Great idea, I second the request! Then can some grain hopper cars be far behind?

Coop Elevator .....................

Great idea , I think Menards should go for it !!!!

Coop Grain Elevator

Menards could sell a communications tower separately to place on the top of the elevator!

That would be super awesome!!!

Super ideals  !!!

Brent

Great idea!

I already converted my feed mill into a grain elevator, BUT that is a modern, concrete one pictured, and I have lots of wooden ones, so I would probably bite, if not TOO modern (I want grain box cars)  COOP good....uh, I thought somebody already made a sectional one that could be added to, as long as your money held out?

Pillsbury Elevator would be a nice addition too!

Grain Warehouse buildings for distribution by truck................

Awesome idea! 

You have my vote! Love the ideas!

I wonder if Menards realizes they have a cracker jack product development team right here on this forum! And we work cheap!! Lol

Korber sells the kits to build one. I have the large kit. It was easy to build.

Dick

Railroad Warehouses too..........................

More grain elevator ideas....................

Great ideas, but you forgot BNSF!

Good ideas Frank. Though in all likelihood if Menards did produce any of your ideas, they'd probably be more along the footprint size of their last American Power and Light building. Still pretty big, but not so large as to limit the sales potential.

But who knows. Doing the buildings doesn't require tooling the way a piece of rolling stock does. So I guess it would depend on the profit margin point of the quantity made versus the actual interest in making larger structures that undoubtedly are attractive to some modelers, but probably have more limited overall sales.

You know Frank, you're so good with the graphics... you could maybe strike a deal with Menards. They'd have more sales potential by offering like - your idea of the Railroad Warehouse building - but without road specific signs. But you could design signs that the customer could apply to the side of the building.

I mean, let's be real.... if they did that RR Warehouse building in let's say C&NW... that would please the C&NW fans. The others would be waiting for another run of buildings. Inevitably, someone would get left out of the equation... just the nature of the business.  

Even if Menards just made the buildings and you posted your building signs here for folks to print out. Obviously, that might turn off some folks, having to do that themselves. But on the other hand, it would probably be more financially justifiable for Menards or anyone to make a building with the greatest sales potential.

Obviously, Menards could offer a building with printed signs in a variety of several roads that the customer could attach. How much cost that would add, versus doing the buildings in specific roads... well, all I can say is the old adage it's hard to please everyone all the time. 

Good Day Brian,

Thanks for the feedback. I really think a grain elevator would be a top seller!  The small modern warehouse would be nice fit too! My second hobby is digital drawings. You never know if one of my ideas will come to life.......time will tell.  

So many elevators and so little time!

Pwrwgn posts some nice pics above, one of which shows a small town elevator with round bins. That's my vote. 

Grain Elevator pictures for ideas......................

Those are all big concrete ones, of which I have just a few photos....now, for old wooden ones, many in ruins, I have a lot of photos of those, and a few models scratchbuiilt, or kitbashed.  Given Korber has done a concrete one, that you can add to, until you get that one in south central Kansas, I vote for a wooden one.

I agree..............these are big. My thinking these all could be built with less silos!

Swafford, your last two pictures show something that isn't seen much anymore - grain driers. At todays fuel costs they are generally too expensive to operate for the benefits obtained. However they would certainly be appropriate if you are modeling mid 50's to mid 70's era. Almost all mid to large sized elevators had them at one time.

The appeal of the Menards sauerkraut plant and feed mill is the touch of rusticity and individuality,  which the large concrete elevator monoliths do not have.  But the many unique and distinctive wooden ones around the country have these qualities.  Of course, it depends on the period modeled, as in the post above about grain dryers.  Current diesel roads are more likely to serve the monoliths, although they started building concrete ones far back in the steam era.

Great idea on the elevator!   Can it be compressed sufficiently?

I have the new power and light building on order.   With the loads running through the building, this works with a dedicated loop to run hoppers through for unloading.   So now I need some kind of coal mine to load the hoppers.   No room for the open pit kind of process obviously, so perhaps a traditional eastern coal mine with the Menards touch (details, quality, LEDS)?

A Menards coal mine perhaps?  And then the grain elevator.

Colorado Hirailer - If anyone is modeling more modern construction, than in  Swafford's first photo it should be more like the bins just to the left of the concrete elevator. Steel construction of elevators is not new by any stretch of the imagination, but almost all current construction is very similar to what you see on that pic. What is interesting is that further on down to the left you see a corrugated clad elevator with two steel bins and further on down another concrete elevator'

If modeling early concrete elevators, I would have you look at Swafford's 3rd picture. I suspect that the small structure on the left predates the large one on the right by several decades. It looks very much like a CM&E design, by the way. If you (or Menards) were to model that elevator without the large one to the right, you would have a model that would fit right in from the 1920's up through today.

tripleo posted:

Swafford, your last two pictures show something that isn't seen much anymore - grain driers. At todays fuel costs they are generally too expensive to operate for the benefits obtained. However they would certainly be appropriate if you are modeling mid 50's to mid 70's era. Almost all mid to large sized elevators had them at one time.

Just a point of clarification. Grain dryers are still in use. They have to be employed in cases where field drying isn't adequate enough to get the moisture level down to acceptable levels for storage. But you may be right that you don't see as many grain drying facilities anymore.

The new power plant could become a module for unloading the car, and one could add silos later.  And it would have a place for Jack!

There are over 10 billion bushels of corn grown in the US every year and just about all of it is dried.  There are large dryers that look like bins, in addition to the more typical ones. Farmers can't depend solely on the weather when thousands of acres are at stake. Smaller farms get consolidated into larger ones, so there may be fewer facilities, but much more product is being produced and processed.

Just as long as you don't get carried away. There are grain elevators, but then there are also

GRAIN ELEVATORS!

AGHRMatt posted:

Just as long as you don't get carried away. There are grain elevators, but then there are also

GRAIN ELEVATORS!

Is this one in Kansas?

Smaller Grain Elevators to consider.....................

Here's one to model if you have a small layout. Four short silos. The door on the left side is for farm trucks to unload.

Now I am really starting to like this posting....THAT one looks like the one in south central Kansas.  Some of my favorite railroad architecture......although I still prefer the wooden ones...and they are occasionally found in brick and in tile.

Good Day Mark the Menards Train Guy,

How about a Grain Elevator?

Regards,

Swafford

I built the Korber Kit!  It is sort of a "Bear" to put together!  If Menards had had one built, believe me I would have purchased it already built!!!

Just saying!!!

Fredstrains