Large Scale Central

Any interest in seeing some grain elevator photos?

Prototypes
#1

A couple of weeks ago, when I was visting in Buffalo, I went on a heritage tour along the Buffalo river spotlighting the city’s once bustling flower milling industry. FYI, back in the day, Buffalo rivaled Minneapolis as the country’s flour milling capital and was second only to Chicago as a railroad center. Both industries are pretty much history now, although Cheerios and Gold Medal Flour are still produced in Buffalo. And while dozens of elevators are now gone there is a nice smattering of really old (1800s) and newer elevators with silos–the concrete kind that you can make out of mailing tubes or PVC tubing.

Anyway, if some of you are interested in seeing these images, I’ll post 'em. Otherwise, they’ll stay on my hard drive. I don’t want to clutter up our communal web site putting up stuff nobody cares about. And I’m not meaning to sound pouty, just being practical, mostly because it’ll take me hours to accomplish this otherwise simple task.

#2

Definitely interested over here!

#3

Living in the middle of “Grain Country”, I’m certainly interested in it.

#4

Nope…
.
.
.
:smiley: You bet, one of my favorite “railroad” structures is the grain elevator. I keep looking for one that is in the “scale” of my RR.

#5

Hi Joe - You know I grew up near Buffalo. When I was a kid, the Buffalo Skyway took cars over the heart of the waterfront, between the huge grain elevators. Last time I was in that area (late 90’s maybe) it had changed an awful lot, but some for the better. I’d love to see your pictures, but don’t go to a lot of trouble. Here’s one that I love, from about 50 years before my time; taken in 1900…

(http://lsc.cvsry.com/Post3/Buffalo1900-1-800.JPG)

This was downloaded from Shorpy. You really need to see it in high resolution. This link leads to a super hi-res copy.

#6

What an interesting picture. Is that a lumber yard or pipe yard in the foreground? What is the large piles? Rock? Coal? Ore? The boards(?) across it look purposeful.

#7

The material is timber, but no clue what’s in the hoppers. If you study the Hi Res version it looks like this might be a demolition / renewal project. Someone familiar with the layout of the city in 1910 or so could probably tell you what was built on this spot. No doubt a more modern elevator. It’s pretty easy to figure out the location because there are several well known buildings that still exist today in the skyline.

#8

Pictures of NY grain elevators are always cool, Thats my next project as Ive found a few pictures online from Buffalo that look cool. I always wanted to drive up there myself and take pictures, but some of the folk in that area are shady… he he he

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/nicholas_savatgy/_forumfiles/smiley3.gif)

…:)…

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/nicholas_savatgy/_forumfiles/grain1.jpg)

#9

Jon, the elevator that’s still standing appears to be the one at the far right of the Shorpy photo–kinda chopped off at the edge of the photo. It’s the only wooden and boxy looking kind still left. The rest look like the mailing tube kind shown in Nicholas’ photo. Dang, wish I had bought the book they were selling explaining everything. For example, when the Europeans, specifically the German architects and artists came to Buffalo, they were so impressed by the magnificence of thes structures that their shapes inspired the Bauhaus school of design, or whatever.

Nicholas, the folks in that area aren’t really shady. They just don’t trust anyone east of Rochester. :slight_smile:

#10

Jon, the old elevator in your post might be the Great Northern, which still stands. But the link I’ve included says it’s steel and brick, while the one in your post looks like it’s wood. By the way, the first elevator in possibly the world, was the Dart Elevator, which burned down, I believe. Anyway, here’s one of many links telling you more than you’ll ever want to know about this interesting subject.

http://www.buffalohistoryworks.com/grain/history/history.htm

#11

Buffalo would be a good place to view grain elevators being the home of the first steam powered grain elevator in the US

#12

A number of years ago, a grain elevator was torn down in Lebanon, Illinois. Small town, late 19th century elevator. It was made of 2 x 12 laid on their flat sides and made with sharp angles that almost made a circle, but actually a many side building. All seams were spaced to not straddle the seam above or below other seams and then the whole thing was covered with tin giving it that almost round look. The demolition company came in with a big track hoe and thought it was going to be an easy take down. Took months and I heard they lost lots on the deal. The construction was simple but functional. As it got higher the boards went from 2 x 12’s to 2 x 10’s to 2 x 8 and so on, but stayed the same on the outside therefore creating a funnel on the inside. Really quite inventive and functional for over 100 years.

