Friday picture Fun:

Hurricane Dolly blew down the building around this relic. It's not an on-the farm piece of equipment but it is a farm product processing piece.

2,000 Internet points for guessing WHAT it is.
1,000 Internet points for guessing the CROP.
5,000 Internet points for specific description of it's ROLE in the industry.

There you go. 8,000 Internet points up for grabs today to ANYONE BUT CANYON!!! (for obvious reasons, and if it's so simple other of you just post I know and let someone else take a guess at it before the reveal)






[This message has been edited by Centerpole90 (edited 7/26/2013 12:06p).]

[This message has been edited by Centerpole90 (edited 7/26/2013 12:06p).]

Sad to say, I have only a guess, based on location. Actually, I have two guesses. Will PM.

Cotton seed oil press?

Edit: Total wild ass guess I have no real clue.

[This message has been edited by Randy03 (edited 7/26/2013 12:57p).]

The first 3,000 Internet points go to Randy for getting Press and Cotton. Awesome.

So it's not a seed press (although that is a good guess) and that only leaves one more option - but we'll be a little stingier with the last points. Don't just say it presses cotton. It's near a railroad, why would it be there and not at the gin out in the country where cotton is processed????

for pressing into bales for transport?

Would have had all 8000 if I hadn't been ineligible.

I googled to confirm my guess

This a copyrighted image so just a link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/louisianastatemuseum/5054611847/in/set-72157625102699594

Another image:

Winner winner chicken dinner. I'm typing up some info now....

i drive by that old heap every day. i can't wait until the switchyard moves out to BFE brownsville.

Congrats Tree Hugger. Don’t spend them all in one place on Internet porn.

This cotton press is actually at a facility called a cotton ‘Compress’ where cotton bales were brought from gins (the original place cotton is processed from the field) and those bales were then pressed AGAIN to a uniform density so that they could be loaded on rail cars for shipping. That’s the significance of the location. Why is this necessary you ask? (I’m bored so keep up)..

Cotton gins back in the day were powered by things like big diesel engines because there wasn’t the infrastructure to deliver the power necessary to use electricity. Cotton was pressed into bales and everyone made 500 POUND bales… but there wasn’t enough power to get them down to the size or a UNIFORM size so that they could be reliably shipped where they needed to go. Enter the cotton compress – Gins would deliver their bales here and then the compress would put them in this huge steam powered press and press them down again to a uniform size so that they could be loaded on trucks or rail cars for delivery to the buyer.

Eventually gin presses were powered by hydraulics and were able to make the standard density bale from the get-go with no need to be compressed. This was known in the industry as a “Gin UD” bale (Universal Density) and the switch started in the early 70’s. When I graduated from A&M I sold cotton gin equipment in MS and actually replaced an old “flat bale” press in Panther Burn, MS. That was 1990 and it might well have been the last non-UD press left in the US (in use). Point is the role of the ‘Compress’ in the industry is gone but these huge steam powered presses are still scattered around the cotton belt near railroad tracks under the roofs of huge cotton warehouses. They are a real marvel of ‘mechanical advantage’ with their counterweights, cam actions, and levers.


This is an old wood mechanical press that makes a huge ‘flat bale’ (not universal density). This contraption could not stand up to the pressures of making a UD bale.



Good example of a flat bale. See how big it is in relation to the man? The goal was to weigh 500#, whatever the size… the compress handled the rest.



A bale sitting in the compress…



Compressed bales getting on a train in Houston…



Modern Gin UD press (the compressing ram comes from up out of a pit deep in the ground)





Funny how that works WK; town grows up around the railroad and all that it brought... then can't wait to be rid of it. We're a real appreciative lot.


[This message has been edited by Centerpole90 (edited 7/26/2013 2:14p).]

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

There's a barn close to me that has the first module builder in it. I'll have to get some pictures of it soon.

Great pictures, is the wood press from Burton?

Incredible thread. Also, it's after 1 a.m. and there are almost 12 thousand people on TexAgs. That's pretty incredible, too.

[This message has been edited by jickyjack1 (edited 8/26/2013 1:07a).]

