Dyeworks installed

The dye works is now installed.  It is located to the right of the brickworks I described long ago.

The piping on the main dye works structure is now connected to the various tanks.  I modified the piping to suit the final configuration.  You can see a little of the repair shop behind the tank platform.

I have named the dyeworks for Roger Sekera, a friend.  There is an empty, rusted barrel lying in front of the building next to the track (there are several others lying around).  I made the barrels from a soda straw which I painted a rust color, cut it to length, and glued a paper circle from a paper punch for the bottom.  A cheap and easy way to make hollow barrels.  I made about 16 of them so I have more to use in other locations.

In this view you can see the elevated walkway between the buildings.  There is a small stairway down to the roof at the left end of the walkway.  

Now I have to decide what my next construction project will be.  Meanwhile there is a lot of touch-up scenery work to be done on the layout.   

Modeling wrapped machinery

I had three plastic (acrylic?) console keys from a very old 1970's Honeywell mainframe computer sitting on a shelf with various mementos of my prior working years.  As I am slowly eliminating my accumulated stuff I almost decided to toss them in the trash, then while looking at them upside down they looked about right for an HO machine - but very plain.  I decided they might be interesting as a tarp wrapped load so I added a few crude details to provide "bumps" under the tarp then took a section of facial tissue and draped it over the plastic key.  I then wet the tissue to get it to lie flat against the key.  After it was dry, I dabbed it with Floquil white.  When that was dry I added various tints to get some shading.  I tied a piece of thread around each of the wrapped machines. Each "key" is painted slightly differently since this was an experiment.

Above are the console keys with some crude details added.

Above are the finished covered machinery models with an HO figure to give an idea of size.   These things were very simple and had about zero cost.  I think they look OK.

Tour of Freight Car America

Another industry tour in Roanoke two weeks ago was to Freight Car America.  Their facility is located in what were previously shops of the Norfolk Southern railroad (and before that the Norfolk & Western).  The buildings are of various age including some about 100 years old.  The facility itself is quite modern and produces mostly hopper cars, mostly for the Norfolk Southern, but also other companies.  The photo below is one of their Trackmobiles which they use to move the cars and materials around the facility.

Above is a partially completed hopper awaiting the car sides.  Most car components are manufactured on site though some parts are obtained from other sources.  

Above is a very old roundhouse now used for storage.  There is a turntable on the other side.  

Above is a completed hopper car.  JAIX is the Freight Car America leasing company reporting marks.  A good number of the cars they build are aluminum cars.

This was a really nice tour and quite informative.  

Dyeworks repair shop structure

This is the last of the dyeworks structures.  It will be located behind the dye tanks platform.  It is a wood structure with lots of details - something I really like doing.

The structure is built on a styrene base simulating concrete.  The roof shingles are the ever popular campbell shingles.  The shelving under the open area is again made from cardstock with bits of junk.  Since all elements of this structure are from my parts and junk boxes my cost was nothing to make this, but lots of enjoyment.

Next I will prepare the location for installing the structures, connect the piping and create the elevated walkway between the first two structures.   To be continued.  This complex will sit to the right of the brickworks which was the first modeling I displayed on this blog.  

Dyeworks repair shop interior

I made this photo of the dyeworks repair shop interior before putting on the roof as I doubt there will be enough light later to see what is inside, though I hope it will be visible to some extent.  In any event I like doing interiors.  There is an open repair area beside the shop that has a roof and will have a lot of details also.

The interior details here are a mix of commercial castings and scratch built items plus some pure junk.  The building itself is a few days away from being complete.  I will likely place some truck model inside the shop at a later date.  I have a lot of unbuilt Jordan vehicles to use as a basis.

I am not sure what I will work on after the dyeworks is complete but there is a lot of scenery detail to complete on the layout even though it has an overall finish.  I also need to finish installing the stationary decoders to throw my switch machines - something I have been procrastinating doing as I find electrical work boring.  At least all of the switch machines are installed, mostly tortoises.  Model railroading is fun - mostly.

Roanoke Virginia Trip

I took a trip to Roanoke Virginia last week for industry tours with the Railroad Industry Modeling SIG (formerly the Railroad Industry SIG I started 21 years ago and have now retired from it's leadership and turned that over to others).  There were a lot of nice tours and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  Our first tour was the Yokohama tire plant where they explained the way tires are constructed - very complex with many layers of rubber (mostly synthetic), steel, and other elements.  After the detailed briefing we toured the plant and saw the tire manufacture process from start to finish.  Our first stop was the rail siding where they received hoppers of carbon black.  We continued through each phase ending with the final vulcanization of the completed tire.  A very informative and interesting tour.  No photos were permitted on that tour.

Our next tour was at Old Virginia Brick where they use old style wood molds to shape the bricks as specified by the customer.  The clay bricks are fired in modern kilns.  By producing brick this way they create bricks that look hundreds of years old for a unique look, and for repair of very old historic structures.    Old Virginia Brick allowed photos so below are a few that I took.

Above is an example of one of the wood brick molds.

This photo shows stacks of bricks on pallets outside the warehouse.

Stacks of brick inside the kiln.

This warehouse inside view shows some of the cart tracks embedded in the concrete floor.  There were actually several gauges of cart tracks which was interesting. 

Those of you who have followed or viewed this blog may recall that early on I showed the construction of my brick works.  While my model was highly condensed due to lack of space, there were some similarities, including that Old Virginia Brick's clay pit is up on a hill a short distance from the plant.  They use trucks to bring in the clay.  

There were many other industries we visited and I will probably present more information on these tours at a later date.  Meanwhile I am back at work on the next and last dyeworks structure which is moving slowly since I am putting interior details inside - I hope these are some what visible when the structure is complete, but they are fun to do.