I was talking to the operators of an old flour mill where they unload the cars about what the winches were above the dump pits. They told me they were for the grain doors on the old box cars that slid up and off so that the grain could me dumped. I grew up on a farm and near the railroad and I have never saw or heard of a door like like what they said. The doors would have to be about the size of the standard door for the hoist to work. Any help on this subject would be nice.

Grain "doors" were more like planks than actual doors. They were placed across the doorway of the car, and often lined with cardboard to prevent any leaks. That turned the boxcar into a sort of covered hopper car, and the grain was then placed inside, often with a chute or tube.

Here's a photo of them in use.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73 ... f0030d.jpg

Grain doors were pre-made panels, 16" wide and about 6'-6" long, made from two layers of boards, nailed together with the nails cinched. They were supposed to be reusable. They were installed by nailing them to the inside of the door posts, but held in place mostly by the weight of the load pressing against them. I suppose that if there was a power winch available that had a flat hook that could be driven under the lowest panel, that was easier than prying them up with a big, BIG pry bar.

But I question if this was the intended use of the winch at all. Were the old timers really old enough to have unloaded boxcars?

I think they were for power shovels, used to drag the grain from the ends of the car. See the illustration in the Jeffery catalog:

https://books.google.com/books?id=vkk_AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA422&lpg=PA422&dq=power+shovel+boxcar&source=bl&ots=gGFyPj-lWk&sig=N-4vxHg4DmdIbmzUur4LDfsH8DQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwip3uKN04nMAhXGJCYKHa3lB6UQ6AEIMTAD#v=onepage&q=power%20shovel%20boxcar&f=false

The illustration is unloading lime, but I've seen pix of the same thing used for grain; just can't find any on the web.

That makes far more sense. I've never used a gain door, but I have handled some old ones. They're heavy, being solid wood planks, but not so heavy that one guy can't lift and carry them without needing a winch. Your explanation makes sense.

My original thought was that they possibly used the winch to pull them out when the grain was piled against them? But that was only a guess, and don't really know how they got them out when the car was loaded?

I have read, somewhere, that terminal elevators had a hydraulic or mechanical ram that pushed the doors in when the car was over the unloading pit, but I suspect that was in conjunction with a car tipper, the terminal elevator equivalent of a rotary car dumper.

I have also read that the manual way was just to use a big pry bar... but it's not clear to me if you could pry one corner of the door in, or up. One thing is for sure, you don't want to start with the top door if you don't have to, since it would be much easier to strip the doors standing in the mostly empty car. All you need is a small opening at the bottom and most the grain behind the doors will flow out.

I also remember reading that at the terminal elevators at Duluth - Superior, after the cars were emptied the doors were stripped and piled in the open doorway with the ends sticking out. When the track was pulled, labors flipped them out and stacked them as the cars went slowly by. The doors were then inspected, repaired if needed, and loaded into boxcars to be sent back to the grain shipping stations.

Thanks Dennis and all the others for the information. By the pictures that is just what they have. I will pass the info on.