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

Saturday, October 29, 2016

Soap factory industrial railroad

I have added an industrial railroad to move products and materials from one building to another.  I also built a small push car using an Alexander Scale Models timber car on which I replaced the kit top with a platform.


You can see the push car on the track between the buildings.


Above you can see the track curving around the coal dump pit with the bucket hoist extending into the pit.  There is a railing around the pit for safety.


Above you can see the loading dock and ramp with some details on the platform.   The tank at the left  holds liquid component for the soap.


Above is a prototype example of an industrial railroad.


And here is another example with a more complicated track setup.


And here is a prototype example of a push car.

I am working on the last building in this complex as well as scenery and more details.








Friday, October 21, 2016

Soap factory power house

This power house will attach to the right side of the other buildings.  The walls are hydrocal cement block castings by C C Crow,   I added some interior details which are really hard to see when looking in the door and are invisible in this photo.  The stack is a commercial casting.  The coal bucket elevator on the right corner was made from card stock.  It feeds a coal bin on the inside.  There will be a hole in the layout under the hoist for a coal dump.


I still have more weathering to do but wanted to get this posted.


The window on this side has a "metal" plate covering it.  There is a ladder to the roof on this side.


The door on the left will have a ramp up to it and will connect to the loading dock being built for the previous building.


Above is a prototype bucket elevator I used as a guide in constructing my model.


Above is an example of a power house with the bucket hoist that I modeled.




Saturday, October 15, 2016

Soap factory building one & two progress

Buildings one & two of the soap factory are almost complete.  Building two is the larger, background building behind building one.  Building two is only 5/8 inch deep and 10 inches wide.  The left side of building one is plain so I will be adding details to it - maybe signs or ivy.


While you can see through the windows in these photos, the structures will be against the wall so that will change.


There will be a loading dock against the wall to the right for the large doors.  The open doorway at the right of building one will have a small industrial railway coming out of it and going to the right to a forth building.  To the right of the structure as you see it will be a power house - that will be building three.  I have placed a water tank and a stairway enclosure on the roof of building one - both scratch built.  I also put a pile of boxes next to the stair well structure. I elected to make the water tank open at the top, which is not typical but I am tired of seeing peaked water tower roofs.  Water tanks on building roofs are/were however quite common.


Above is a collage of roof top water tanks.


The photo above shows a wood water tank being constructed.

Still more detailing to be done on these structures.






Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Soap factory start

This is the first building of the soap factory partially completed - no roof and lots of details to be added.  I started with parts of a Design Preservation Models kit I had left over.  I replaced the windows and blanked off several.  The dark windows on the right of image 2 are "metal" plates which will have a vent installed.


I have decided to name this the Dopp Soap factory.  I wrestled with lots of names and came up with Dopp as that was the name of a soap machinery company in the 1920s.


The open door will have a small industrial railroad track coming out and going to the next building.  The next structure will be the power house.


Above is the original DPM wall - the door was cut out to the base.  The window mullions were cut out and replaced with more appropriate windows.  While I sold off most of my unused kits on Ebay, the DPM were so cheap it was not with the while to do that.