Grain hoppers

[robbostrains]

Do the grain hopper wagons unload at the huge silos at grain depots or are they getting loaded?I have seen the loading bay on the side of the silos.obviously for loading so how are they unloaded?I take it it's got something to do with the levers underneath the wagons?Any pics or links gratefully received!!

[dave1905]

Depends where they are.

 

If they are in the midwest, they generally load. If they are at a port or an industry that consumes grain, then they unload.

 

The unloading chute is a horizontal gate that slides across the bottom of the hopper. They crank back the gate over a hole under the car between the rails and grain falls by gravity into the pit under the tracks, from there its conveyored or augered wherever it goes in the plant. Most are not "levers" but are a rack and pinion.

 

 

In this picture, just to the right of the hopper is the end of the pinion gear shaft. It has a square drive in it where a rachet or a really huge electric drill with a square drive bit is used to run the gate back onto the rack, which are the "angle irons" or "channels" running to the right of the hopper.

[CraigZ]

Do the grain hopper wagons unload at the huge silos at grain depots or are they getting loaded?I have seen the loading bay on the side of the silos.obviously for loading so how are they unloaded?I take it it's got something to do with the levers underneath the wagons?Any pics or links gratefully received!!

 

What Dave said.

 

There's a great deal of poultry farming in the area southwest of us here in North Carolina...chicken and turkey houses with hundreds of thousands of birds (keep in mind a good size chicken processing plant can kill 1.2 million birds a week). One large processor, Perdue, has set up an offload and chicken feed facility as seen in the center of this Google image

 

http://maps.google.c....01089&t=h&z=17

 

And in this photo taken facing west at that facility...usually gets one 100 car corn (maize) train per week for chicken feed. It's on a shortline (Aberdeen, Carolina & Western) and interchanged to the AC&W from CSX at Aberdeen, NC.

 

In my photo it's the local working the grain elevator which explains the loaded wood chip cars behind the motors! Yes, they're ex CN GP40-2Ls, now nicely painted in AC&W green and cream.

 

A new wildcard in the movement of grain is the subsidized production of ethanol for fuel use. The Aberdeen & Rockfish now has an ethanol plant on its line (at Dundarrach, NC)(presumably settled by Scots!)...and now gets 100 car cuts of corn from CSX at its interchange in Fayetteville, NC. The new plant (too new for Google) has enormous silos visible over the trees. The A&R moves the cars in cuts of 25 account the rolling topography of the railroad and the City of Fayetteville's request to not drag 100 cars across town and many busy level crossings at 5 mph

[F-UnitMad]

A new wildcard in the movement of grain is the subsidized production of ethanol for fuel use. ...

I've heard of this boom in ethanol production - apparently very often the plants are built on former Elevator sites as the Silos are there ready & waiting. The C.VisionProbuctions DVD "Nebraska Short Lines" shows a shortline running to an ethanol plant... I lost count of the cars in the train...

 

I was recently lightly mocked for asking if the Grain Hopper was loading or unloading at the Elevator on Northpoint's garage layout... maybe it wasn't such a dumb question after all...

[Glorious NSE]

I was recently lightly mocked for asking if the Grain Hopper was loading or unloading at the Elevator on Northpoint's garage layout... maybe it wasn't such a dumb question after all...

 

Well, a basic of ops is that your moves are to get something from somewhere to somewhere else for a reason - so yeah - maybe not such a dumb question.

[robbostrains]

Thanks for the replies.

[robbostrains]

Depends where they are.

 

If they are in the midwest, they generally load. If they are at a port or an industry that consumes grain, then they unload.

 

The unloading chute is a horizontal gate that slides across the bottom of the hopper. They crank back the gate over a hole under the car between the rails and grain falls by gravity into the pit under the tracks, from there its conveyored or augered wherever it goes in the plant. Most are not "levers" but are a rack and pinion.

 

 

In this picture, just to the right of the hopper is the end of the pinion gear shaft. It has a square drive in it where a rachet or a really huge electric drill with a square drive bit is used to run the gate back onto the rack, which are the "angle irons" or "channels" running to the right of the hopper.

Very interesting,are the tracks in-filled between the holes?Any pics of that type of track please?

[dave1905]

Very interesting,are the tracks in-filled between the holes?Any pics of that type of track please?

 

Don't understand the question. What holes?

[robbostrains]

From your article "They crank back the gate over a hole under the car between the rails"That's what I meant by holes.Thanks Rob.

[pointstaken]

If I understand correctly, I think that what Dave means is that there is a hole in the bottom of the car, normally covered by a horizontal gate, which is moved/uncovered when the chute is moved on the rack. In effect, the horizontal gate is temporarily replaced by the chute. From there the grain falls through the chute into a pit between the rails. Correct me if I'm wrong on that, Dave.

[F-UnitMad]

I thought Rob was asking about the holes in the ground, that the grain falls into from the hopper!

I should imagine they are about the same size and spacing as the belly hatches in the hoppers, and that the space between the holes is indeed covered/paved in, in some way.?

[robbostrains]

Now that's what I meant to say!Thanks F-UNITMAD.

[dave1905]

Depends, some unloading pits are the size of the outlet, some are as big as the car. the biger ones may have bars or grates over the area between the rails and walkway grating over the area outside the rails if the pit is that wide.

[F-UnitMad]

Point taken, Dave ; you're a bit closer to the action than me..!!

 

I was only thinking of the actual hole; I can understand that the actual pit would be much larger!!

 

A little bit OT, but a question that's always come to mind; do Elevators have big problems with rodents, and what's the cure? I've heard it said that in the UK at one time no self-respecting Goods Depot (not necessarily grain/food-oriented) was without at least one Depot Cat, and the GWR even had provision for a 'milk allowance' to feed them. I'd imagine a US grain depot would need a few good "Ratters" to controlthe vermin population..?