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Retired boxcar converted to construction company office.

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  • Member since
    April 2003
  • From: Clinton, MO, US
  • 4,261 posts
Posted by Medina1128 on Saturday, March 8, 2014 6:20 AM

That's a great job, Guy. What I've noticed in some of the other pictures, is that I need more people..and trash. My layout is too sterile! 

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: Southern Quebec, Canada
  • 868 posts
Posted by Guy Papillon on Saturday, March 8, 2014 6:06 AM

Other type of car can be used.  Here is an old caboose used as a temporary engine facility office.

Guy

Modeling CNR in the 50's

  • Member since
    January 2005
  • From: ARCH CITY
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Posted by tomkat-13 on Friday, March 7, 2014 7:35 PM

I model MKT & CB&Q in Missouri. A MUST SEE LINK: Great photographs from glassplate negatives of St Louis 1914-1917!!!! http://www.usgennet.org/usa/mo/county/stlouis/kempland/glassplate.htm Boeing Employee RR Club-St Louis http://www.berrc-stl.com/
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Posted by chutton01 on Friday, March 7, 2014 11:16 AM

dknelson
These days I tend to see alot of former shipping containers used as offices or for storage.


As you may already know, that's a fairly sizable business nowadays, the rental of containers for either short or long term storage, or temp office space. In my area, Cassone Leasing is a big player, although they state on their website the company was founded in 1976, they don't mention when they began leasing containers. I recall seeing leased containers around by the 1990s, and the business model was probably around before then - and really took off when it became cheaper to build new shipping container overseas to ship import in, than to return the empty containers back to the originator for re-use in shipping (hence the huge stacks of containers that accumulated around Port Newark and Elizabeth, among many other places), modern era layouts should have many, many more "grounded" storage containers than grounded re-purposed boxcars... (come to think of it, I can't recall any current site with repurposed boxcars, while there are thousands of businesses with storage containers - very ubiquitious. Heck, over the past few years, they even scrapped the repurposed storage covered hoppers at Spartech in East Newark NJ, and probably did the same at Quality Lintals in Freeport NY.

  • Member since
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  • From: Milwaukee WI (Fox Point)
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Posted by dknelson on Friday, March 7, 2014 10:27 AM

Old boxcars are often seen in central Illinois on farmland, being used as sheds; I assume the railroad sold them cheaply (some are early steel cars, some are double sheathed wooden cars).  And I can recall that when Milwaukee did away with its "trackless trolley" buses, some construction firms bought the buses and converted them to on-site construction offices -- they could be towed on their tires to the sites.  The Excalibur automobile factory in West Allis WI used to have two old Milwaukee Road reefers still parked on the siding next to their factory, used as parts storage.  The cars were there for years after Excalibur went belly up.

These days I tend to see alot of former shipping containers used as offices or for storage.

Dave Nelson

  • Member since
    April 2003
  • From: Clinton, MO, US
  • 4,261 posts
Posted by Medina1128 on Friday, March 7, 2014 12:41 AM

hon30critter

Marlon:

Great modelling! I really like the map inside the office.

I used the same idea on an older Walthers MOW office car, but instead of a map of a real railway I used a much reduced picture of my planned layout.

Dave

 

Thanks, Dave. I like your idea of the schematic of your layout, too!

 

  • Member since
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  • From: Bradford, Ontario
  • 15,797 posts
Posted by hon30critter on Thursday, March 6, 2014 9:33 PM

Marlon:

Great modelling! I really like the map inside the office.

I used the same idea on an older Walthers MOW office car, but instead of a map of a real railway I used a much reduced picture of my planned layout.

Dave

I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!

  • Member since
    January 2005
  • From: ARCH CITY
  • 1,769 posts
Posted by tomkat-13 on Thursday, March 6, 2014 4:39 PM
I model MKT & CB&Q in Missouri. A MUST SEE LINK: Great photographs from glassplate negatives of St Louis 1914-1917!!!! http://www.usgennet.org/usa/mo/county/stlouis/kempland/glassplate.htm Boeing Employee RR Club-St Louis http://www.berrc-stl.com/
  • Member since
    January 2004
  • From: Canada, eh?
  • 13,375 posts
Posted by doctorwayne on Thursday, March 6, 2014 4:15 PM

mbinsewi
By the way Wayne, I sure like the detail you have on that OH crane. Looks great!


Thanks Mike.  It was originally intended as a cast house crane for a scratchbuilt blast furnace, but when I ran out of room and money, I modified it into a composite of a couple of cranes which I had the "pleasure" of operating. Smile, Wink & Grin


Wayne

  • Member since
    May 2010
  • From: SE. WI.
  • 8,253 posts
Posted by mbinsewi on Thursday, March 6, 2014 10:57 AM

Excellent idea!  My era is more modern, so I'm going to use containers.  The construction co. I retired from used containers for tool and equipment trailers.  When site space was restricted, such as down town in the city of Milwaukee, or Madison, WI, the office trailer would be lifted and placed on top of the containers, complete with a deck and stairs.

Just down the road from me, a huge and prominate orchard / store / garden center / grocery store complex uses two, ex MILW mechanical reefers, placed side by side, for extra fruit and vegtable storage.  The place is called "The Elegant Farmer".  The East Troy Electric Railway stops there on it's way to Mukwonago, so touist can buy any of their famous treats, such as "Apple pie baked in a bag".  Back in the day, when the ETERR actually moved freight on a daily basis, from it's interchange with the SOO in Mukwonago, the reefers were moved from the tracks to their present position by a house mover using dollies and jacks.

Mike.

EDIT:  By the way Wayne, I sure like the detail you have on that OH crane.  Looks great!

  • Member since
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  • From: Canada, eh?
  • 13,375 posts
Posted by doctorwayne on Thursday, March 6, 2014 10:15 AM

Slick conversion of a car which might not otherwise be used, and the system wall map is a nice touch, too. Yes

I'm a big fan of the old Train Miniature cars, which are very era-appropriate for my late '30s layout.  However, after putting several TM cars in methyl hydrate in order to remove the factory paint, I found a couple of them to be severely cracked.  Not sure why, as I've used this method to strip hundreds of Athearn, MDC, and TM cars without any problems.

While the two cars could be cemented back together with lacquer thinner, the cracks also left both cars somewhat deformed.  Both represent steel cars which would have been too new to have been retired, but my story is that their frames were damaged in a wreck (amazingly leaving the bodies relatively intact Smile, Wink & Grin ).  One ended up on the team track at Elfrida.  It's used there for storing LCL shipments (incoming and outgoing), and has been little modified.  The cracks are on the normally unseen side:


The other car resides behind the shops in Lowbanks, and is used mostly as a storage shed for tools and supplies for the track, bridge, and telegraph maintenance crews:

Here's an over-all view of the area:


Wayne

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