Elevated grain bins

[sirenwerks]

One problem with the Fix product is that both height models are the same width.  We could use some variety.

[cfritschle]

Carter:  The ones I'm thinking of are the really big ones at grain elevators, the kind that can store at least a small trainload of grain.  They might go back further than I think, but I don't remember seeing  them around Pasco in the 70s.  On the other hand, there wasn't much elevator construction around Pasco then, as the elevators were long established, and grain acreage wasn't increasing much.

I modeled one in Wall, SD for my Montana elevator, using the plastic core from a roll of microfiche film, and Evergreen 0.02 inch spacing scribed styrene.  The prototype was as tall as the old wood/aluminum elevator next to it, and bigger around.

One of the elevators that I delivered wheat to in the late 1960s had three 40 foot tall (I think that is what I was told) bins that were around 20 feet in diameter.   In the early 1980s, the elevator sold their land to a seed company, and moved about a quarter mile down the road to the site of an old mobile home manufacturing plant.  The bins they built at the new site were taller (about 70 feet to the top of the cone?) and 50 feet in diameter.  I think these may be the large bins you are referring to. 

There were other elevators in my area (southwest Idaho) that were built in the mid to late 1970s that used the large bins.  To model these large bins I use 4 inch PVC pipe wrapped with Plastruct corrugated plastic sheet.  https://www.walthers.com/patterned-sheets-siding-corrugated-020-x-7-x-12-quot-pkg-2-white-030-quot-spacing

Here is an aerial view of the elevator in Glenns Ferry, ID with six large bins that was built in the mid to late 1970s.  https://www.google.com/maps/@42.9515374,-115.3093031,143m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en

And here is a street view of the same elevator.  https://www.google.com/maps/@42.9519715,-115.3087769,3a,75y,190.6h,84.78t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sfoZDFHK0ItYJS-WfcjrelA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en

As Tim mentioned, the Rix bins can be used for the older bins that were generally smaller in diameter, and have been around a lot longer.

Probably none of this is helpful to Bryan, but I do have some affinity for grain handling facilities.   

Carter

[nkalanaga]

50 feet would probably be about right.   Here's a 2009 photo of the Wall elevator, showing both the big bin ("tank", they called it) and the old elevator.  I looked on Google maps a few months ago and the old elevator is now gone.

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I first took pictures of this elevator in 1985, and was last out there in 2011.

[sirenwerks]

Carl, I'd be interested in seeing those scratchbuilt bins you speak of. 


I've seen the IMEX models and am not impressed.  I think I'd rather try my hand at making my own. 


That being said, we could use some larger bins and, like some listers here, I scratch my head at what should be a no-brainer for Walthers to reproduce its grain series in N (look at all of the covered hopper models we have, and grain box cars, but I digress.)


Besides some variety in corrugated bins, we could use a model or two of the older riveted variety too.  I still see new farm-based silos installed in that style here in Maryland and PA.  Of course I want to model the PacNW, not east coast...

[SkipGear]

Should not be hard to build. Plastruct offers vacuuformed domes of varying angles if you don't want to do the math to create your own. Various sizes of PVC tubing and Plastruct tubing for the main bin form and then wrap with corrugated sheet.

You could start with this and modify it as a trial run....

https://plastruct.com/shop/trackside-series-kits/kit-1028/

[nkalanaga]

I didn't bother with corrugated sheet.  The corrugations on many bins are small enough that ordinary 0.020 inch scribed sheet, "N Scale Car Siding", works fine from normal viewing distance.

Sirenwerks:  I'll second the riveted bins.  I had to make some of those for my model as well, and they're harder than the big one.   

Here's a 2012 Google Maps aerial view of the elevator complex, later than my model, but before they tore the old elevator down.  Mine has  the two riveted bins, but only a short "Butler Bin" next to them, and just the middle "large" bin, which is actually medium sized in this picture.  The largest bin is the one in the previous picture I posted.

For those who've never been to Wall, the elevator folks are friendly, as long they're not in the middle of the harvest rush, and Wall Drug is a block south of the elevator, at the bottom of the picture.  Wall Drug free parking is just across the street, next to the tracks, so drop the family there, then go visit the elevator.

EDIT:  I see that the picture, even downloaded, isn't full size.  Oh well, it shows enough for a general view.