| Posted by Mike on May 9, 2014 | |
Excellent caption! Thank you.
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The innovation of american farmers. They are truly engineers without the degree. A local one to me took an old tank car, inverted it on end, sunk it 3/4 the way into the ground and turned it into a boiler with which he steam heats all his buildings, including his house. He also put a combine cab on an old Sherman tank and uses that to plow his fields in the spring. He has some other pretty nifty homemade contraptions that one has to see to believe.
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I love not only that the reporting marks are still visible but it still has at least one coupler! Any idea how it gets filled?
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Hi Dennis - the photo was taken on a client's farmstead. To answer your question - it depends on what is being put in the hopper. If they are temporarily storing corn at harvest while waiting on trucks they will load the car using a PTO driven auger. They then have 4 semi loads worth of grain ready to go at a moment's notice. If a load of pellets or livestock feed comes in - the bulk feed semi trailers are equipped with either a belt conveyor or auger that can reach the loading hatches. This car also still has the original foam insulation on the undersides of the hopper bottoms. When they put it up they were trying to do so as quickly as possible so it still has air tanks, etc. attached to it.
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