Hello, Im curious if there is a company which models a modern loading dock for box cars. An example of one is included with Walthers Cornerstone "Buds Trucking Co." - 933-3192. I haven't seen these sold seperately and would look great on my model warehouse.
Would these be difficult to scratchbuild you think? I have so-so skills.
Make it even easier on yourself - get some Pikestuff freight doors (you can see they already have the deep frame, add a lip at the bottom (get some Plastruct or Everygreen angle, paint it brown/black, and bang, you have a door looking like 90% of all modern era building boxcar loading doors.
You can vary the door types (but keep within the 'Garage Door roll-up' style), and the deepness of the frame, and the bottom step (I saw one company with a small poured concrete block, a few inches deep and as wide as the door - folding metal plates are also common), and I think you can handle it easily if you can make straight cuts in the building walls, so the doors are straight - remember these are modern in-use steel or concrete/brick buildings, not abandoned 1890 wood grist mills.
I'm gonna add this link from Port Newark (NJ), because not only does it include doors very similar to the Pikestuff ones above, but they open onto a honest to goodness concrete loading dock - which isn't all that common nowadays, at least for railserved facilities around these parts.
Go to Walthers web site and search on loading dock (there are more than 9 pages of listings)
Co-owner of the proposed CT River Valley RR (HO scale) http://home.comcast.net/~docinct/CTRiverValleyRR/
Chutton01 - Thanks for the tips. I'll give that a try!
Doc in CT - Walthers only has 1 page for "loading dock" in HO scale. None of the options are what I was really looking for. Thanks for the reply though!
You can plop concrete several hundred feet and make it high enough to handle string of boxcars of whatever length.
You can run the boxcar (Or a string) inside a building and load it off the internal dock that will be just high enough for the boxcar floor.
You can space expanding rubber gaskets at each dock and uncouple and place the boxcar door precisely at each one until one or all are placed and nothing gets moved until it's loaded or unloaded.
You can run up to the boxcar, plop a plate of steel, wood or whatever from ground to bottom of floor and roll stuff on or off like a team track.
You can stop under a bridge and swing something down to the boxcar door. Or park the boxcar next to a embankment and drop a plate between boxcar and hill/vehicle or whatever.
Strings of boxcars on tracks next to each other get plates between doors. They all together become one giant storage area.
Once in a while that interesting steel walled room in the plant is actually a boxcar spotted in a extreme confined space and you walk through it without realizing it as happened to me once. Im thinking hm. Steel walls like a freezer? In a newspaper plant? that was when the light bulb came on.
I use walthers modular docks Ive learned to glue a row and then add a second row to accomodate high cube boxcars without trouble. Just need to fill in the gaps and such.
good luck
Last ChanceYou can stop under a bridge and swing something down to the boxcar door. Or park the boxcar next to a embankment and drop a plate between boxcar and hill/vehicle or whatever.
DM&IR Hello, Im curious if there is a company which models a modern loading dock for box cars. An example of one is included with Walthers Cornerstone "Buds Trucking Co." - 933-3192. I haven't seen these sold seperately and would look great on my model warehouse. Would these be difficult to scratchbuild you think? I have so-so skills.
I scratch built this loading dock from strip plastic. The sides were constructed from .188 x.250 strip plastic with either .060 or .040 sheet plastic on the surface. Since these photos were taken, I have removed the Peco code 83 track and am presently weathering Micro Engineering code 70 for these areas. There are three tracks that run between the two buildings. One side of the warehouse has a concrete loading dock and the other has no loading dock. The buildings are joined by an enclosed breezeway that can be seen at the far end of the photo. These structures represent the Archive Americas and Seaboard Warehouse that currently exist in Miami, FL.
The other is the truck loading dock that contains the weather seal that encloses the truck trailer rear door. The skirting is necessary to make tighter seal between the trailer and dock. This assists in keeping loading and unloading operations dryer and cleaner. I have never seen these used with railroad cars although some of the Walther's warehousing kits show them used with railcars.
DM&IR if you do an advanced search (HO Structures Loading Dock) you miss a number of possiblities.
