View allAll Photos Tagged GrainElevators
The tracks of the Illinois Central Railroad used to run past this grain elevator in Windsor, Illinois. The tracks were between the elevator and the building with the red siding. I can recall passing this elevator countless times on adjacent Illinois Route 16 when I lived in Mattoon. The grain elevator is still a thriving business, but the railroads through Windsor are gone.
A Great Lakes freight maneuvers its way on the Maumee River in Toledo, Ohio, as Amtrak's Lake Shore Limited crosses the river. I've been over this bridge dozens of times in the past 25 years but this was the first time I can recall the bridge being open for a boat and thus holding up Amtrak and other railroad traffic on the busy Chicago Line of Norfolk Southern.
History taken from Wikipedia:
The Dakota Southern Railway (reporting mark DSRC) is a railway that runs 189.7 miles (305.0 km) between Kadoka, South Dakota and Mitchell, South Dakota. It connects with the BNSF Railway in Mitchell.
The line is part of a former Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (CMStP&P) secondary built between Marquette, Iowa and Rapid City, South Dakota during the period of 1880 and 1907. The line lost profitability and was embargoed in 1980 and subsequently bought by the South Dakota Department of Transportation, which still owns the tracks. The purchase was orchestrated by Governor Bill Janklow.
The Dakota Southern also operated a line from Napa, South Dakota to Platte, South Dakota from 1985-1989.
The railway originally hauled large amounts of grain, but this business became unprofitable in the late 1990s. Between 2000 and 2007, the railway had just one customer—a box factory in Mitchell, South Dakota, and thus no trains passed that point. In 2005, however, the railway obtained a haulage agreement with BNSF to allow it to operate to Sioux City, where it could transfer with the Union Pacific Railroad and the Canadian National Railway, making grain service profitable again. After track repairs, service briefly resumed as far as Presho, South Dakota in the fall of 2007. While the line still officially goes all the way to Kadoka, a grade crossing in Vivian, South Dakota is currently paved over, as well as one in Belvidere.
On October 1, 2009 new owners took over the day to day operations of the railroad. They planned to rehabilitate the entire line to Murdo over the next 3 years. The first year was to be from Mitchell to White Lake, the 2nd year to Chamberlain and in the 3rd year rehabilitation would be carried out to Murdo.
In the spring of 2011 a 16 million dollar Federal Tiger grant was secured to help finance the 28 million dollar rebuild of 61.6 miles of the line between Mitchell and Chamberlain. Work began in late May 2011. According to former railroad owner Alex Huff, the 65 pound rail will be replaced with 136, 132 and 115 pound rail. As a result of the rebuilding, two competing companies have proposed building 110 car shuttle loading facilities near Kimball, South Dakota.
The basement of the exchange office. The entire building has shifted and up-heaved from the freezing and thawing throughout the decades. Entire walls seem to have collapsed into oblivion.
Undated aerial view of grain elevators at the Thunder Bay waterfront.
Text on the back reads:
"A few of the 20 Terminal Grain Elevators situated on the Thunder Bay Harbour. Cement bins 110 feet high flank the work-house in the centre, where grain is received from rail cars, cleaned, sorted, purified, graded, certified, and then stored in the bins to await shipment by vessel. Total capacity of the elevators is 90,425,000 million bushels of grain."
Accession 1991-03 #126
For more information about Thunder Bay's history, visit www.thunderbay.ca/archives
Camera: Chamonix 45n-1
Lens: Rodenstock 90mm Grandagon-N f/6.8
Film: FP4+ @ ISO 64
Exposure: 1/60 @ f16
Covered hopper cars are in line to be loaded with grain at a facility owned by The Andersons in Oakville, Indiana, along the NS New Castle District.
A view of the P&H (Parrish & Heimbecker) Elevators. The date of this photograph is not known.
Accession 1991-03 #23
For more information about Thunder Bay's history, visit www.thunderbay.ca/archives
A Decatur & Eastern Illinois crew member throws a switch in Neoga, Illinois, as a track mobile moves cars for loading on an adjacent track at the Total Grain Marketing facility there. These tracks used to be part of the Nickel Plate Road line to St. Louis.
and Alberta's brilliant blue sky.
As far as prairie grain elevators go, I think this town has the best.
One of Columbus most recognizable landmarks. 3 minutes from downtown sits this abandoned grain elevator at E Main Street and Alum Creek Dr.
I wish I were a better photographer then I could adequately convey the immense size of this thing.
This undated photograph shows large pipes running along the ground. They appear to be leaking or spraying. Utility poles and grain elevators are also visible.
Accession 1993-01 #90
This photograph is in the public domain as all copyright has expired.