#13

OK, gang. Here’s a selection of them grain elevator photos. Not much commentary to accompany each shot, as I am largely ignorant. Some of the details are interesting, if you’re into replicating rust, rot and general disintegration of materials.

http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/joerusz915/_forumfiles/Grain elevators-.jpg

#14

Well, that went well! OK, what didn’t I do? I got that stupid error message that says, “You seem to be off track: one of the above links may help you.” But there ain’t no links! The last time I did this, the pictures opened the minute a dumped them into my message. This time, only the lines showed up. I thought, maybe the images will appear after I click “submit.” But nooo…

#15

Joe, there is that awful space between “grain” and “elevators.” You have to rename your pic file without any spaces, and then repost.

This is a quirk of the software.

#16

Thanks, Steve. I got confused jumping between web sites (nudge, nudge, wink, wink). Let’s see how she goes.

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/joerusz915/_forumfiles/Grain8.jpg)

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/joerusz915/_forumfiles/Grain6.jpg)

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/joerusz915/_forumfiles/Grain7.jpg)

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/joerusz915/_forumfiles/Grain5.jpg)

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/joerusz915/_forumfiles/Grain11.jpg)

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/joerusz915/_forumfiles/Grain1.jpg)

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/joerusz915/_forumfiles/Grain10.jpg)

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/joerusz915/_forumfiles/Grain12.jpg)

#17

Those other grain elevator images are now in the original post (DW called me to dinner before I could embed them all). I wanted to add captions, but since this was an “edit,” I wasn’t able to get a word in edgewise, so to speak.

BTW, image number 6–the barn-like structure–may be the Great Northern, the first of the fire resistant (i.e. not wood) elevators, which was built by the owner of the Great Northern Railway. Not the guy himself, but by his minions, probably a bunch of Irishman, since the district around the dock is called the First Ward, which was and still may be an Irish stronghold.

#18

And another thing! That vertical lift bridge in photo 4 is among the two or three lift bridges that had to be raised, just a skosh, to allow our excursion boat to pass beneath them. But since the city no longer has full-time bridge tenders, the lone raiser-upper guy had to operate the first bridge, then jump into his car and drive to the next one, and so on, to do his magic. Suffice to say, he don’t get much work these days. :slight_smile:

Oh, oh, Mr. Kotter! Many years ago (ya could Google it for the specifics) a ship or barge or some vessel broke loose from its moorings or a tug or somethin’ and started heading down river toward the, I think, Tiftt Street Bridge. The alarum was sent, but before the bridge tenders could get there and get ‘er fully raised (they were prolly in one of the local gin mills), the ship was upon them and rapidly approaching the bridge. They jumped onto the street (a couple feet shorter when they landed, I’ m a guessin’), and waited for the crunch, and the collision, which seriously messed up the bridge for a long time. I think this was on the street where the Cheerios factory still is.

#19

OK, so I got some of the ship details wrong, among other things, but I was right about where the bridge tenders were and what they were doing. Hey, I’m from there, I know the game.

BUFFALO, N.Y. - It wasn’t a major maritime disaster on the level of the Titanic, but it was big enough for the people living in a Buffalo neighborhood 50 years ago today.

That’s when heavy ice floes struck a Great Lakes freighter (MacGilvray Shiras) and broke it loose from its moorings on the Buffalo river. The freighter slammed into another ship, the Michael K. Tewksbury, which then struck a lift bridge at Michigan Avenue.

The lift bridge crew was drinking in a nearby bar and raced to raise the span, but the ship still clipped the structure, bringing it down.

The stuck ship and debris, along with ice jams, caused water to back up and flood an 18-block area.

The accident caused an estimated $6 million in damages and resulted in lawsuits that lasted years before being settled.

The 50th anniversary of the disaster will be observed Sunday afternoon at the Waterfront Memories and More Museum in South Buffalo

#20

Some beautiful pics of my favourite structures in my favourite Railroad/elevator city. Thanks, Joe, for the pix, and also for the info and the history… all fascinating to this guy, who has often gazed in wonder & admiration at all that stuff on the Buffalo waterfront… now I have some facts to help explain the story. Great stuff, and much appreciated!