What is the purpose of these barns?

[Alpo]

Watching SILVER STREAK. Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor. They are currently driving the stolen XKE Jaguar through Kansas, and they passed these barns.

 

They're much much taller than any barn I've ever seen, and I wondered what their purpose was.

[Buckshot Bear]

Silage?

[Three Foot Johnson]

Looks like grain elevators to me.

[Barry Sloe]

My guess is old grain elevators. 

 

BS

[Rip Snorter]

They are old grain elevators, always on a rail line or an abandoned one.

[Three Foot Johnson]

ln 1979, two F-106's from the Montana Air National Guard were authorized to perform a fly-over of the Dillon Labor Day parade. For whatever reason, they flew way lower, and slower, than authorized and one of them flew through the top of the town's grain elevator. The plane and pilot, Captain Joel Rude, were both lost. 

[Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474]

Yes, Grain Elevators.

Highly explosive when loading or unloading grain because of the dust 

Any spark or even static electricity can cause a catastrophic KA-BOOM!

Huge shipping point at Fort Churchill. Manitoba 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Search Kansas grain elevators. You’ll get a lot of pix.

[Eyesa Horg]

Our local feed store is in an old grain elevator just like those. Ours isn't used for grain any longer. The train still comes through though, although rarely.

[PaleWolf Brunelle, #2495L]

Abandoned grain elevators (Madoc, MT)

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

Here’s a giant one Salina, KS of more modern construction. I don’t know if it’s still operational. The second image is of a much smaller one, also from Salina. Gotta love the mural. Pretty impressive. 
 

 

[G W Wade]

Really a different style of building.   You started laying 2x12's, flat on top of foundation.   After required height, you laid 2x10's to the next level.  Then 2x8's  and keep repeating.    Lots of lumber and ridiculous amount of nails.    Proper name is crib wall elevator.   Inside was divded into several different bins by intersecting walls built the same way.as the structure was built.    GW

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

3 hours ago, Three Foot Johnson said:

Looks like grain elevators to me.

Yep!

3 hours ago, Three Foot Johnson said:

ln 1979, two F-106's from the Montana Air National Guard were authorized to perform a fly-over of the Dillon Labor Day parade. For whatever reason, they flew way lower, and slower, than authorized and one of them flew through the top of the town's grain elevator. The plane and pilot, Captain Joel Rude, were both lost. 

I've seen a couple of "dust explosions", usually in old empty elevators, but once in awhile one that just been emptied or, in one case, was being emptied at the time.  Very spectacular.

 

Static electricity and very dry conditions are to blame.

[Kid Rich]

I grew up around those and everybody knew there was NO SMOKING in the vicinity of them.

kR

[Grass Range]

Except for the elevator operators who smoked when he felt like it

[Alpo]

1 hour ago, Grass Range said:

Except for the elevator operators who smoked when he felt like it

Yeah I know how that goes.

 

I used to work for a company that made concrete water tanks. And this other company had bought a property that had several of our tanks on it, and they were using it to convert garbage into methane gas. And they blew a hole in one of the tanks. So we were called out to fix it.

 

And we're out at the job site. Our construction trailer is on the far side of the road, and we are told that if anyone was to light a cigarette on the other side of the road he would be fired immediately. Did not matter how long he had worked for the company. So when you needed the cigarette you had to come down off the tank and cross the street to the construction trailer to smoke.

 

We're all inside the tank one day and there's acetylene torch rig in there. It's not ours - belongs to the company that blew up the tank. And one of their guys walks in and sticks a cigarette in his mouth and asked if anyone had a match. And several people yell at him that you're not supposed to smoke on this side of the street, and he just kind of smirked, then turned on the gas on that torch and popped a spark on it and lit his cigarette off the torch. Stood there smoking and smiling at us.

[Eyesa Horg]

There's an Ahole in every bunch it seems.

[Buffalo Creek Law Dog]

16 hours ago, Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474 said:

Yes, Grain Elevators.

Highly explosive when loading or unloading grain because of the dust 

Any spark or even static electricity can cause a catastrophic KA-BOOM!

