An employee of Sioux City Inspection walks on top of the train, inspecting each rail car before it’s loaded with grain at Hills New Vision Co-op Thursday. By Jolene FarleyEmployees at New Vision Co-op, Hills, loaded their first 108 railroad car corn train Thursday.Before the addition of new rail and upgraded equipment, the facility north of Hills could load only 54 rail cars. "We added 75,000 feet of rail and we upgraded the complete loading system from 30,000 bushels per hour to 80,000 bushels per hour," said Hills New Vision Coop Manager Mick Thon. New Vision Coop, Worthington, purchased the elevator from Cargill in September and started construction late in the fall. The work was completed by February.New equipment upgrades include an 80,000-bushel-per-hour bulk load out scale designed to accommodate anticipated growth. The new system allows the facility to load a 110 rail car train in the time it used to take to load a 54 rail car train."It enables us to load a shuttle train (110 cars) in 15 hours," he said. "With our old system, we couldn’t have loaded in 15 hours." The new track and grain handling equipment performed at designed capacity during the test run Thursday, according to Thon. Recent grain demand by China has improved markets for elevators served by the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe Railroad, according to Thon.The ability to transport more grain at once has decreased freight costs and made new markets accessible for the Hills facility. The new markets and decreased freight costs have improved farm prices by six to seven cents per bushel for area grain producers, according to Thon.The New Vision Co-op Board of Directors visited the facility Thursday to watch employees load the first train.
