Dyeworks dye tanks

This platform with the tanks will sit to the left of the main dyeworks building previously shown and will be connected to the pipes on the left of that building.  The front of the concrete platform is trackside for loading the barrels of dye into railcars.  This dyeworks produces dyes for other industries and does not do any dye of materials on site.

The dye supply pipe connects to the tank selector console on the right side of the platform where the tank to receive the dye is selected by opening the appropriate valve, and the dye under pressure is fed into the top of the tank.  There is a valve at the front base of each tank with a hose that runs though the U shaped rack to a nozzle, which is in turn used to fill the barrels.  This is a tedious process but in my era of 1939 is what they had been using for many years.  The figure by the barrels is holding the nozzle from the center tank.  The figure back by the tanks is the platform boss who throws the lever on the tank valve to allow the dye to flow to he nozzle.  The figure holding the nozzle is a modified plastic fireman to which I added an old hat

The tanks are hydrocal castings and the barrels are plastic painted for a custom appearance.  The selector console is a hodgepodge of parts from my parts box, mostly styrene.  There is a platform behind the tanks with a ladder,  to get to the top of the tanks.

The most difficult part of this was coming up with a design that made any sense, as nowhere in my books could I find an example of what I wanted.  I designed it as an open air facility to show the pipes and devices for interest.  I considered building a roof structure but decided it would just make things hard to see.

Dyeworks building

Finally I have more or less finished the major dyeworks building.  I am still tinkering with it and will be adding more details including signs.  The basic building is brick using a variety of brick products including one side wall from an old Downtown Deco kit, one side wall from CC Crow, and the front wall from brick laser engraved wood by Monster Modelworks. The back which will never be seen is embossed cardstock brick from and old SS Ltd kit - I have an extensive collection of spare parts.  The upper story is wood.  All windows and doors are commercial parts from my collection of windows and doors.  The water tank is wood - the first tank I built for my tannery but found it to be too small, but it fits here.  The left side of the building has some piping (made from plastic sprues) that will be connected to a set of tanks yet to be completed.

The small wood shed on the right is an entrance to the building.  As usual this building bears little resemblance to my original rough sketch, which is why I don't spend time drawing plans.  

This took longer than I expected as I was doing work in the yard due to the unusually warm March weather.  The plants are blooming early and the weeds are rampant.

Dye works concept

I have done some research for my dye works and formed a concept.  I do not have the resources available that I had for the tannery project, but it is adequate for my purposes.  Local dye works thrived in the late 1800s and early 1900s but by the mid 1900's they were mostly eliminated by large chemical companies.  Prior to the late 1800s dyes were mostly made from natural products such as wood, roots, berries, leaves and bark.  Then the discovery of synthetic dyes became prevalent and essentially eliminated the market for natural dyes.  Since I model the 1939 era my dyeworks uses synthetic dyes, and thus is essentially a small chemical plant.  The use of synthetic dyes created a vastly wider array of colors for dyes.  Below is a photo showing a moderately large early natural dye works that apparently used wood to create their dye products.

In the photo you can see stacks of logs used in the dyeworks.  Since I have not yet found any suitable prototype dyeworks photos for my era I have extrapolated how it might look based on the typical elements found in small chemical plants.  My dyeworks only develops and sells the dyes.  Many of the dyeworks both made the dyes and did the dyeing of cloth.

Different types of cloth require different dye material.  Some examples are silks, cotton, wool, etc.  each has their own properties. The dyes are essentially colors in a solution and require chemicals called mordants to enable them to adhere to the cloth.  Some examples of mordants are tannic acid (from bark for example), sodium chloride and a variety of metal salts.

I made a few rough sketches of structures for my dyeworks and am well along on the first building.  I plan to have a number of external tanks in my dyeworks to add visual interest though most dye tanks would likely be located within the structures.  There will of course also be lots of piping.  I hope to have this first building complete in a few days.  I am not aware of this industry having been previously modeled though it may well have been and I just never saw the models.

Tannery scene

Well, I have the tannery in-place and sceniced.  Will probably do more detailing over time.  For me nothing is ever finished.  Since the tannery sits on the outside corner of my layout it is hard to photograph without getting an aisle.  When you look at something like this in person the eye filters out things that are not part of the layout.  The camera is not that accommodating.

If I get any better photos or different angles I will post them but time to move on to the next project.