Huge shipping point at Fort Churchill. Manitoba 

They pretty well have all disappeared on the Canadian prairies.  You might come across one during a full day's drive.  Gone, just like the buffalo.

[Larsen E. Pettifogger, SASS #32933]

For tall cows.

 

[Phantom Falcon, SASS # 46139]

Saw a lot of these as a kid on the prairies of Kansas. It was impressive to go to Hutchinson and see the modern one like the one in Salina above.

Grain dust explosions in elevators will get everyone's attention for miles around. Most of my relatives smoked, but nowhere around those elevators nor around any silos on their farms. 

 

PF 

[sassnetguy50]

Throw a pinch of flour in your campfire to get a glimpse of what an elevator explosion is like.

[Rip Snorter]

We did one in Scouts with a big coffee can, a little flour, a candle, some tubing and a rubber bulb.  Can't recall what the lid on the can was but it blew it right off.  Fun stuff on that scale.

[Sedalia Dave]

 

 

 

[Sedalia Dave]

Way better video. Shows one still in active service.

 

Note the No Smoking sign at the 1:50 mark.

[Sedalia Dave]

 

 

 

[Dantankerous]

Back in the mid 90s DeBruce Grainery outside Wichita exploded, killing as many as 7. I saw the aftermath. Carnage only begins to describe it.

[Sedalia Dave]

I remember several catastrophic grain dust explosions in the 70s

[Alpo]

Were they still using them in the '80s?

 

Apparently they are still using a few now, but were they still in common use?

 

The movie that the screenshot and my question came from was made in 1986.

[Rip Snorter]

11 minutes ago, Alpo said:

Were they still using them in the '80s?

 

Apparently they are still using a few now, but were they still in common use?

 

The movie that the screenshot and my question came from was made in 1986.

Still in use anywhere in the U.S. where they raise grain in quantity.

[Sedalia Dave]

5 hours ago, Alpo said:

Were they still using them in the '80s?

 

Apparently they are still using a few now, but were they still in common use?

 

The movie that the screenshot and my question came from was made in 1986.

 

Most if not all are no longer in use. They just don't store enough grain. However they are local landmarks and were built to last so there are some still standing. A few have been converted to local tourist attractions. 

 

Al little paint, roof maintenance and termite control and they'll be standing for another 100 years.  

[Alpo]

19 minutes ago, Sedalia Dave said:

They just don't store enough grain.

I was the impression I got from that first video.

(dammit, otto, THAT was the impression, not I was the impression. idiot)

 

That scene they shot, with the Jag driving past them - they had nothing to do with the movie. Except that they were in Kansas at the time, and Kansas is where all the wheat comes from, so they could be there to make sure people realize they actually were in Kansas. Except unless you've grown up in the grain belt you don't know what the hell they are so that was kind of dumb. Maybe they just saw them and thought they looked neat, so used them as background.

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

Great videos, Sedalia Dave. It's great to learn things one knew nothing about before.

 

But one thing leapt out at me from the video showing the active operations: the operator applying belt dressing from the can to the conveyor. Many years ago, early in my legal career, I was involved in a North Dakota case where a man lost his entire arm and shoulder structure while applying belt dressing near the nip point of the belt and the wheel. Just looking at the setup reminds you of the dangers of that machinery.

 

The accident in that case was on a conveyor at a construction site. When the belt starts to slip in use, belt dressing is applied. A sticky substance, it increases the friction and stops the slippage-- for awhile.

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

10 hours ago, Dantankerous said:

Back in the mid 90s DeBruce Grainery outside Wichita exploded, killing as many as 7. I saw the aftermath. Carnage only begins to describe it.

I remember that one. What a disaster. 

[Bailey Creek,5759]

Pale Wolf i want the Pickup.

[PaleWolf Brunelle, #2495L]

55 minutes ago, Bailey Creek,5759 said:

Pale Wolf i want the Pickup.

 

I'll ask my cousin if it's still there. 

In 2000, my Dad and brother went to MT and brought back my G'Pa's 46 Chev 1T. that was used to haul wheat to that elevator.

It had sat for many years at another relative's junkyard after being wrecked.
They restored it and it's still being driven.
 

         

 

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