Got to this thread late, but the pictures of the people and old farm equipment remind me if my dad and grandpa. Grandpa's second love after farming was photography, so we have tons of pictures of him on the farm and when he was a custom wheat harvester from the mid 40s-60s.

One thing that really brought back the memories was the kids sitting on the fenders of the tractors . That was my seat as a kid on a 1030 case.

When I started farming for my dad and grandpa, I ran an international 656 and usually pulled a one way. I loved it because once u had the right front wheel in the furrow, u didn't have to touch the steering wheel until it was time to turn. I'd get bored and crawl off the back of the tractor, walk down the hitch, and walk the main beam of the one way for a while. I didn't think much of it, but my dad did when he caught me and tanned my backside!

best thread I have ever read

If you guys are interested in this type if thing you should come to the show in temple the first weekend in October. I will be there with my engines.

Show in Temple. I've never been but Dad carried tractor up there once - he brought back some pictures of darn neat stuff.

I remember back in the early 90's I went to an old car/tractor/engine show in Cook's Point between Caldwell and Bryan. It was typical 'old stuff' show and there was a really cool display that someone had set up selling home made ice cream. He had an unstyled A John Deere that was belted up to a contraption he had on a trailer that ran through a number of reduction gears and pulleys and when it was all said and done it was turning - the ice cream freezer. That A sat there and popped all day on a long belt churning ice cream. It was pretty cool.

There's you a project idea BCOBQ!!

This is an IH 303 combine that we still cut grain with every year.

wow, what year is that? has to be from around the 60's

CP, is the cotton compress in Sebastian? Is the picture of then gin Buddy's out near SRS Farms?

No. The compress is in HRL near the rail yard. Gulf Compress in Raymondville has a nice one thought- it's still inside. The gin press is a pic off the Internet. Not sure where it is. Just drove by Ross gin- still ginning.

Centerpole90, Is there still an Oil Mill in the RGV? Used to be one in Cuero and I loved the way it smelled. There was a compress in Victoria as well but it is long gone. Like so much good old stuff!

I think Valco is still open in Harlingen.

^ vogel is correct. ~ and yes it does give off a unique smell. I like it too, but it means something to me; often I see people scrunch up their noses when we go by.

Valco gets a lot of seed from member cooperatives up and down the coast. Obviously the RGV and lower coastal bend are way down (read almost 0) on cotton production this year. From Victoria north there is a better crop - but 77 isn't burning up with cottonseed trucks headed south. I went to get hulls for the steers a few weeks ago and they were down to just a little pile and said they didn't expect to have more until October. This time of year they should have those houses packed with seed and eventually a lot of hulls. Bad year for cotton.

[This message has been edited by Centerpole90 (edited 9/7/2013 1:03p).]

We're fat and happy on the mid-gulf, about a 2.5 bale average for the acres I scout.

Not really old, but older than most pickers covering 1000 acres/ yr:

Thanks centerpole, yes I love that smell, but I also like the "cow truck" smell. I guess I'm just weird like that.
I hate they are having such bad luck on cotton down south.

Is that an old Ag Cat??? I've never seen one with a turbine... tough to find anything around but Air Tractor anymore.

My dad had an ag cat just like that one summer. It is a kit that turns it into a turbine instead of the radial engine. Looks kinda weird if you are used to the old look.

CANYONAG77 - Please send me an email. I would love to see more pictures from the Armstrong Estate Sale. Especially the ones of Paul's Jeeps. I am not sure if they were included in the sale or not. I knew Paul from his Summers in Red River.

Thanks,
Tom
txtom(AT)austin.rr.com

Don't recall the jeeps. Will look at the picture stash. It was actually my (now) son-in-law who took a ton of photos at Paul's auction, so I have no memory of what was taken.

EDIT: So I found the photos. It reminded me that the jeeps were parked in a group away from the tractors. I can't recall if that was because they sold on a different day, or if they were not part of the sale. It's been too long since that day to recall.

EDIT 2: I've got the Armstrong sale pictures on my FLickr web site. If anyone (including Tom) wants to wade through all 112 of them, here is the Guest Pass Link which should allow you to do so.

Let me know if it works.



[This message has been edited by CanyonAg77 (edited 11/7/2013 9:23a).]