Above is the first photo of Great Northern equipment that I have posted. Tom Lyman's comments provided the name of the yard and
the location of the photo. A railfan sees some more F units. An industrial archaeologist sees a lot more, for example, walkways on the boxcars and grain elevators. Other comments of interest by Tom:
The tracks on the left of the iron ore/tac train was the CNW/Omaha East Mpls. Yard The Flour Yard & New Yard.
The iron ore train/tac train on the left would have been on track C-30 class yard. Where 500 mile inspections were done.
The grain elevator in the center was the Union Elevator.
The track in the bottom right was the lead to the D Yard which went to the NP 14th Ave. SE tower. Beyond down to the Pillsbury's A-Mill near the GN Stone Arch Bridge & other industries.
The elevator on the left does not look like most grain elevators. I wonder if it was a flour mill.
The Union Elevator in the above photo would be the "red elevator" in this photo.
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Marty Bernard posted
4. Huge gray elevator marked Great Northern 1 next to a large red elevator, Minneapolis, MN, 1901. Photographs and captions from the Minnesota Historical Society.
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Marty Bernard posted
1. Great Northern Elevator, Bryant Ave. and Chestnut, Minneapolis circa 1910.
Photographs and captions from the Minnesota Historical Society
[I have to disagree with the museum's caption. Bryant Ave. would be the GN elevator that was south of the Mississippi River. But because the headhouse extends across the entire roof, I think this elevator is above "GRET NORTHERN 1" elevator before the sign was painted on.]
Ray McCollough shared |
The concrete part of the elevator on the left side of the photo at the top of these notes is still standing.
I used the following topo map to verify the location of these elevators. I added the yellow rectangle to highlight these three elevators. The pair near the bottom would be the two wooden elevators in the second photo. The pair along the left side would be the two elevators in the first photo.
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| 1951 St Paul West Quadrangle @ 1:24,000 |
The Hansen-Hueller Elevator used to be the Calumet Elevator.
The middle 10 silos of the Calumet Elevator were built in 1907, and it was expanded in 1926. The silos are 84' high and the capacity is 379,000 bushels.
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| A digital zoom of Image 66 |
Union Elevator was also called Froedtert Grain & Malting. The white silos in the top photo were built in 1927 with the blue silos in the foreground added in 1927. An annex on the far side that we can't see in the photo might have been added in 1949. The near annex held 500,000 bushels and the hidden annex held 1,000,600 bushels. I compute the original capacity to be 20*47k + 9*11k = 1039 bushels.
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| A digital zoom of Image 66 |
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| A digital zoom of Image 66 |
The Great Northern 1 Elevator in the second photo was also known as the Devereux Elevator, and it was destroyed by a blast in 1930. This photo provides another view of the "red elevator."
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Marty Bernard posted
1. Aerial view showing Great Northern Railway yards in southeast Minneapolis, Longfellow Neighborhood, circa 1921.Photographs and captions from the Minnesota Historical Society |
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Tom Edwards commented on Marty's post
Here's the same area today, from Google Satellite 3D.
Marty Bernard: Even the buildings are different!
Tom Edwards: Marty Bernard Yup - Elevators and most of the Omaha (C&NW) are all gone. |
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Dennis DeBruler commented on Tom's first comment
I started my search in the Longfellow neighborhood. But that was just Milwaukee RR stuff. Fortunately, when I zoomed in on your image, I saw some labels for some of the buildings. What was GN's name for this yard? I think the wood elevator in the upper-middle of the photo was the red one in this photo that was already posted by Marty Bernard. |
(ToDo: elevators south of University Ave:
TwinCities)
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