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This blog presents my thoughts, information and activities in my model railroading world.

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Warehouse handling equipment factory start

I have started the warehouse handling equipment factory and have mostly finished the basic structure, but there is more to do including details, weathering, a roof top structure, loading docks, and of course the exterior tramrail.  I like to update this blog at least every our or five days to keep it fresh.


I am building this structure using mostly styrene.  The walls are commercial styrene scribed siding and the trim is styrene.  I  first painted that siding using Scalecoat II gray which resulted in a somewhat glossy, slow drying covering.  I was very disappointed - I really miss Floquil paints.  I then covered that with a light coat of light gray acrylic craft paint which gave a better flat finish.  As a result, I painted the styrene trim strips only with the craft paint which adhered nicely.  The windows are commercial plastic Pikestaff products.  The three doors on the long side are old cast metal freight car doors and are intended to be the means of inserting manufacturing materials into the factory via the tramrail.  The block base is a cardstock product made by Micro Mark and glued to a wood backing.

The initial design was a tedious task as I redrew my sketches three times before I was satisfied with the approach.  It may not look like much at this point  but hopefully will flesh out as I proceed.

Tram rails were used in many industries in a wide variety of configurations.  Below is a photo of a tram rail being used in a timber yard - slowly replacing the elephants which were previously the main means of moving the timber.  I thought this would add a little humor.


I will now proceed with this factory....  but no elephants.


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