Doc
Im happy with those truck docks. Now drop a bit of busted pallet, a strip of banding and a large mop sweep of dust or whatever to the bottom at either corner of the dock platform. Bash in one of the rubber trailer stops a little bit. Scrooch some tire marks about... 2 to 8 feet in FRONT of the dock itself to reflect trailer brakes not fully releasing from time to time and that particular wheel marks has to be precise because most drivers aim for that left side of thier trailer to meet the dock there.
Make a yellow line along the driver's side about ... 30 feet out from the dock precisely matching the wheels left outside set of the trailer and centering the whole trailer at the dock itself. That is what most modern semis use to guide or aim thier trailers at the dock in bad weather.
Railroad car boxcar building docks DID indeed use Inflatable gaskets similar to truck trailer. You only found this in temp controlled facilities and those with sensitive inventory subject to shrinkage or theft.
If yer REALLY gunning for realizm, put a trash barrel to the right or between every two docks with a big broom leaning on it. And put a led equippted swing light on the LEFT of the dock about... 5 feet exactly off the floor but still folds or angles enough to allow forklifts to get out.
And finally every truck trailer dock gets a green flashing on the left side for those docks empty and ready to recieve trailers or for those with drivers already behind the wheel recieving papers from dock boss ready to depart. Steady red means that the trailer is LOCKED to the building. A lock is easy, just a 35 degree angle underneath the rear of the trailer's ICC Decapitation bar.
Sometimes trailers are required (53') to be unhitched and tractor rolled forward just enough to take the 5th wheel out from under and a large vertical jack installed near the kingpin of trailer at the plate. Most of the time wheels are required to be all the way back prior to docking. (Ugh...)
Oh one other thing.
A roll on roll off dumpster always takes the space of ONE dock way on the end OPPOSITE that of the shipping and recieving doorway (with a picknick table).
Most places had NOTHING of these kinds of conveiences and some even had you go below the earth itself.... manuvering between limestone columns 100-300 feet under the ground in entire cities run by the Govt.
Oh, one last thing. Any truck dock made for a box truck CANNOT fit a semi trailer. Any old facility capable of taking 40 foot trailers and smaller and boxcars cannot take 53' trailers.
MOST grocery warehouses had docks that put all trucks and thier mirriors inside each other and trailers just about rubbing. If done gently.
Finally my very favorite.
The more valuable the product. (Read desireable and expensive...) the greater the lack of signage about the building in which the product is warehoused. I recall hauling medicines worth two million dollars on 4 pallets (Pick up truck anyone?) into a place and only then did I learn which building to back into.
Last Chance Im happy with those truck docks. Now drop a bit of busted pallet, a strip of banding and a large mop sweep of dust or whatever to the bottom at either corner of the dock platform. Bash in one of the rubber trailer stops a little bit. Scrooch some tire marks about... 2 to 8 feet in FRONT of the dock itself to reflect trailer brakes not fully releasing from time to time and that particular wheel marks has to be precise because most drivers aim for that left side of thier trailer to meet the dock there. Make a yellow line along the driver's side about ... 30 feet out from the dock precisely matching the wheels left outside set of the trailer and centering the whole trailer at the dock itself. That is what most modern semis use to guide or aim thier trailers at the dock in bad weather. Railroad car boxcar building docks DID indeed use Inflatable gaskets similar to truck trailer. You only found this in temp controlled facilities and those with sensitive inventory subject to shrinkage or theft. If yer REALLY gunning for realizm, put a trash barrel to the right or between every two docks with a big broom leaning on it. And put a led equippted swing light on the LEFT of the dock about... 5 feet exactly off the floor but still folds or angles enough to allow forklifts to get out. And finally every truck trailer dock gets a green flashing on the left side for those docks empty and ready to recieve trailers or for those with drivers already behind the wheel recieving papers from dock boss ready to depart. Steady red means that the trailer is LOCKED to the building. A lock is easy, just a 35 degree angle underneath the rear of the trailer's ICC Decapitation bar. Sometimes trailers are required (53') to be unhitched and tractor rolled forward just enough to take the 5th wheel out from under and a large vertical jack installed near the kingpin of trailer at the plate. Most of the time wheels are required to be all the way back prior to docking. (Ugh...) Oh one other thing. A roll on roll off dumpster always takes the space of ONE dock way on the end OPPOSITE that of the shipping and recieving doorway (with a picknick table). Most places had NOTHING of these kinds of conveiences and some even had you go below the earth itself.... manuvering between limestone columns 100-300 feet under the ground in entire cities run by the Govt. Oh, one last thing. Any truck dock made for a box truck CANNOT fit a semi trailer. Any old facility capable of taking 40 foot trailers and smaller and boxcars cannot take 53' trailers. MOST grocery warehouses had docks that put all trucks and thier mirriors inside each other and trailers just about rubbing. If done gently. Finally my very favorite. The more valuable the product. (Read desireable and expensive...) the greater the lack of signage about the building in which the product is warehoused. I recall hauling medicines worth two million dollars on 4 pallets (Pick up truck anyone?) into a place and only then did I learn which building to back into.
