Inspiration for modeling projects can come from a variety of places, such as photographs, books, or magazines. Mine came from a plate. The artwork on the plate (at right) I purchased at a rural South Dakota antique store shows the elevator complex at Viborg, S.D. Though Viborg is a long way from Lake Beulah, Wis., the layout of the complex is similar to that of elevators in rural southeastern Wisconsin. The Lake Beulah elevator is typical of the clapboard-sided structures that were once commonplace in rural America. Though many of these structures were rendered obsolete as new, larger capacity elevators were built, some did survive. Many of the wood structures were sheathed with metal siding to protect them from the elements, and these elevators were used in secondary roles, including grain storage. Today, most elevators are of concrete construction and are designed to handle 110-car unit grain trains. Elevators are fun industries to model because they're loaded with detail and they're visually interesting. For example, the Lake Beulah complex includes an elevator, grain dryer, and two bins. Chutes from the elevator connect to the grain dryer and one grain bin.
