Farms and Railroads

Grey One Sep 2, 2021

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  1. Grey One

    Grey One TrainBoard Supporter

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    The Director of Land Management has decreed that there will be a farm on the 'Grey and Grandure'.
    Great! I'm thinking a 'generic' vignette Ok, I guess I'll need:
    • Silos
    • A barn
    • Fences
    • Livestock
    • Fields
    • Farm house
    What am I overlooking?
    Do or did railroads serve individual farms?
    Are there special cars for this?
     
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  2. freddy_fo

    freddy_fo TrainBoard Member

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    Stockyard and stock cars if you want to go that route. A windmill is a neat addition too.
     
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  3. mtntrainman

    mtntrainman TrainBoard Supporter

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    If the 'Director of Land Management' really wants a realistic farm feel...you could always buy a small bag of steer manure from a garden center and put a half cup of it in the silo...and let it permeate throughout the house. :whistle:


    :LOL::LOL::LOL::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::eek:
    .
     
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  4. mtntrainman

    mtntrainman TrainBoard Supporter

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  5. logging loco

    logging loco TrainBoard Supporter

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    I don't know what time frame you are modeling but here is my 2c.

    Depending on era, milk can loading platform, milk cans in wagon or a milk truck.
    Hay shocks or appropriate size shape bales.
    Large chicken coop, brood house, pig sty, summer kitchen, equipment shed with various implements in and around it, corn crib or grain bin.

    Here is a link for Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commision's Ag History Project, outbuilding types.

    http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/portal/communities/agriculture/field-guide/outbuilding-types.html

    Obviously not all of these structures would be on every farm but the photos could be used for kitbashing reference.

    Opening Landscape Elements in the right hand menu also has a lot of great info for modelers.

    If modeling a more modern dairy farm, a manure lagoon is a must.
     
    Last edited: Sep 2, 2021
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  6. Shortround

    Shortround TrainBoard Member

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    Don't forget the implements. Tractors, sickle, plow, combine and what ever else fits the era your land manager directs.
    Petty Coat Junction and Green Acres come to mind. I already had the airplane, tractor and automobiles before temp. retirement.
     
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  7. Grey One

    Grey One TrainBoard Supporter

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    @freddy_fo Thanks for the ideas. Yes, windmill Dairy cows I think.
    @mtntrainman 'steer manure', um, well, I did ask. She said, well, it is more what her eyes said.
    Thanks for the link. Nice company. I'll be making my fences / structures.
    Farmhouse may be made from shipping containers. Shhh, don't tell her. Our secrete, Ok?
    I don't know what time frame you are modeling but here is my 2c.
    @logging loco
    Great link! Thanks!
    Era: 1970ish through next decade.
    How do they move milk these days? By truck?
    Hay shocks or appropriate size shape bales.
    Great! Idea.
    Large chicken coop, brood house, Hmm, yes, if I can.
    Pig sty, I love ribs.
    Outdoor summer kitchen, Yes!
    Equipment shed with various implements in and around it, I should have room.
    Corn crib or grain bin, yes.
    Manure lagoon is a must. I'll have to look that up.
    @Shortround Petty Coat Junction and Green Acres, She agrees.
    At: Everyone! Thanks!
    So, yes, a lot of ideas. Worse, using 'scenery modules' I won't have an excuse not to use as much as possible.
    Sigh
     
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  8. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

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    There are some nice laser cut wood kits out there for barns etc. Some do include other farm buildings as part of those kits. Hard to picture a farm with a rail siding unless you do a stockyards with it or perhaps a poultry processing operation. When I built the new layout after the move the farmhouse became a structure on the edge of town near the port. Things like the chicken coop and windmill were retained. I actually have several old farmhouses in town where I live complete with a windmill.

    The barn was cut down along with a stockyards model and became the Weirs D. Beaf stockyards and auction house across the street from the farmhouse, It has a rail spur for loads of hay and straw and for shipping and receiving livestock.


    Since my modeled area is sheep country I modeled a ship pen complex outside of town on the West side across the creek. The herders camp wagons and some camp houses are shown here along with another windmill by Woodland Scenics.


