Help with buildings for model railroad planning 2005 layout

Hi everyone, I just received the 2005 model railroad planning and I'm really interested in the "compact layout #1" on page 50. I'm just getting back in to the hobby, and want to get a small layout up and running while I start the "big" layout.

My problem is that I'm not yet ready to scratchbuild, but I can't find industries that match the size limitations and freight types on the plan. Can someone please give suggestions?

The buildings recommended in the magazine are:

  1. Food processing plant background building - for both reefer and tank car traffic. This is a "background" building, so no more than
1/2" wide (can be up to 2 1/2 feet long). This building also includes some "storage" tanks for the tank car traffic. Size of tanks is probably at most 1"

NOTE: for this building, if needed I could add another 1" to the back of the layout to make this one larger.

  1. Overhead crane with scrap yard for gondola traffic. Overhead crane should only be wide enough for 1 track underneath. Scrap yard I can probably kludge something myself (but let me know if you have ideas!)

  1. Freight house - for boxcars. 2" by 18"

  2. Gravel silos - for hoppers, approx 1 foot by up to 3 inches

Can anyone suggest what prebuilt kits they would use (possibly with some minor modifications) for this project?

Thanks! Scott

Reply to
Scott
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"Scott" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Several thoughts: o Even if you follow the track plan exactly, you do not have to adhere to the exact industry types and structures to make a railroad that will operate like the one in the article. You can follow the concepts - a few different inductries, generating different types of traffic for different types of cars and operate the same way as described. o You will not find factory assembled buildings of these exact industries and sizes. You will need to compromise to accept other size and type structures if you do not want or build or modify (kitbash) stucture kits. o Don't be afraid to kitbash stuctures to suit your needs. For a layout like that described, with shallow foreground buildins and flat background buildings, it is very easy to find a building and assemble its front and back and 2 side walls in one long row as a background flat, or to connest the front and back and one side as a row and cut the other end in half to make a 3-sided shallow structure. (Note there is very little reason to have a rear wall on the freight house shown in the plan.) o The typical spacing for parallel HO tracks is 2". It can be a little narrower on stright or very wide curves (see the recommended practices at

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but in my experience ib better a bit wider on a switching layout, since there will always be a need to get fingers down between the cars on the tracks to re-rail derailments, etc. You also will want at least

1 1/2" from the front layout edge to the first track as protection to keep cars from getting bumped and falling to the floor. At the left end of the layout, this will limmit the space for loading docks for the box cars and reefers at the freight house and food plant. You may therefore want to look for structures with several loading doors spaced at intervals to match the doors of a string of copled box cars or reefers. The Walthers Miranda's Bananas (933-3080) and freight transfer background building (933-3173) have this feature (and you could lave off the loading docks on the buildings if you need to. o The Walthers Goldenflame fuel Co. (933-3087) could serve equally well as tripple gravel silos with just different lettering. o The scrap yard crane illustrated is much more typical of a maritime facility than a scrap yard. In my experience, it would be much more common to see an overhead travelling crane like the Walthers 933-3102. It would be very easy to place the elevated parallel rails closer together, to leave off the diagonal supports on the rear rail and put it against the backdrop, and to shorten the traveling bridge to suit your available space. If you really want the kind illustrated, look at the Walthers 933-3067. o By the way, I'm not paid by Walthers - I just think they have a good selection of kits that are not too hard to assemble into good looking structures. If you don't have their catalog, I'd recommend getting one as a very useful tool in selecting appropriate structures. o Hope this all helps. Have fun and be creative. Gary Q
Reply to
Geezer

Just some ideas -- of course, there are always others...

Imperial Food Products Walthers Part # 933-3184

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Container Terminal - Standard Kit Walthers Part # 933-3174,

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Commissary/Freight Transfer Building - [3-1/4" deep] Walthers Part # 933-3173

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Reply to
Mark Mathu

Jeepers- sorry for the bad spelling - MS OE said spellchecker ran, but obviously it didn't.

One more thought. Consider the era. This track plan emphasizes high traffic density in a small space, and depends on the use of 40' cars to squeeze lots on cars on the limited sidings. 40' box cars and reefers were disappearing by the 1960's. What period do you like? What period do you want to model when you do your big RR? IF you like modern RRs, you may prefer to adjust the track plan scenery to support the use of more modern 55' box cars and mechanical reefers / insulated box cars. Period will also affect your choice of buildings. If you look at a 2005 industrial area, you will usually see some metal sided "Butler" buildings. If you want a 1940's feel, industrial buildings will more often be brick, or perhaps concrete skeleton with brick wall panels. It is true that older building do survive in use, but most businesses try to avoid the overhead costs of old, no-longer efficient buildings. Gary Q

Reply to
Geezer

Scott,

Instead of the, "Overhead crane with scrap yard for gondola traffic," you might want to consider a 'Team Track' with an overhead crane. It allows for a wider assortment of load, and car types, than just gondolas for a scrap yard.

