Loading Boxcars at Country Elevators in the Hard Winter Wheat Area

Excerpts from the report: Country elevators in the Hard Winter Wheat area have two or three major shipments of grain a year. Storage bins in the elevator headhouse are usually emptied before wheat harvest and before milo harvest to make room for new grain. Additional grain may be loaded out during harvest as the headhouse becomes filled. Boxcars are loaded with grain directly from the elevator, and for a major shipment about 10 cars a day may be filled. Efficiency and speed in loading out grain are particularly important at harvesttime to avoid delaying receipts of new grain. A study was made to evaluate methods and equipment used to load out grain at country elevators and to develop improvements that would speed up the loading-out operation. Labor and equipment requirements and costs in this report are based on an elevator loading out 475,000 bushels of grain annually; storage capacity of the elevator is 200,000 bushels. Costs are projected for loading out annual volumes of 725,000 bushels (storage capacity of the elevator, 750,000 bushels) and 1,125,000 bushels (storage capacity of the elevator, 1,500,000 bushels)