Last Chance hit the nail on the head with his suggestions. I work as a food microbiologist for an international food group and our 16 loading docks are as he explained. However, here you won't see garbage barrels, picnic tables or empty pallets near the docks due to potential for harboring pests and general safety concerns. The lights on both sides of the loading docks do exist as do the long guide striping and vertical jack stands that seem to be always in the way. Large capacity dumpsters are always around and as Last Chance pointed out, are usually ran up to a loading dock door.
Several food production facilities now keep there pallets in trailers and not out in the open since stacks of pallets in a yard can introduce insects into clean production areas if they are brought inside. Several years ago our company would load trailers floor to ceiling without pallets. Eventially, we went to palletized loads. Now we use specialized pallets called CHEP pallets that are painted blue and used strictly for shipping. The supports between the pallet surfaces are supported by large wood blocks instead of thin vertical wood joists.
I made a real simple backround unloading dock/warehouse. I took 2 1x6 boards cut to length and nailed them together so the overall depth is 1.5". Then I cut thin cardboard (got it from cereal box) and glued them onto the board so it looks like poured concrete. Then I painted it a concrete color. All I need now is doors like the ones that come with Walthers Lakeville Shipping. It makes a good looking structure.
camaro Last Chance hit the nail on the head with his suggestions. I work as a food microbiologist for an international food group and our 16 loading docks are as he explained. However, here you won't see garbage barrels, picnic tables or empty pallets near the docks due to potential for harboring pests and general safety concerns. The lights on both sides of the loading docks do exist as do the long guide striping and vertical jack stands that seem to be always in the way. Large capacity dumpsters are always around and as Last Chance pointed out, are usually ran up to a loading dock door. Several food production facilities now keep there pallets in trailers and not out in the open since stacks of pallets in a yard can introduce insects into clean production areas if they are brought inside. Several years ago our company would load trailers floor to ceiling without pallets. Eventially, we went to palletized loads. Now we use specialized pallets called CHEP pallets that are painted blue and used strictly for shipping. The supports between the pallet surfaces are supported by large wood blocks instead of thin vertical wood joists.
Camaro does good stuff though. His method he descirbed with useing strip styrene is how MR did their dock doors on their bagging plant they built for WSOR Troy branch. If the look is real important and you want the look of the bellows can easily make the surrounding frame from strip styrene, cut some foam board to fit the frame, shave it to about 12 inches thick, round off the edges, and paint it black and there you go. It will look like the bellows used on truck docks to seal the trailer. They don't always work that good though, I remember back in November working in the back of a 53' trailer unloading product from pallets to in the trailer (it was an intermodul headed for Ukraine), on our breaks we would we stand in the door way by the bellows catching the cool draft filtering through the cracks and spaces to chill down. I know from a few businesses in the area that RR doors also had the bellows, although I don't think the compnay gets rail served anymore. I know that business is a division of the one I just left and they had their tracks ripped up. It looks goofy because the tracks that served the company are all ripped up, the built an addition so it looks like the old tracks headed straight into a building, the small hill had it's tracks ripped up and is now a pretty grass hill, and the turnout was ripped up and replaced with straight track. They did however leave the tracks in the road at the grade crossing. Maybe sometime I will walk down there with the camera and get some pics of all this.