Elevator: (Satellite)
I was going to pass on this one until I realized that the far grain elevator is still standing. Note that grain is being loaded into a boxcar. Covered hoppers were not invented until the 1960s.
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| Beatrice Area Railroad Enthusiasts posted CB&Q Depot, Rosalie, NE 1910. Raymond Storey shared |
An annex was added to this grain elevator.
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| Street View, Aug 2012 |
The elevator is old, but the scale is modern. In fact, Google Maps labels this facility as "SCALE." Are there feed lots in this area with their own feed mills so that grain farmers sell direct to feed lots? But the farmers need to use this scale before and after they unload at a feed lot.
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| Street View |
When I looked at a railroad atlas, I noticed that this former CB&Q route was a textbook example of a town built at fixed intervals along the way. Normally, they are about 15 miles apart. In this case, I measured 13 miles. I read that the reason for that interval is that was the distance a steam locomotive could go before it needed more water. I've also noted that 7 miles is about as far as a farmer could go in one day with a horse and wagon. I'm sure that the range of a steam locomotive increased. But the range of a farmer did not increase until the 20th Century. Today, farmers cannot only go further than 7 miles with an 18-wheeler, they can make multiple trips per day. But if they are using a tractor and gravity wagons, a farmer will still appreciate a local elevator that is close. That is why sometimes we will see a "railroad town" today that has nothing left except the grain elevator.
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| Satellite |
The amount of grain storage at this elevator has shrunk rather than grown. That is unusual for a town in the Midwest.
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| Satellite |
I was surprised to see that there is still has a siding. But looking closer I saw that BSNF uses it for MoW storage. This looks like some gondolas with new ties. The siding was truncated so that it no longer crosses P Avenue.
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| Satellite |
It looks like a farmer on the west side of town has more storage than the elevator has.
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| Satellite |
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