For more information about Thunder Bay's history, visit www.thunderbay.ca/archives
Toledo Peoria & Western GP20 #3034 prepares to switch out the grain elevator at Wolcott, IN back in 1991.
This undated aerial view shows grain elevators, with some of the city visible in the background.
Accession 1991-03 #18
For more information about Thunder Bay's history, visit www.thunderbay.ca/archives
Via The Pantagraph...
www.pantagraph.com/special-section/news/history-and-event...
Towanda Barnes Road, which runs along the eastern fringe of both Bloomington and Normal, is a symbol of the sprawling, seemingly unchecked growth of the Twin Cities. Yet amid the brand new residential and commercial developments sprouting up and down the corridor stands a lonely reminder of McLean County's past - a past measured not by cul-de-sac subdivisions, daycare centers and Kwik-E-Marts, but rather one measured by corn, livestock and the steam engine.
The anachronistic collection of grain elevators and storage buildings at the northeast corner of Towanda Barnes and General Electric roads was once known as Barnes, a small station stop and siding on an Illinois Central Railroad branch line.
Established in 1882-1883, Barnes (called Barnesville early on) was situated on the IC's Bloomington District, which ran from Normal northeast to Otto in Kankakee County. This "Bloomer Line" connected the IC's two main north-south routes, scooping up grain from a swath of the richest agricultural land in the world.
Locally this right-of-way survives as the branch of Constitution Trail beginning south of Uptown Normal and running east over Linden Street, past the Shoppes at College Hills and down G.E. Road.
Barnes, the first station east of Normal, was named for either family patriarch Calvin Barnes or his son Monroe, accounts vary. Calvin Barnes came to McLean County in the early 1850s, purchasing a full section-640 acres-in Towanda Township. Although the family amassed additional acreage, the southwestern corner
of their home section would become the future site of Barnes.
Calvin Barnes became a successful wheat grower before establishing what was said to be the first successful dairy in Central Illinois. Barnes and his sons, including Alden and Calvin Jr., then turned to raising Durham cattle; growing corn; and importing and breeding French draft horses.
Barnes existed first and foremost as a grain elevator siding. Towering elevators, designed to store and transfer grain, played an important role reshaping the Central Illinois landscape. Grain elevators were a product of the emerging steam-powered Industrial Age that made possible the ability to lift grain-via scoops or buckets attached to belt-driven chains-up storage elevators hundreds of feet high. Steam power also brought corn-shellers and, most importantly, the railroads.
In the 30 or so years after the end of the Civil War, railroad mileage in McLean County doubled, and a fair number of "steam-hatched" towns popped up along these rails, including those on the Bloomer Line such as Cooksville, Anchor and Cropsey. In addition to towns, elevator sidings such as Barnes were built to further accommodate the region's seasonal flood of grain. By the late 19th century, McLean County had one of the highest densities of railway tracks in the world.
The Barnes post office opened for business in February 1884, and remained in operation until December 1919. An 1895 plat of Barnes shows a rather ambitious layout with four streets and 22 commercial or residential lots, though only three were occupied at the time-and it's unlikely the hamlet grew any larger. However, along the IC there
was the combined depot/post office, and down a siding an elevator complex and stockyard.
In 1921, the recently married Walter and Alta Weber opened a general store in Barnes. "[My mother] sold groceries, tobacco, pop, tires etc.," remembered Alta's son William Weber, who wrote a brief recollection of Barnes in 2005. "My mother has told that George Mecherle, founder of State Farm Insurance, would get off the train, while it switched, and come over to the store and buy pop, candy or whatever. She said he looked like a typical farmer in those days." At the time, Mecherle was traveling on the Bloomer Line between Merna, his old hometown, and Bloomington, where he was getting a start in the insurance business.
Still visible today are cylindrical concrete grain elevators, originally built by the Barnes Grain Co. around 1919 (see accompanying photograph). Later that decade, the company purchased two elevators adjacent to its operations, and by the mid-1970s its capacity reached 400,000 bushels.
The Illinois Central Gulf (ICG) Railroad abandoned the stretch of the old Bloomer Line running from Kankakee County to Barnes in 1981. Sometime afterward, the ICG abandoned the remaining run from Barnes to Normal Junction, which in its latter years served Eaton Asphalt Co., the General Electric plant east of the "beltline," now Veterans Parkway, and several other local businesses.
In 1985, the ICG sold its abandoned Bloomington District to a group of area producers and shippers, who then established a "short-line" railroad on the old tracks. Today this line, owned by Gibson City-based Alliance Grain Co., is known as the Bloomer Shippers Connecting Railroad. After a while, this new road discontinued service between Colfax and Barnes, marking the permanent end of rail service to the little station stop.