Unusual Grain Storage System Uses Rail Cars, Storage Tanks

Unusual Grain Storage System Uses Rail Cars, Storage Tanks GRAIN HANDLING Miscellaneous 27-2-9 Rusty and Thelly Manuel's grain storage system is a little unorthodox, but they say it works well for them. Instead of using traditional grain bins, the St. Albert, Alberta couple purchased three used railway grain cars and several large industrial storage tanks. One railcar had been fire damaged, and the other two were retired. Each car has four 1,000-bu. hopper compartments and the cost of each car was comparable to a 4,000 to 5,000-bu. grain bin. Rusty says price negotiation depended a lot on how quickly they could remove the cars. Fortunately, Rusty owns a trucking company so he already had two 22-ton boom trucks to lift the rail cars onto a tractor trailer unit for hauling. "Since there are four compartments on each railcar, we can keep different grains in each one. When we need to, we use three compartments for grain storage and one for processed feed," Thelly says. One car sits near their cattle feedlot. "We had a special hopper made to fit underneath that hopper bottom. A 6-in. electric auger extends from that hopper and we fill pails from it for feeding cattle." To unload the other grain cars, they use a hydraulic-driven auger on wheels. Prior to bringing the railcars home, Rusty prepared a gravel and rock pad for each end of the cars, and set down railroad ties and a section of track. This way, the ground did not settle under each car's 57,000-lb. weight. He says it's getting harder to find used railcars for purchase, because they are often sent to scrap yards instead. Rusty also has two 4,000-bu. storage tanks and one 5,000-bu. tank that he purchased from a foundry where they had been used as sand silos. He says they have built-in unloading augers that he converted from electric to orbit motors. These tanks require a 51-ft. auger to fill them with grain. Rusty uses an old boxcar for a storage shed to hold salt, minerals and square hay bales. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Rusty and Thelly Manuel, Site 2, Box 30, RR1, St. Albert, Alberta, Canada T8M 1M8 (ph 780 459-2884; fax 780 419-3622).

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