 |
 |
 |
 | ||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 | |||
 |
|
body |
 |
| July 6 | |
 |
This is a picture from the Gulf port in Houston, TX. This is where boats are loaded with wheat and shipped to foreign countries. The ships that are to be loaded are in the foreground. (In the background you can see an oil refinery.) |
 |
These are unit trains loaded with wheat waiting to be unloaded. |
|
|
The rail cars are driven into this shed where they will be unloaded. The metal structure we are looking under is the grain conveyor and you’ll get a better look at it soon. |
 |
The bottom doors of the rail cars are opened by hand and the grain is dumped into the pit. Where do you think it goes from here? Let’s look at the next picture. |
 |
The grain is moved over to the elevator where it can be stored for a short period of time or loaded directly onto a vessel (boat or ship). The structure on the left is used for storage, but it also has a grain cleaner that cleans the wheat before it is loaded onto a ship. Again, you can see the large conveyor. What do you think it is used for? Let’s see. |
 |
That’s a big boat! The conveyor carries the grain from the elevator and drops it into the ship’s hold. By looking at this ship, where is the grain being loaded first? It looks like to me the ship is lower in the back part, which means there’s a lot of weight back there. So, I’m guessing it is being loaded in the rear first. This ship is called a panamax and it is the largest type of ship that will pass through the Panama Canal. The bottom of the ship is 40 feet below the surface, so where ever it sails the water has to be deeper than 40 feet. You’ve got some questions, don’t you? How much wheat will this boat hold? It will hold 6 unit trains. (Remember our unit train held 440,000 bushels.) How long will it take to load this vessel? On average it takes about 4 days. |
    |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|||
 |
 |
 |
 |
||
