Grain Elevator & Mill Complex

 On AIR 1 I built a model of the “P.E. Frantz Milling Co.”* flour mill, a completely freelanced industry. The idea was to receive boxcar loads of grain and produce flour for local consumption as well as a bi-product of the milling process “ Mill Feed”, a livestock feed. Additionally the mill had a coal fired powerhouse, so it got a couple coal hoppers as well.

The way I set up mill operations was heavily influenced by my experience operating on Dan Munson’s layout. His small elevator was brilliantly conceived and executed. I believe Dan is now with BNSF in Kansas City, visit and operate on his layout if you can.

ANYWAY… loads of various grains are billed to the elevator. There is a small associated yard, where these inbound loads are stored. Each session the mill will unload and mill a particular grain: Wheat, Corn, Barley, Rice, rye, etc.

The switch job must classify inbound loads, spot the correct loads at the mill’s loading track, and pull MTYS. Additionally in my era, flour is loaded back into boxcars in 100 pound sacks, so there is a loading dock. I am not yet into the covered hopper era, so there is little or no provision for bulk flour loading.

Cars that will receive bagged flour need to be cleaned, so there is a clean out track. And finally cleaned cars for flour loading need to be “Coopered”. Coopering is the process of repairing boxcars interiors to accept delicate loads, like sacked flour. Jagged edges, protruding nails or boards are removed. Holes are patched. And finally the interior walls and floor are covered with a disposable, clean, protective product, in my case cardboard (Cardboard because a nearby paper mill produced cardboard)

SOOOO… a car comes to the mill with a load of grain in the first session, gets spotted for unloading in the next session, then gets moved to the clean-out track in the third op session, in the fourth session the car goes to the coopering track, after coopering it is spotted at the loading dock in the fifth op session, and finally in the sixth op session the load of flour is pulled by the local and starts its trip to its final destination.

The whole point of this process is to give the switch crew more moves per car to perform, or in short increased playability. This switch job is more challenging than simply spotting and pulling cars, something, if you haven’t noticed already, I like A LOT.

What was missing at my first mill was an elevator. Where my layout is located would not require a “Collection Elevator”, after reading some Kalmbach booklets on the grain industry, I learned about the process of grain moving by rail from field to end consumer, but a “Buffer”, intermediate, or “Sub Terminal” elevator would be very plausible. The point of this type of elevator is to even out the flow of grain from field to end user to accommodate times of the year when grain was NOT harvested. A “Terminal” elevator would be huge by any measure, my elevator will simply be “big”, I plan the silos to occupy a space about three feet long (+/-).

By adding the Sub Terminal elevator I get the ability to spot more cars. In this case the switch job will be informed at the start of each session what types and grades of grain will be accepted. The switch job will then have to classify inbound loads and spot appropriate loads at the elevator dump house track. 

This type of elevator will also SHIP grain to terminal elevators or end consumers further down the chain. This means that the while the elevator is receiving wheat at the dump house it is loading corn on another track who’s cars had to first be cleaned; bulk grain DOES need tight clean cars but DOES NOT necessarily need cardboard lined cars.

The final piece of this complex is an associated, large, end user, and in my case adjacent to the mill is “New World Pasta”. I got this idea from the large elevator/mill complex in my town. “Miller Milling”  has a large elevator, a mill, and directly next to the mill is New World Pasta.

New World Pasta (NWP) gets its flour by conveyor/pipe directly from the mill, but it must receive shipments of packaging, and needs a source of clean MTY boxcars. Cars for NWP need not be coopered to the extent of the flour mill, it only needs tight, clean 40’ boxcars.

Well now, this switch job is getting quite busy. Inbound loads of various types and grades of grain are billed to the Mill complex; coal goes to the powerhouse; packaging goes to NWP; the switch job must classify inbound loads firstly into three major groups as per Waybills,  cars for the elevator, the mill, and NWP.

The switch job must ascertain what is being unloaded at the elevator today and what is being milled. He must pull MTYS from the elevator and mill dump tracks. He must work the clean-out and coopering tracks, spotting MTYS from the elevator and mill as well as moving cars that have been cleaned to the coopering track. Freshly coopered, or tight cleaned cars must be spotted for loading at the mill or elevator.

He should spot inbound loads of coal at the powerhouse and pull MTY hoppers. He needs to spot inbound loads of packaging at NWP’s receiving dock. He has all the carloads of pasta to pull, as well as carloads of bulk flour and bulk grain shipments. In those cases where a terminal elevator somewhere down stream needs additional grain, the sub terminal elevator will be loading grain to fill those requests. Plus, I nearly forgot, there’s bulk loads of mill feed somewhere in all this that need to be pulled and forwarded.

THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS, or nearly so. It is a demanding, complicated switch job. Thank you Dan Munson. I’m sincerely interested in what you think of the P.E.FRANTZ MILLING CO. Elevator/Mill operations.

More on this job later. 

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* Paul Frantz was a good friend of mine who was devoted to the hobby of railfanning, collecting slides, and model railroad operations and spent a great deal of his time helping me build AIR1 (And aggravating my Wife)