So I am knocking around Ideas for a clean coal power plant. I am referencing 4P "Pleasant Prairie Power Plant" Outside of Kenosha. This is the endline for my layout begining is Downtown Chi Town UP Station. So I have an area of 2.5' x 4'. I love detail so its going to be action packed. I am only going to make half of it. So one generator and a new clean coal scrubber system and stack :w20z6q:. Now can I mount strobe lights on the stack so airplanes dont hit them lol!!! So my question is who has done them and would love to see pictures. Included would be fiddle yard, coal pile yard, converys, stack, generators! I know its a lot but the hobby wouldnt be fun if it was accomplished in 10 years!
I am sorry maybe I asked the wrong question. I know what 4p is. Thank you for the aerial shot!. I have plent of pictures of 4p I was just wondering what everyone elses coal fire plants look like? So I can decide if I want little detail or lots of detail.
Just my thoughts... If you make a really detailed anything...it becomes the focal point of the layout. My thought...trains are the focal point. I would hate to have someone check out my railroad layout and we go out of the room to have a coffee or beer and I ask what he thought of my trains. He replies "Awesome power station...errrrr...what trains?" :tb-wacky: * Might as well have made a diorama with a few coal cars on a stick of flex track servicing this awesome Power Plant...JMO * :tb-wink:
This is what I’m going to model : My father in law works at Panther Creek Clean coal station (its waste coal actually, but that’s a topic for another day) I get all kinds of recon, planning on going to work with him one of these day for photo recon in plant. Anyway here is some detailed aerials http://binged.it/zxcJ0n . It’s pretty simple design, single generator, they get coal via RBMN railroad and truck. They offload coal via the dump gates onto a portable conveyers into large dump trucks for storage. For burning it has all the scrubber and coal wasting stuff. Sorry no modeling shots yet!
Well then my question is does it have to come close looking to P4 or can I just make one up myself. I mean seriously you are correct about too much and then its a diorama and not a railroad. I like that but does it need to be realistic or can I bend the rules a little bit. I am trying to make this prototypical but to be realistic it is tough to with a 2 shelf layout with 7 x 11 dimensions! I am braking it up. UP northbound Station, Western Ave Metra facility, deerfield station and now P4 power company. Too much?
IMHO...bend the rules a bit !! You can be 'proto-close' and get away with it. If there are a gazillion pipes, wires, etc. in the real plant...put a good handfull in ( compression ). Just because prtotypically "That pipe doesnt go there...it goes over there" IRL...who really is gonna notice on a layout ? Except maybe the guy who has worked there 35 years and knows every inch of the place...lol. A stack with clearance lights...now thats kewl ! Conveyors that actually end over a pile of coal...yup. The basics are good. Cluttered is well...overkill...or vice versa...just sayin.
Bing.com with birds eye view is amazing... You might have not wanted to show me that Smike lol! I think your PP will be amazing cause it is a nice size. This is going to get rediculious for me though!
Well the good thing is I know what I want. This kit is going to be a total kitbash. So far I am going to be using, Superior Papers Boiler house as the boiler lol!!!! ok then cornerstones wetern coal fillerupper..... you know it. It has a conveyer which will be used to pile coal. The concrete silo I can use for on site coal waste storage. I will need to make a enclosed conveyor from the pile to the boiler house. Indoor drive through for coal porters to dump. Then scrubbers which will be the North Shore refinery. I am going to take the lattice box and remove the smoke stack. It fits perfectly on the right roof side of the bolier house. That will be scrubber then a new concrete stack. Now nothing crazy right?
http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=qt8b2b8p9407&lvl=19.5&dir=345.04&sty=b&form=LMLTCC its not that big is it.... about the stobe lights... do you have any thoughts on that? do they make them that small? I was thinking drilling a small hole on all 4 sides 3 rows then have a large strobe inside the stack... would that work or not enough light to be coming out of these holes. Maybe 1/16" hole?
Not sure if the holes would give the right "effect"...hmmmmm. You can get nano leds and a strobe module. Glue them tiny leds right on the side of the stack...kewl !! Others can tell ya where online to get leds that will work great. :tb-cool:
JD kinda did the "less is more" with his refinery... http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?87641-ATSF-Line-Started/page395 post # 3948 :tb-wink:
Here's how I try to think of my industries: Without the industry (coal plant), there are just full and empty hoppers coming and going for no reason. With a little bit of the industry, you give the cars the reason to be going there. You're making a model of a railroad, not a model of a coal plant. Since you say space is limited on the layout, you might consider "indicating the presence of" a coal plant, rather than worry to much about building a coal plant model. You do want to model the place where the coal hoppers enter or deposit their loads. You may want to model the sidings where the empty cars sit and wait to be removed. If there is any waste product (slag?) you might want to model how that gets into empty cars. Keep the focus on the trains, the cars, the switching, and let the coal plant be a backdrop to the trains. If you do that, you'll have fun and you'll give viewers a clue about what's going on. I'm building a bookcase model railroad about the size of yours. I have a grain mill. I could model all 8 of the silos as well as the milling and processing operation, but I've only got three silos (and only the front halves, not the whole cylinder). Three is enough to indicate that its a mill. Any more and I wouldn't have room for the extra siding for the empty cars. The rest of the mill "continues on" in the imagination of the viewer.
I have to concur with those advising moderation. I'd say do a mock up / abstraction first using approximate sizes and shapes. Then see how it "feels". Just a suggestion.
Well the area where 4P will be is the return loop to the main to go back to the helix. Which I thought was great cause there is a loop of track that goes around coal power plants. I understand why it takes years to figure out the right layout. I have been crunching ideas now for almost a year. Finally figured out the main configuration but getting everything just right and pleasing seems to be difficult. I understand that this is going to be a busy layout with industry. No elevation or country side. The elevation effect I will have on it is Overhead bridges, coal pile, and a raised main line at deerfield station. I see it in my head and eveything is coming together, but 4P is amking me cross the line of what I want and what I need. I want to thank you all so much for placing your imput. It means a lot that there are still nice people in the world that go out of there way for strangers. smile: Well when I get a sketch of this I will post it.
Iron Penguin sells many different warning light systems for towers and smoke stacks. The lights include old incandescent style blinkers to modern multiple strobes. My first purchase from him was his slow blinker that I mounted in the Walthers Power Plant smoke stack.