Walthers has a kit (#933-3166) that includes a concrete end-of-track ramp, medium-duty overhead gantry crane, a trackside wooden loading/unloading ramp, hopper unloader & conveyor, and a clerk's office. You can define your era by the types of vehicles, loads, etc., you place around the 'Team Track'. If Walthers should be out of stock, do a 'Google' search using "3166 Team Track" and you'll find lots of places that still have it. Usually at a discount from Walthers' MSRP.

Also, the individual pieces to put together a 'Team Track' scene are available from several sources. So you could put together a similar, but unique, scene yourself.

Len Head Rust Scraper KL&B Eastern Lines RR Museum

Reply to
Len

Aw, scratchbuilding isn't hard to do nor is it expensive. Start by going down to the stationary store and getting some of the cardstock in the about 2x3 foot size and you will have a huge supply of material to do basic buildings. After you get used to making the boxes and so forth of buildings, you can then advance to the plastic material and then to making things like bricks from that stock. In all of the above, first learn to build the buildings so they are basically all there and then start putting details on them. Once you have the basics down, the details become quite easy in most respects.

-- Why isn't there an Ozone Hole at the NORTH Pole?

Reply to
Bob May

"> Also, the individual pieces to put together a 'Team Track' scene

Yep, team tracks give you lots of leeway to load and unload just about anything. The local furniture company comes down to pick up their "less than car load" order of freight.................... In steam days lot's of lumber was shipped in boxcars........... Hey it's your railroad!

John

Reply to
John Franklin

scene

a

unload just

up their

steam days

railroad!

They also lend themselves to special occasion loads. E.g., a reefer full of ice cream for the 4th of July picnic, a flatcar load of Christmas trees for the Boy Scout lot just before Christmas, a boxcar full of roses for Valentines Day, etc., etc..

Len Head Rust Scraper KL&B Eastern Lines RR Museum

Reply to
Len

There's a nice article on beginning scratchbuilding in the November 2004 issue of Model Railroader, coincidentally also on page 50. The building doesn't really suit the layout depicted, but it seems like an easy way to begin.

The only suggestion I have is to buy good quality track, and preferably code 83 or less. Peco code 75 would match that used by the author, but the new Peco code 83 is very nice indeed.

If you do a good job you could incorporate this layout as an industrial district in a larger layout.

Cheers,

Colin

Reply to
Colin 't Hart

The code 75 track is a generalized British/European/US design or style while the code 83 track is intended to match US track design. From a European modelling perspective the Code 83 is too American, particularly the turnouts. I imagine the reverse holds for US modellers?

Regards, Greg.P.

Reply to
Greg.P.

Dear folks,

Here are a few ideas I had --

  1. Overhead crane and scrap yard

You don't see many overhead cranes in scrap yards; they use mobile cranes, and depending how rich the yard is these may be bought new or rescued from their own inventory. Get a bunch of hydraulic excavators at the toy store and rust them up a lot. These can be fitted with homemade claws or magnets. Use any old odds and ends of junk to make the scrap yard, and paint it all nice and rusty. Use piles of pencil shavings, painted rust color, for shredded scrap, straws and coffee stirrers for old pipe, crushed up toy cars (please don't crush your old Hot Wheels -- stupid, stupid me in the years before E bay...) An old toy-store trailer with doors and maybe a window from old kits, and maybe a Coke machine in front, makes your office, and don't forget to build a simple scale for weighing incoming scrap. Take a look at your local scrap yard for ideas.

  1. Freight house - for boxcars. 2" by 18"

The most basic freight house is a boxcar itself, fitted with a platform. The platform can be sawed from plywood, then covered with a cardboard deck and side walls.

  1. Gravel silos - for hoppers, approx 1 foot by up to 3 inches

Why not just pile the gravel on the ground? This is how you usually see it at the pits. This is another good place for some cheap toy store front-end loaders and dump trucks. You can cut a pit under the tracks, remove a few ties, and cobble together a conveyor out of scraps.

You can always replace these simple industries with something more permanent, should your railroad help them reach new heights of prosperity.

Cordially yours, Gerard Pawlowski

Reply to
pawlowsk002

... instead mold aluminum foil around HO car bodies, carefully burnish it down, perhaps even delicately cut out windows, then carefully remove the foild auto bodies and paint and "wreck" them.

Reply to
Steve Caple

Everyone, thanks for the wonderful ideas. I'm going to give this a try, I'll post pictures as I make some progress.

Thanks! Scott

Reply to
Scott

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