Western Railroad Discussion > Scooping business from the RR?

Here’s a light hearted moment I observed last month while traveling through Ohio. I was roaming the backroads in a casual railfan trek through previously unknown territory. I found this scene below on the ‘Napoleon, Defiance & Western’ Ry in Antwerp, OH. I just thought it was a bit funny to see a grain truck being loaded while hopper cars were standing unused in the background. In my RR career experience it would be the grain truck that was being unloaded for trans-loading into the hopper cars. Go figure…

1. ND&W elevator scene in Antwerp, OH on February 24, 2017.

Note: Although I regularly post on the Western forum this is an Eastern topic so I’m posting on both forums.

Thanks for looking!
Lance Garrels
santafe199

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In many cases (but I have no knowledge of this situation) the freight customer owns the land and the track for industrial spurs.

This is not unusual at all. While I don't know the specifics of this shot the receiver of this load might very well be a local business that doesn't have a direct railroad connection.

For many years we had a customer here in soutrhern Oregon that ordered many covered hoppers of chicken feed. Once they reached the end of track it was transloaded to trucks for the three-mile driver to the hatchery. Bottom line, it's not always what it seems.

TonyJ Wrote:
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> For many years we had a customer here in soutrhern
> Oregon that ordered many covered hoppers of
> chicken feed. Once they reached the end of track
> it was transloaded to trucks for the three-mile
> driver to the hatchery. Bottom line, it's not
> always what it seems.

I was just going to say, there are a number of good reasons
this is happening.

Minimizing empty backhauls is a legitimate concern for truckers.  Stepped out of the depot one day and saw a pair of dry vans lined up at the next door grain elevator.  The trucks had run four hundred miles or so with a head haul of beer.  There were roof hatches on the vans so they could flood load grain for a back haul.  Some grain receivers had/have tilt tables to dump trailers which aren't equipped with bottom gate outlets.  The ones I've seen lift the tractor so the trailer doesn't have to be unhitched. 
Alex Huff    

Huge amounts of corn and beans are gown here but relatively little of it is shipped via rail in this region. A large percentage is used for livestock feed. The local elevatiors store and slowly distribute grain for animal feed. I had a project at a nearby Poet Biofuels Ethanol plant. They were building two huge grain bins so that could buy and store grain while prices were lower as they have the highest corn prices of any of Poets ethanol plants nationwide.
Also a new unit train capable elevator was built a few miles west of the location in the photo at Defiance, Oh on CSX so any grain that might be shipped via rail is likely hauled by truck to that elevator and shipped from there. However the few times I've been by they haven't been loading and I haven't heard of them being very busy loading unit trains. NS is busier at Waterloo, IN as NS is more price competive than CSX.

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