During the summer and fall, it stays for only a short time, as it is usually transferred quickly to box cars for shipment to the coast. At the end of the shipping season, when storage bins in other cities have been filled with wheat passing through Buffalo, the elevators in Buffalo then fill up with the purpose of keeping the grain for a longer time. Extra storage space for the winter months is obtained by keeping the grain boats full and tying them up alongside the dock, withdrawing the load as it is needed. When grain is taken out of the mammoth bins, it is dropped from the bottom of the bin onto a huge scale and then elevated again to the top of the bins. From the top, it is dropped by gravity through long tubes into waiting barges and box cars.
Large elevators can load more than one box car at a time.
One elevator, for instance, has four spouts or outgoing legs which can load six 2,000 bushel box cars an hour. At first, bins were built of wood and usually lined with iron. After 1890 steel bins were built in a number of different arrangements. Since that time reinforced concrete has been used. Round bins were the most common shape though some were rectangular or shaped like a four-pointed star.