Sunday, May 3, 2020

Council Grove, KS: MKT Depot, Old Grain Elevator and Reused Boxcars

(Satellite)

Street View
I noticed the For Sale sign. I wonder if the caboose and old gas engine comes with this property.
Street View
Kathy Black posted four photos with the comment: "This one had a unique feature to me, as I'm not an elevator expert. Were the box cars for storage? Council Grove KS 3/2020"
Bob Summers The railroads sold box cars that were no longer in service and many were used at elevators to store misc items and bagged products.
Bob Summers The few elevated ones I recall like these were used for bulk feed produces, like pellets, that would break up if run thru an elevator. The farmer would back his truck under the boxcar and be loaded through a gate they would have made in the floor. Most were ground level and used for bagged product or misc tools and equipment. Few survive because they were old when retired from the rail road many years ago.
Dennis DeBruler I followed both abandoned railroads through town. With the large round bin, it should be easy to spot. But I couldn't find it. Would you give me the street names for an intersection that is close to this elevator?
https://www.google.com/.../data=!3m6!1e1!3m4...
I did find the former-MKT depot:
https://www.google.com/.../data=!3m6!1e1!3m4...
UP abandoned the MoPac route.
Kathy Black Dennis DeBruler - There weren't any tracks, and I didn't note the streets. Let me check.
[She replied with a map that showed the northwest quadrant of Market and 4th Streets.]
Dennis DeBruler The size of the steel bolted tank struck me as being rather large. According to Google Map's scale it is about 50' in diameter. A 1971 aerial photo does not show it. It does show up in a 1981 aerial.
1

2

3

4

Dennis DeBruler commented on Kathy's post
Those diagonal buildings were gone by 1991. With this resolution, it is hard to tell if the spur is gone. A 1970 historic aerial shows the spur still went south of Market Street and the diagonal buildings still existed. The building down by Main Street had a boxcar spotted at it and it may have been the MKT freight house.
Google Earth, Oct 1991
By 2002 the spur is gone because this building has been built on the right-of-way.
Google Earth, Apr 2002



No comments:

Post a Comment