Most of the effort on this barrel conveyor was the research and design. When you buy a kit to build, all of that has been done for you to the best of the ability of the manufacturer. Then if they provide good instructions (not always the case) you just have to follow the instructions to build your model. When scratch building models such as this you are on your own with whatever prototype information you can find as well as some reasonable understanding of how machinery works. This conveyor model is based on information from a vintage engineering catalog. I posted photos several weeks ago of barrel conveyors and I used those photos as my guide and inspiration.
The conveyor is made from strip wood stained with my usual india ink and alcohol mixture. I made the chain tracks from a single strand of plastic window screen. The curved barrel supports on the tracks were made from cast metal passenger car roof beading for older style passenger cars. Unfortunately the second photo is not very clear. There is a short piece of the screen strip used for the chain tracks lying next to the conveyor. At least one model manufacturer makes a sprocket chain which they market for loco mechanisms but the cost is quite high.
I added a third photo above to show the sprocket chain (made from screen wire) better. I also added a barrel being held by the curved supports.
I did not model the gears and machinery at the upper end of the conveyor as that is inside the upper factory door and cannot be seen from the layout aisle. I used to model details that can not be seen but have given up doing that. Some of my structures do not have any detail on the side that cannot be seen.
My next work on the barrel factory will be to install it on the layout and detail the surroundings.
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