Category Archives: Drawings

A collection of scanned blueprint and blue line drawings from Tillotson Construction Co. archives, showing details of reinforced-concrete grain elevators of various sizes.

Drawings for an elevator of 200,000-bushel capacity with bin plan and schedule

by baggyparagraphs

The present drawings that are reproduced from records of the Tillotson Construction Co., of Omaha, show details of a 200,000-bushel, single-leg, reinforced-concrete elevator

To the left above, seen at the scale of one-eighth inch to one foot, is the cross-section of the structure. The main house has eight tanks (silos) with internal diameter of 15 feet six inches and achieves a height of 120 feet. The cupola is 30 feet six inches high. At the bottom, we see a depth of 15 feet three inches below the main slab.

In the cupola, we see notations for the distributor, distribution floor, and automatic scale.

Below, numbers of the large tanks and smaller interior bins are noted. The driveway and rolling door are shown above dump pits Number One and Two. The driveway is 12 feet wide, the door is 13 feet high, and a 17-foot distance extends between driveway floor and driveway roof.

Other notes in the lower-right indicate the work floor, back pit, and a track conveyor to be installed at a future time.

Outside the elevator’s wall is a load-out spout for rail cars and the inscription “Track,” showing where a car draw up to be filled.

Ratings for the bin schedule are cut off due to the limitations of our scanner bed and the 11×17-inch sheets that were copied from blueprints by Uncle Tim Tillotson.

The schedule has the large tanks, Number One through Seven, at 16,880 bushels each. Number Eight is 15,495 bushels. Internal bins nine through 20 range in capacity from 3,980 bushels (Number 19) to 6,665 bushels (12 and 14).

The whole structure sits on the slab measuring 48.5 x 62.0 feet.

Number 21, which can barely be seen in the Bin Plan, is an ovalized chute that stands just outside the accommodations for the electrically operated man lift. “Down” is inscribed to the left of the lift, and “loader” and “up” are to the right.

The Bin Plan and Work Floor Plan are shown at the scale of three-sixteenths inch to one foot.

From the bottom, notes in the Work Floor plan show “Trucks” entering in the direction of the arrow to the two dump pits. Additional notes say “Rails for the 7 1/2 H.P. overhead Electr. Truck Lift” and “12′ wide x 13′ high Overhead Steel Curtain Type Door (Opp. end same).”

At far right, notes say “Track Door” and “RR Siding.”

The stairway inside Number Eight is indicated with the note “Down to Bsm’t.” And this stairway is the reason for the tank’s capacity of 15,495 bushels as opposed to the 16,880 bushels of the others.

Drawings for an elevator of 250,000-bushel capacity with bin plan and schedule

by baggyparagraphs

Here in sharp detail, at the scale of one-eighth-inch to one foot, we have drawings for a 250,000-bushel Tillotson elevator. The bin plan gives capacity at 252,300. Tillotson Construction Co. built many elevators of this capacity, although we can’t determine how many of them adhered to the drawings we see here.

The level of detail is exceptional. In the cross-section, we see a stairway and its railing, an interior ladder (apparently in the manlift channel), basement window sash, 7.5-horsepower Ehrsam truck lift and hand-operated rolling curtain door, port for inspection of the leg, and the 72×14-inch head and boot pulleys. A note on the lower left says “Future 3 hp – 14″ conveyor,” and broken lines indicate its course. Another note to the left indicates “10[-inch] well casing”. Another note near the top of this channel says, “Rad. Dist. to 3 bins & Loading Spout & Driveway.” This we take to mean radial distribution.

The “car” at far left presumably represents a rail car.

The drawform walls of the tanks (silos) are 120 feet high.

The cupola is 40 feet high and 50 feet 3 inches long. We learn that inside it, a 40-horsepower Howell head-drive turns the head pulley at 42 revolutions per minute. The leg’s 14-inch, six-ply belt has cups of 12×6 inches for a leg capacity of 6,300 bushels per hour.

Another note and a zig-zag arrow indicate “Top of Manlift Travel” and two-horsepower Ehrsam manlift.

Detail drawings inside the cupola show the intake and exhaust for the three-horse exhaust fan. Made of 14-gauge steel, the spouting is 10 inches in diameter. Another notation and additional broken lines indicate “Future 2,500 bu. Hopper Scale.” This is near the automatic scale and the grate platform.

Other plans–each with its own details–are for the roof and the cupola floor, bins, foundation, and work floor and driveway.

Drawings for an elevator of 254,000-bushel capacity with bin plan and schedule

by baggyparagraphs

The drawings we have in hand from Tillotson Construction Co. include this plan for a 254,000-bushel reinforced-concrete grain elevator.

While the company built a number of elevators rated at 250,000 and 252,000 bushels, these were likely based on different drawings.

Otherwise, the records show just one elevator of 254,000 bushels–that’s 254,104 bushels, to be exact. It was built in 1950 at Palmer, Iowa.

A 252,000-bushel elevator went up the year before at nearby Pocahontas, Iowa.

