Oh yes, we have many good times building these modules. There are more people around this country building US layouts than you might think. The only thing we miss in the club layout is a bakery. Well, I have one at my layout at home, but we have no bakery on a module.....
Living in the the flatlands here in E.Central Ill. Grain elevators are often what define a community. There are a few towns in this area alone where that is all that remains of the town. All but a few around here are shipping only facilites. Just remember when building one that you include the area for farmers to dump the grain also. Know it sounds basic, but have seen them built with know grain drops at all. One more thing to keep in mind, most elevators at this time of year( at least around here) can not get enough railcars, or have the time to get it all shipped out. Because of this it is not at all uncommon to see grain stored "on the ground". This is a very common sight around here during harvest."On the ground" storage usually involves a concrete pad and/or maybe a 5'-10' ft.high storage band(bottom of a grain bin) an auger and plenty of tarps to cover the grain Just a few ideas
That is exactly what I need to see! Great! maybe I will get back to my incomplete elevator. Gary: Is your elevator one of those Aussie types? I used to ride the train past one of those old time facilities west of Central station a few km. Your model is great. :thumbs_up:
Thanks Dave and Flash. No Flash, it's modelled after a feedmill in Tifton GA. I saw it from I75 when heading to FL from TN some years back and just had to have a closer look. There's a multi hopper truck loading bin that sits in (image) front of the main building and a couple of storage bins to the left. Also, there's a pre-fab equipment shed (the scratchbuild example used in an earlier thread) that also sits to the left beside the storage bins. Behind the building is the two-track covered unloading area. It does take up a sizeable area. I may drag all the parts out for a full sized photo one day. I started this model in '98 whilst working in HK. It was used as an example at the National N Scale Convention in '99 to highlight roof details so was partially painted. There's still a load of piping, railings and ladders to be placed on it. The only commercial parts used so far, as seen in the image above, are the RIX rotary distributor on the right-hand tall elevator, the doors to the right (Grandt Line) and the corrugated iron roof on the left side. One of the grain bins is a Rix corrugated bin, the other the PVC pipe job.
I spent my summers as a youth on my grandfathers farm helping with wheat harvest. I recall going to a small elevator in town, there was a small office/store/scale house to weigh the truck in before unloading and an employee would take a sample of the grain and test for moisture content, then after unloading the truck was weighed again to determine the weight of the laod. Some how the moisture contet was factoredin and the volume of grain sold in bushels was determined and a reciept given. If the truck had a lift we would dump it that way, if not the elevator had a lift built in and would actualy raise the front of the truck and empty the grain out the back. Very cool Dont forget plenty of safety signs, "No SMOKING" "EXPLOSIVE" Grain dust is very flamable and grain elevators would occasionaly explode. My most recent and most straight forward scratch building project was a small scale house similar in flavor to the one I recall. We also purchased small products there, dog food, water softner salt and other "Purina" products from their little warehouse. So this facility would ship grain and recieve ag products by rail.
Gary, excellent work as usual. How far along are you now? Can you post more pix? Here is another example of a modern PVC-pipe grain handling facility in HO scale: CLICK HERE It is a "Flood Loader" and is used to load unit grain trains quickly. There is usually a loop track around the facility. A unit train would require a locomotive, most likely painted in the livery of the company that owns the facility. I'm sure that a Trackmobile wouldn't be able to move more than about 15-20 loaded cars, if that.
PVC and Styrene. Actually, I used a "for sale" sign bought at Home Deopt instead of model styrene. Much cheaper and larger in size so the only limit is your imagination. Brian
Sorry Dee, no further photos of the feedmill at present. It is packed up until the remnants of the old layout are disassembled and the new begins. But I do have two images of parts of it; The office and amenities interior - and the equipment shed -
Some of the smaller grain handling facilities were multi use operations and also were fertilizer dealers and applicators as well as feed grinders and suppliers. So you would see tank cars with phosphate furtilizers and covered hoppers with potash coming in as well as grain cars going out. We still have a few of those in our area. The larger facilites are considered terminals and handle millions of bushels of grain. With ethanol plants popping up all over it has created a new market and competition in our area for grain. The ethanol plants are something to behold. Maybe I will take a few shots of the being built in the area where I work.
I find these kitbashing/scratchbuilding threads to be fascinating. Unfortunately, most of them intimidate me. I am gradually taking on some minor projects; however, I don't expect to ever put in the detail that will make my structures challenge some the beauties in this thread. I did attempt to make a grain elevator and support buildings by combining a Walthers' Superior Paper building and some Micro Engineering buildings. I added a truck unloading extention on the opposite side of the building.
Nice, very nice! And don't let you get intimidated. Start with simple projects, and remember: a building is nothing more than 4 walls with a roof. :tb-biggrin:
Well done everyone. I discovered that very interesting thread yesterday because I wanted to build some small low relief malt silos for my micro-layout: http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=100582 My 1st idea was to use PVC pipes ( as suggested by the majority of the members that replied to this thread ). I built some silos mockup out of a cardboard cylinder from a roll of paper towels. My wife saw it and saved for me the ( strong and better ) cardboard cylinder from a roll of Saran Wrap. So I feel kind of obliged to first try using that cardboard material. Will it work if I coated those cardboard tubes with a thin layer of spackling compound ? Any advice, suggestion is welcome. Jacques
The SP boxcar is a Model Die Casting (Roundhouse) car...(now owned by Athearn). Just for fun here are some pictures of some Micro-Machines helicopters to which I added N-scale pilots. The one in the cockpit I had to remove his feet to make him fit, but who can tell?
I have several of them (undecorated) and I had to custom paint and decal in SP Hydra Cushion scheme, I just couldn't find any RTR :tb-ooh:
Chaya, I agree. I spent many hours on my hands and knees with a dustbuster looking for dropped parts when I was building that thing. I really felt I had accomplished something when I finished that model. An incredible number of tiny parts!
