Dump Pit Covered By Railroad Rails

Dump Pit Covered By Railroad Rails GRAIN HANDLING Miscellaneous 23-3-18 Larry and Richard Martin of Lincoln, Ill., used 10-ft. long railroad rails to cover their home-built, drive-over grain pit. The pit is 10 ft. sq. at the top and 9 ft. deep and holds 500 bu. of grain. They put a hopper bottom bin in the pit and then poured cement around the top edges of the bin walls. Large pieces of angle iron run across the top of the bin to hold the rails. A steel I-beam runs crosswise under the center of the rails to help support the weight of tractors, semi-tractors, and wagons that pass over the pit. "It's a low-cost way to build a dump pit," says Larry. "The rails are plenty strong to handle any size load. To get into the pit to clean it out I can lift out a couple rails and climb in." An auger that comes up out of the pit leads to a grain leg. To set up the auger the Martins ran a 12-in. dia. tube from an old auger down to the bottom of the pit and then slid a new 8-in. dia. auger into the larger tube. "That way, if there's ever a problem with the auger we can just slide it out," says Larry. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Larry Martin, 1882 700 Ave., Lincoln, Ill. 62656 (ph 217 732-3349).

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