Grain Doors, Stack - HO

 STACK OF GRAIN DOORS Grain was moved in boxcars from before the time of the St. Paul & Pacific to beyond the end of the Great Northern’s corporate existence. In the beginning, most grain was shipped in sacks, which were filled in the field and stored in ‘flat houses’ before shipment, a labor-intensive process.  About the turn ofthe 20th Century, sacked grain was replaced by bulk grain loose in the car. Grain doors were an integral part of shipping bulk grain by boxcar. They enabled cars to be loaded with one or both car doors open, and kept grain away from the sliding boxcar doors to minimize loss and to enable the car doors to be opened for unloading. As the width of side doors increased from 5 feet, to 5 foot 6 inches, to 6 feet, the length of the grain doors increased to match. Grain doors for 6-foot car doors were 6 feet 11 inches long. We assume that the general length rule was car door width plus eleven inches. Grain doors were constructed of two layers of one-inch rough cu