHere’s a great little film on a small prairie grain elevator. Shows not only the operations but the business side as well.
January 8, 2016 at 11:49 pm #7712bargetanikaParticipantGreat looking grain bin models. Rix and Walthers both make them too. These look like they could be next to a larger elevator for additional capacity, and they appear to be appropriate for the mid 1940s on my layout. They are coming soon to my towns.
I also started watching the grain elevator video , dated 1981. Surprised to see the doors on a 40′ boxcar being boarded up to hold loose grain loading, like decades before, and decades after covered hoppers appeared. Also, how low tech the whole operation was, the inside of that elevator and office looked unchanged from 1910 or so.
Also, the GRAIN DUST everywhere, in the air and settled many inches thick everywhere. Problem 1 – fire and explosion. We had a very large elevator explode in the late 1970s. There are stringent agricultural dust regulations in effect today in many places. I’ve been involved with it in coffee processing facilities. Problem 2 – rats. There aren’t any I saw (yet) in the video, but between the grain and the dust to dine on, it had to be a rat paradise in there. And in the corners of those 40′ boxcars too. I did see one cat on duty in the office but 100 cats would probably be unable to keep up with the problem in that elevator.
January 9, 2016 at 5:17 pm #7714bargetanikaParticipantWatched the rest of the the video. The elevator operator was his own switch engine. No trackmobile here. He had to physically move the boxcar himself from the set out point near the mainline to the loading point at the side of the elevator. No wonder those guys were so skinny, doing stuff like that and up and down a 150′ ladder all day long.
He started the car moving with a come-along lever and then an apparent slight downgrade to the elevator allowed it to roll into place at the elevator, with the operator now being the brakeman with the brake wheel, stopping the car right in place with no one on the ground to help locate it.
After loading, the operator got the car rolling again, downgrade to the end of the siding where other boxcars, apparently already loaded, were sitting. Gravity was the prime mover here.
We live in cities today and forget how physical and dangerous rural ag life was and still is.
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