I am currently modelling an industry that requires incoming loads of paints and plastic pellets, I was wondering if anyone could either post a pic or point me in the direction of how the plastic pellets, and paint are unloaded from hoppers and tankcars into the silos that store them. I have pics of the silos themselves, and some of the pipes are there, just can't find anything about what is at trackside for unloading...Any help anyone??? I have a silo for each....and it is going to use the same spur track for unloading....just seperate hoses for each product.
Typically, commodities that are delivered in hoppers have a pit between the rails with a conveyor at the bottom. Sometimes there is a long pit with periodic bracing across or a series of them so that all bays of a car can be discharged at once.
The plastic pellet unloading can be whatever you want. On the prototype I work for we unload directly into buildings with their own unloading facilities with full piping and ladders and walkways. We have others that simply have a door that the employee comes out of, hooks up the pipe to the railcar and then plugs it into the nozzle on the building. And we have truck reloads. We also have an industry that has 2 tracks, one for tankcars of bleech, and one for plastics, the plastics is the outside track and the pipe simply runs under the inside track. The bleech is unloaded in the same way, a simple hose hooked up to a nozzle on the building, all the pumps and other devices are inside the building. I wonder about shipping paint by tankcar. I handle waste products from paint plants and the biggest concern for them is the heavier particles resting to the bottom of the tank. I wonder if that would make bulk paint shipments impractical. I know they ship paint componants by tankcar, but I've never heard of bulk paint. Not saying it don't happen but I see issues. Thanks the trouble with working on the prototype..... I can get you photos if you're so inclined. Joe
I knew there was a reason I posted here. Not only are we all model railroaders everyone of us has background in some aspect that any question about industry can be answered. For sure pics would be awesome, I could scratchbuild from them directly. Thank you so much. Maybe you could answer me some questions so I can make my industry that much more realistic. Are the pellets already in the color they will mold or are they one color and get dyed. Like for example red products require a load of red pellets, etc? Also ...I could bring paint in by boxcars, which would give me a reason to have a boxcar reloaded with the finished product after unloading paint. I appreciate all the help. This is a scratchbuild I know all the different components that go about making them....but each is a seperate industry on one spur track in itself. All that I can say is that after five years of talking about building it, I can finally say that I have made progress.
From what I understand it is kind of like when you get custom paint mixed. There are a few basic colors like clear, opaque white, etc., that you add color to. Here is a web site that sells the colors.
I shot a picture of a Cook Paint tankcar at the Midland Railroad (museum line) at Baldwin City, Kansas in 1994. CPVX 111 ICC Class 103 (TM) 4080 gal blt 1920 listed in the April 54 9i0Official Railway Equiptment Register[/i] This is going to be my first attempt to ATTACH a photo to Trainboard thread without uploading to Railimages, Let's see if it works... There is also a photo of Cook Paint & Varnish CPVX 115, ICC 103, 3947 gal, blt 1946 2 compartment tank in the book American Car & Foundry (Kaminski) p.100
There is a Frazee paint plant at MiraMar right down the street from me. They get in about 10 tankers full of titanium dioxide twice a week. Lots of pipes, and a very distinctive thump-a thump-a sound when they are pumping the paint over to the plant. The finished paint is trucked around, since the plant only services the local city. Titanium dioxide is made from coal up in Canada. When you buy paint, you get it in white (that's the titanium dioxide), then they mix in pigments at the store to suit. I'll try and post pics!
I have two examples of raw plastic, picked up along the tracks. One is a ball about an inch and a half across. The other one, well, it looks like dog doo. mg: Both are clear plastic, so that you can do anything you want with it...
Check out Cornerstone Check out the Cornerstone HO tank detail kit. I think they will be useful. The vertical storage tanks are 2 stories tall in N. Plumbing in the kit could be used as well.
