Grain car photos 1903

Here are some interesting photos from 1903 of grain car situations and solutions.  It seems one of the major issues of the time with grain boxcars was availability of the cars.

This car arrived in Chicago loaded with grain.  This type of situation was one of the reasons for shortages of grain cars.  This situation would make an interesting scene on a model railroad.

One solution used to alleviate the shortage of grain boxcars was to use refrigerator cars.  The car below was loaded with grain in both the regular storage area as well as the ice boxes.

Another unique solution to the boxcar shortage was to use hopper bottom boxcars - a solution that also enabled fast unloading by opening the lower hopper doors by means of a lever on the outside end of the car.

Above shows the hoppers opened and below is the car with the hoppers closed.