Hi Some of the guys on our railway club are looking to model in HO a Salt industry from the Kansas area, particularly in the Hutchinson and Ellinor areas (hope I've got the spellings correct, and the locations !). Does anyone have any photos of buildings, or plans of track layouts, etc ; in fact, any information at all would be really appreciated, or guidance to where information might be found. We're UK based so a fact gathering expedition is a little beyond our club funds ! Many thanks...
Steve, I grew up 30 miles from Hutchinson. You might search for Carey Salt to find some photos. I've driven by salt operations hundreds of times but I live 2000 miles from there now. Charlie
Pass the salt (mine), please While touring Kansas in 1994 with the girl I was soon to marry, we stopped at her mother-in-law's house in Hutchinson, and I shot a distant picture of the salt mine there. The nearly-horizontal lines across the picture are power lines. I understand this mine provided salt which the Santa Fe used in refrigerated shipments to lower temperature below 32 degree F normal temperature of water ice, for shipping seafood from Galveston. Salt shipped in "reefer-standard" boxcars-- old boxcars equipped with trucks etc to be handled in faster-than-regular-freight-service reefer blocks. Model Railroader July05 p.79 included the Hutchinson salt mine as part of its Hutchinson ATSF track plan.
Sorry I couldn't really help Steve. I know a lot of folks in Hutchinson... you just need some better photos. http://abyss.kgs.ku.edu/pls/abyss/pubcat.phd1.View_Photo?f_id=4651&f_hd=Y http://abyss.kgs.ku.edu/pls/abyss/pubcat.phd1.View_Photo?f_id=4649&f_hd=Y http://images.google.com/images?q=c...a:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&sa=N&tab=wi Charlie
Thanks Charlie...the photos have given me a feel for the area as well as the industry. These will be helpful to the guys at the Club. Cheers, Steve
