In another thread, a commentor suggested an acing platform. Here are two views of that same area with additional scenery and the icing platform under construction. If anyone has any comments or additional ideas, I am all eyes
Bear "It's all about having fun."
I've got the same kit. It's pretty straightforward.
My only problem with it is that the building is very big and very white. As such, it dominates the scene, and that big wall, like yours, faces the front of the layout. I toned mine down a bit with a very light gray wash, and used Dullcoat to flatten it still further. I added a small attached office to break the monotony of the wall, and surrounded it with other railside structures. I put trees in the foreground, too.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Mr. B, I have washed the building with an India ink wash which does not show up in the pic, probably because of the camera flash. I like the office idea.
Hi!
This is one of my favorite scenes on my layout - a double long platform with the large storage house. But, it is such a big plain structure and needs help. I too did a wash and Dullcote and will be adding an office with it as well.
The point of my posting is that depending on the structures placement, one could cut it in half length wise and put it against a backdrop and it would take up much less room.
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
Who is the Mfg. of the kit?
Dennis Blank Jr.
CEO,COO,CFO,CMO,Bossman,Slavedriver,Engineer,Trackforeman,Grunt. Birdsboro & Reading Railroad
Since you ASKED for comments, here's mine.
First, your cattle pens look great.
As for the ice house all of the cold storages in my area, which iced reefers, are made of brick. Secondly if you could add simulated ice blocks with a crew preparing to load the reefers would add realism.
Bob
Don't Ever Give Up
rdgk,
It's a Walthers kit:
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3049
BTW, the ice house is easy to bash into a smaller (or larger) size. One of mine is chopped:
My other one is simply a flat, with the ice platform in front. Don't have a pic handy on that one.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
This is a picture of my icing platform. It's "posed," with the platforms lowered.
The ice blocks are included with the kit. I added the figures to enhance the scene.
As someone else noted, the kit is the Walthers Cornerstone Ice House & Platform. It is big and between it, the packing plant, and the stockyard, that portion of my layout is pretty much dominated by the complex, which is, in some respects, the effect I was hoping for. Kitbashing it is not an option at this point. The idea to slice it and place it up against the backdrop is a good one, and in hindsight I would have considered it when I was in the track plan design stage. Oddly enough, if you look closely it looks like the building was constructed of wooden clapboards, not bricks. The icing platform still needs some assembly work, and I do have the ice blocks that came with the kit. Eventually I will add workers.
And one more word to the wise. If you look at the first pic just to the left of the packing plant and just above that brown stock car there is a black thing. Yup, you guessed it, it is a ground throw. And it is a bit of a pain to reach over to throw it. I realized the problem when I was adding scenery to the area. Never thought of the possibility of this situation when I did the track plan. But it is what it is and if it becomes a real big pain, I will have to think up some fix.
The starkness could be addressed by adding a row of windows along the top wall, many houses had these that could be opened to augment the roof venilators, which in my opinion are inadquate on the Walther's kit. Stairs were much more common then ladders, oppertunity exist to add these and their related platforms.
If your house receieves bulk ice by the reefer, where do you unload it? You could include a short spur and ice an unloading dock along the front with an ice conveyor directly feeding the dock, typical among locations that handeled meat but not citrus or produce.
What you've done with your efforts is fantastic and plausable. Well done!
Dave
To help handle incoming and outgoing ice, I used leftover kit parts to build an elevator housing. It is visible in the second pic of my icehouse between it and the platforms. There are chutes to move ice onto the elevator at the bottom and off it and onto the platforms up above..
Thanks for the compliments. The platform is a pain to assemble because of the various flexible, thin components. Another spur to bring in ice is not on the far horizon, if at all. Last thing I want to do right now is tear up track.
Ah, here's the picture I was looking for.
Now that's a nice scene, Mr. B.
Bear, for the ground throw, can you run a stiff wire from the switch to where you want the ground throw.? I have done this on many of mine and have a few more to do.
Ken G Price My N-Scale Layout
Digitrax Super Empire Builder Radio System. South Valley Texas Railroad. SVTRR
N-Scale out west. 1996-1998 or so! UP, SP, Missouri Pacific, C&NW.
Lake, that is the fix that I am thinking of. It would require running the wire under the loading chute, the boiler house, the spur on the right of the first photo, the icing platform and the ice house. But, it looks like that ground throw doesnt have to be thrown very much when the stock yard is being switched, so I am going to wait and see for now.