The Palmer job was a single-leg elevator with 115-foot-tall tanks (silos) and a cupola measuring 23x60x40 feet. Fully loaded, its gross weight was 12,975 tons.

A dryer bin was included at the time of construction.

Drawings for an elevator of 314,000-bushel capacity with bin plan and schedule

by baggyparagraphs

Records show that Tillotson Construction Co., of Omaha, built a few reinforced-concrete elevators with capacity of more than 300,000 bushels. The drawings posted here depict the outlines of a 314,000-bushel elevator with two legs.

The first was a twin-leg, 350,000-bushel job on an original plan at Farnsworth, Tex., in 1945.

Next–310,000 bushels, also on an original plan–came four years later, in 1949, at Dalhart, Texas.

1950: Canyon, Tex., and Bellwood, Neb., on a shared plan for 320,000 bushels. That same year, Rock Valley, Iowa, came close at 296,130 bushels. And the Vinton Street terminal, in Omaha, was completed at 382,880 bushels.

1951: Sunray, Tex. added a 550,000-bushel annex with 14 tanks (silos) of 20 feet in diameter. Hereford, Tex., welcomed a 300,000-bushel elevator on its own original plan, and York, Neb., did the same–also an original plan–with 336,000 bushels that same year.

1953: Cherokee, Okla. (original plan) 309,400 bushels; Ralston, Iowa (original plan) 537,500-bushel annex with eight tanks of 28 feet in diameter reaching to 115 feet in height; Estill, S.C. (original plan) with 10 tanks of 18 feet in diameter reaching to 120 feet. (The year earlier, Tillotson had built 225,000 bushels of storage at Estill.)

1954: Orienta, Okla. (original plan) 312,000 bushels with 10 tanks of 20 feet in diameter towering 114 feet nine inches; Bellwood, Neb. (original plan) 340,000 bushels with 10 tanks of 20 feet in diameter and 130 feet in height; Iowa Falls, Iowa (Bellwood plan) 321,000 bushels of 122 feet (no other information is included in the records); Glidden, Iowa annex of 331,000 bushels (incomplete entry); Ensign, Kan. annex (original plan) 319,830 bushels with 11 tanks of 19 feet in diameter and 118 feet in height.

Tillotson built no elevators of such great capacity in 1955, the year our records end.

Drawings for an elevator of 300,000- to 354,000-bushel capacity with bin plan and schedule

by baggyparagraphs

Records show that Tillotson Construction Co., of Omaha, built a few reinforced-concrete elevators with capacity of more than 300,000 bushels. The drawings posted here depict the outlines of a 314,000-bushel elevator with two legs.

The first was a twin-leg, 350,000-bushel job on an original plan at Farnsworth, Tex., in 1945.

Next–310,000 bushels, also on an original plan–came four years later, in 1949, at Dalhart, Texas.

1950: Canyon, Tex., and Bellwood, Neb., on a shared plan for 320,000 bushels. That same year, Rock Valley, Iowa, came close at 296,130 bushels. And the Vinton Street terminal, in Omaha, was completed at 382,880 bushels.

1951: Sunray, Tex. added a 550,000-bushel annex with 14 tanks (silos) of 20 feet in diameter. Hereford, Tex., welcomed a 300,000-bushel elevator on its own original plan, and York, Neb., did the same–also an original plan–with 336,000 bushels that same year.

1953: Cherokee, Okla. (original plan) 309,400 bushels; Ralston, Iowa (original plan) 537,500-bushel annex with eight tanks of 28 feet in diameter reaching to 115 feet in height; Estill, S.C. (original plan) with 10 tanks of 18 feet in diameter reaching to 120 feet. (The year earlier, Tillotson had built 225,000 bushels of storage at Estill.)

1954: Orienta, Okla. (original plan) 312,000 bushels with 10 tanks of 20 feet in diameter towering 114 feet nine inches; Bellwood, Neb. (original plan) 340,000 bushels with 10 tanks of 20 feet in diameter and 130 feet in height; Iowa Falls, Iowa (Bellwood plan) 321,000 bushels of 122 feet (no other information is included in the records); Glidden, Iowa annex of 331,000 bushels (incomplete entry); Ensign, Kan. annex (original plan) 319,830 bushels with 11 tanks of 19 feet in diameter and 118 feet in height.

Tillotson built no elevators of such great capacity in 1955, the year our records end.

Drawings for an elevator of 50,000- to 100,000-bushel capacity with bin plan and schedule

by baggyparagraphs

“Sorry these are printed with margin on wrong end,” write Uncle Tim Tillotson after copying the elevator plans in his possession.

“Was busy unfolding and folding the old originals for the [printshop] guy because he tore the first print I handed him (on fold line) just unfolding it. They came out of printer 3 feet long. Didn’t realize Boo-Boo till I got home. Too much $ to re-do!”

Nevertheless, we benefit from Uncle Tim’s efforts and from our cropping tool, which lead to this series of posts with all plans from that printing session.