    A meeting of herders is going on and a stock trailer is backed up to the chute to load.

    One of my farm modules from years ago.


    Another old module of the bunk houses for the hired hands.


    An on site feed grinding facility for the ranch/farm. This could have a rail service.


    And an old shot of a cut down stockyards with chutes for rail and truck service.


    So some ideas to mull around. There are also some plastic chicken coops around and used to pick them up at shows for a few $. And Ebay seems to have some stuff at fairly decent prices.

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/1746362484...OUw35&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-3729
     
  9. logging loco

    logging loco TrainBoard Supporter

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    Sometimes over the years a buildings use changes.

    The beautiful small stone house next-door has served at least four purposes in the past 200 years.

    It was originally built for the owner of my house, as a general store along the canal. There are also some documents suggesting it was also a small canal port for shipping items from Hopewell Furnace until a port closer to the furnace opened.

    It was used as an oyster house for storing oysters brought up the Schuylkill River and canal.

    Prior to being split up in the 1970's our property had become a poultry farm. The old general store was then used as a brood house.

    When the property was split up in the 1970's the old general store became a rental house. The current owner moved in as a tenant. She purchased the house years ago and has since turned it into a beautifully landscaped property.
     
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  10. Shortround

    Shortround TrainBoard Member

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    Farms and small villages would be included when I restart. I am the manager.
     
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  11. freddy_fo

    freddy_fo TrainBoard Member

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    N scale Architect makes a laser cut stockyard kit that I would build myself if I had room to place it on my layout:

    [​IMG]


    I have a leftover windmill from a woodland scenics kit that needs to be built and painted. The kit it came in was one of two where this one is a derelict version of the windmill I am using. If interested let me know. It's yours for the price of shipping as I won't be using it.

    I have a friend that modeled a trackside dairy in his layout and that building would be easy to model from just about any trackside building kit. This is a building from Bar Mills I'd get if I only had the room:

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Sep 2, 2021
  12. acptulsa

    acptulsa TrainBoard Member

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    No, a farm having its own siding isn't likely. Grain loading boxcars have mostly or completely given way to covered hoppers.
     
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  13. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

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    Do what I did when faced with the size of this model. Simply halve it. The remaining sections can be used elsewhere.
     
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  14. logging loco

    logging loco TrainBoard Supporter

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    Gray one, I'm trying to locate, but not having any luck. There is a website that has plans for old farm buildings of various types.

    I'll keep looking and let you know how I make out.
     
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  15. logging loco

    logging loco TrainBoard Supporter

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  16. Grey One

    Grey One TrainBoard Supporter

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    @logging loco WOW! Thank you! I'll be doing them up in carstock. I can pay this forward by offering the prints for the cost of postage.

    One way I will have room for all of my industry types is that in this version they will be mounted on reinforced cardstock.
    For Example I Might:
    Swap out my farm for an industrial area.
    Swap out my 'Mystrium Mine' for an archeological dig.
    The 'Mystrium Factory' will become a museum.
    Swap out my town for a modern city.

    After we move I'll see about how to proceed.
     
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  17. Shortround

    Shortround TrainBoard Member

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    Not available at this time; 7:50 Central. Will try again tomorrow. Maybe they will be open.
     
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  18. Grey One

    Grey One TrainBoard Supporter

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    @Shortliner13 Try a different subject on that list.
    I got through to most of them.

    Clarification: I am modeling everything from 1950ish through 2030ish.
     
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  19. BNSF FAN

    BNSF FAN TrainBoard Supporter

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    Here's a pic of the small farm on my layout

    20210905_080013.jpg
     
  20. acptulsa

    acptulsa TrainBoard Member

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    It looks nice on the corner.

    Farms are perfect because trains probably spend more time on the farm than anywhere else, at least while they're rolling. As with mile long trains and the routes themselves though, compression is necessary. But while railroads can be compressed and still look like railroads, compressed farms look like cow cities...

    Putting it on the corner is perfect because the imagination can fill in the dot dot dot right off the edge of the earth.
     
    Last edited: Sep 6, 2021
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