Mill Shoals, IL: Classic Concrete Silo Elevator

(Satellite)

On a trip back to Chicagoland, I skipped my usual I-57 route so that I could take the ferry across the Ohio River for IL-1. This got me on a stretch of US-45 that I had never taken before. As I passed through Mills Shoals, I happen to spot a grain elevator about a block to the left. I had recently read Chapter 2 of Jeff Wilson's The Model Railroader's Guide to Grain and recognized this elevator as a text-book example of an early collection grain elevator. Since it was still in great shape, I dove over to it, parked the car, and walked around it to get photos on all sides. The covered truck dump/load facility is a nice feature for a rather small elevator.

20170322  8197rc, West Side

North Side

I did not crop this photo to demonstrate how I try to avoid the "keystone affect" when taking photos of tall structures. Since my camera has much more resolution than can be displayed on a computer screen (let alone a smartphone), I use a wide angle lens and frame it with the structure in the upper half and then crop out the foreground. Notice the two spouts to load freight cars that have not been here for a long time.

East Side

South Side

The spouts that used to load freight cars on the B&O railroad that used to run through town are still intact.

I went over close to the old right-of-way and shot the view to the north. Notice that they have added three steel bins to increase their capacity.

Then I turned around and took a photo looking south. The B&O route through this town was bought by Prairie Trunk Railway. PARY abandoned the line in 1985. It is rather amazing how long creosoted timbers can last.

(Facebooked)