Varnish company warehouse

I have finally completed the varnish company warehouse.  It is a partial structure as the back fits against a wall and the previously built melt shop connects to the upper platform on the left.  There may be additional work done on all of these buildings as I assemble the complex on the layout.

On the right side is an elevator for raising and lowering supplies and products.  I made it fairly open for effect, which was one factor taking time.  The elevator platform is at the top of the shaft ready to receive it's load.  There is an electric motor on the opposite side at the level of the upper platform.

I placed some details under the stairs but they are very hard to see.  I think this will look a little more impressive when combined with the rest of the structures and perhaps some backdrop painting on the wall - I guess we will see.

D&RGW narrow gauge RR car dumper

The D&RGW narrow gauge railroad built a car dumper at Salida, Colorado in 1924 to transfer coal, ore and other bulk materials from the narrow gauge cars to standard gauge cars.  The dumper was furnished by the McMyler Interstate Company of Cleveland, Ohio.

These photos are from a 1924 railway magazine so they are a little grainy.  The narrow gauge was on the upper level with the standard gauge running underneath.  The loaded cars were on a gravity track with one load at a time dropped to the machine for dumping.  The operation required five workers.  The dumper could handle up to 20 cars per hour.

The above photo shows the dumper in action with the counter-weights part way up the towers.  

Above is a view of the upper, narrow gauge portion of the dumper.   I have no idea of how many years this machine was in operation.

Layout extension

Below is a photo of my completed layout expansion which at this point has no scenery, track or structures permanently installed.   The tunnel from the next room is center left above the brown support leg.  The tunnel exit temporarily comes through a hotel structure from my fathers layout (he used it for a similar purpose).  As you can see there are cabinets and shelves under this part of the layout.

My varnish company warehouse is coming along.

Varnish factory melt shop model

I have finally finished my varnish factory melt shop.  This is the most complicated of the structures in my varnish factory complex.  The brick walls of this structure were made using laser cut wood brick made by Monster Model and Laser Works.  The down side of using wood brick siding with my weathering technique of using water-thinned acrylic white paint over the painted red brick walls is warped walls.  It was of course corrected with bracing but still annoying.

The side on the right you cannot see is unfinished as it will go against a wall.  The stack is plastic - origin lost in the mists of time.  The platform will connect to a platform along the warehouse which will be a relief structure that will project out from this structure and of course be along the wall.  The furnaces for the melt shop are at the back of this structure under the stack.  The varnish mixture is "cooked" in large pots that sit on low wheeled carts.  The workers in these melt shops apparently wore white smocks so my figures that work in there also have white smocks.

The roof is slanted as was the prototype my model loosely follows, and additionally it breaks up the monotony of flat roofs.  The roof is slate made using the styrene slate shingle strips sold by Tichy Train Group.  I added a small skylight window on the roof to break up the monotony.  It is located over the furnace area.  The front area has a partial upper floor.

Above is a side view.  The nice thing about this laser cut wood brick siding is the texture.  The will be  additional details around the structure once it is placed on the layout.

Speaking of my layout, I have completed the basic framing on my layout extension.  It is an L shape 7' 10" by 10' with a small web at the joint of the L.   It is two feet wide.  I have not yet decided what the track plan will be on this but there will not be a lot of track.  This layout addition should provide real estate for a good number of structures, which is the point of it.  I do not operate my railroad - I just build and scenic which is the part I like.  I do run a train when visitors come but seldom any other time.

I had another large tree branch break off a tree at the back of my yard during a storm a few days ago.  The break was about 30 feet up in the tree so I used my chain saw to cut it of at about head height, then cut the part I removed into manageable chunks to move them out of the yard.  I guess the rest will eventually fall off.  Having trees is nice until they fall.  Two weeks ago another tree totally fell because the inside was rotted.  That chain saw really comes in handy.

Goodwin ballast dump car 1902

This Goodwin ballast dump car was built from steel and iron and could dump to either side, the center, or both sides at the same time.   The car was 35' 11" long over the end sills, and 8' 10" wide.   The height was 8'  6" high above the top of the rail.  The carrying capacity was 80,000 to 125,000 pounds with the load heaped.  They were sometimes turned to haul coal, ore or grain (with an optional adjustable steel cover).

Below is an end view diagram of the car.

This car would make a really neat model.

The varnish factory - the tanks

Varnish manufacturing has been around for a long time and the ingredients have varied over time and with different manufacturers, but the essential ingredients have mostly been a resin, an oil such as linseed oil and a thinner such as turpentine.  Those are the ingredients for my factory.  I have completed the linseed oil tanks.  My factory is inspired by a photo I found on the Internet (a source of a lot of what I build) but my interpretation with my model will be only similar.  This is in part because the photo is not very clear and also because I always like to make my own interpretation.

The structure is a wood covering for the tanks which are plastic tanks from a Walthers kit parts package.  The roof is covered with tar paper (painted paper strips).  Since the tanks are not actually attached to the wood structure I glued them to a thin card stock ground base which I painted and added real dirt and some weeds.  After I complete the other structures in the factory I will add some pipes connecting the tanks to the structure containing the melting room.  This is a simple structure but the design part always takes more time than the actual construction.

The next structure I will build will be the manufacturing facility which will contain the melting room where the resin and the linseed oil are heated and combined before thinning with the turpentine.  I may try to include some interior details but this will depend on the design.  The other structures in this complex will be a warehouse and a shed for products awaiting shipment as well as raw materials being received.