Deeply satisfying Minnesota corn spill has the world talking
It's been confirmed that a viral photo of corn-filled train tracks in Minnesota isn't fake.
The photo, apparently first shared to Twitter by Mike Parker on Jan. 5, quickly went viral around the country, carrying enough weight to land on the front page of Reddit and get coverage from national TV programs.
Parker never said where the photo was taken, so the hunt to find out if the image was current, much less real, took a couple of days before Star Tribune reporter Adam Belz located it in the Hennepin County suburb of Crystal.
The corn is perfectly spread between the tracks as far as the eyes can see, leading many to think the photo was fake. But no, it's real and strangely satisfying (to each their own).
How does that much corn fall out of a moving train?
A train engineer, who did not wish to be named, explained to Bring Me The News that the corn is hauled in grain hoppers, which are what an Average Joe probably calls a train car, like the one in the image to the right.
"Grain hoppers typically have 3-4 bays on them," the engineer said. "Product will empty out of those bays because the customers don’t properly close and latch the dump gate on that particular bay.
"It can even be barely open, but over time can rattle itself more open causing that bay to spill/empty. The whole car won’t empty, just the bay with the open door/gate."
The more you know, right?
