Grain Doors, Stack - HO
STACK OF GRAIN DOORS
Grain was moved in boxcars from before the time of the St. Paul & Pacific to beyond the end of the Great Northern’s corporate existence. In the beginning, most grain was shipped in sacks, which were filled in the field and stored in ‘flat houses’ before shipment, a labor-intensive process.
About the turn ofthe 20th Century, sacked grain was replaced by bulk grain loose in the car. Grain doors were an integral part of shipping bulk grain by boxcar. They enabled cars to be loaded with one or both car doors open, and kept grain away from the sliding boxcar doors to minimize loss and to enable the car doors to be opened for unloading.
As the width of side doors increased from 5 feet, to 5 foot 6 inches, to 6 feet, the length of the grain doors increased to match. Grain doors for 6-foot car doors were 6 feet 11 inches long. We assume that the general length rule was car door width plus eleven inches.
Grain doors were constructed of two layers of one-inch rough cut lumber and were 19 inches tall. The most common board widths were 6”, 6” and 7” with the seven-inch board on the top of one side and the bottom of the other. At each end of one side there were 12” by 19” vertical boards in place of the horizontal boards, presumably to distribute the stress of grain pressure away from the edges of the grain door, to lengthen the life of the grain doors.
Grain doors were reused, supplied by the railroad and installed by the elevator operator.
Every elevator had a stack of grain doors nearby, stored either beyond the industry track the elevator used to load cars, on railroad ground, or at the end of the elevator just to clear the industry track.
This item includes three sheets of five grain doors, or 15 total. You may simply glue them up as a stack of grain doors, or if you are frugal, cut a block of wood, and glue a top layer of doors on it. That way you can have several stacks of grain doors. If you model a country grain elevator, you should include two or three stacks of grain doors stored outside on a pair of stringers to complete the scene.
These grain doors may also be stacked on edge with a pair of backing pieces so that the doors can be placed in an open car door to simulate a car in the process of being loaded.