1950's Grain Elevator?

2-8-2

Member
Question:

I'm modeling the 1950's (1953 to be exact) and grain is going to be a major industry on my small, rural layout. I've found several reference photos, but I can't come up with anything definite.

What type of grain elevators were used during this era? Were the wooden storage structures still in use, or had the concrete silos become more widely used?
 

Russ Bellinis

Active Member
I suspect the elevators of the early 1950's would most likely be the metal type pictured in the first shot on the page that Buffalo Bob 52 gave you. I think wood elevators probably disappeared in the 1920's or 30's, and I doubt if the modern concrete structures were built much before 1960.
 

rowdygoudy

New Member
I recently came across a picture of a new soybean processing plant dated 1954 if memory serves me. It was constructed of multiple concrete silos. It is still being used in Gibson City, Illinois. Also, in my neck of the woods there are lots of wooden elevators still standing. Some of these are being used for their dump pits and elevator leg and tied to newer silos.
 
I believe that you are basically correct in thinking that the wooden/metal elevator was still very much in use in the 1950s.

Concrete was used on very large elevators but the majority still was the wooden type.

Go for it!
 

MasonJar

It's not rocket surgery
New elevators would be whatever the latest technology was (concrete, metal, whatever - if affordable), but there certainly would have been lots of wood ones around. They torn down an old(er) wood one near where I used to live. It was built in the 1940s and stood until 2004. The entire thing was solid hardwood covered with metal siding. They took it all to the dump :(

Here's a few really excellent write-ups about grain elevators in southern Ontario in the 1950s:

Shipment: http://www.canadianbranchline.com/grain1.htm
Transshipment: http://www.canadianbranchline.com/grain.htm
Traffic: http://www.canadianbranchline.com/feedmill.htm

Andrew
 
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