Hi,
I am in the process of building the facility and I am at the "loader" part. I am trying to figure if I should paint the base a concrete color or not. How is this loader user? Is it portable? If so then the base would not be concrete.
Thanks,
Kevin
Which Walthers model is it? Can you give us a link to it in their catalogue so that we can check out what you are refering to please?
If it is concrete you will probably want some sign of diesel spill... I suspect that building up in washes will show dispersed spillage better than just a few streaks or blobs... a streak or blob might occur in a tiny area.
You might also have some sand scatter -from a bucket - or (if your scene is modern) a scatter of absorbant material - from a wheelie bin and/or plastic sack -- our absorbant material starts out a sick green colour and fades to fawn -- you can go really mad and have an open drum, shovel and broom for the cleanup.
And fire extinguishers racked nearby... Oops! I'm getting carried away again...
Don't orget the cut-off switch Ouch!
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Tom,
That is the kit that I am working on. I am not sure either how the fuel rack works. In the photo on the box the rack is position at the end of the fuel tank. I guess if I knew how to was used I could determine the color of the base. As I already have my track down and ballasted, I had to cut up the base as you did. I have learned for my next layout to position all of the buildings and such BEFORE I glue down the trac and such. Lessons learned. My line is based on the Erie Lackawanna right after the merger, or at least that is what I am shotting for.
I thought about this at work. The rack is portable. When a oil tanbker is pulled along side of the storage tank, the rack is position in between. One end is rested on the tanker anf the other could rest on the storage tank. A hose is then placed int the tanker and the other end into the storage tank and a pump will be used to pump it from the tanker into the storage tank. The rack will support the hose in mid-air.
I am probably off base though..............
Though this is a diesel facility, the tank car unloading appears to be similar to the operartion of standpipes at a bulk oil dealer.
A bulk oil dealer receives petroleum by tankcar load and loads tanker trucks which then deliver to filling stations and other customers.
According to my notes, Rail Model Journal had information on modeling standpipes, with variations between different companies…
Conoco standpipe,scale drwng, Rail Model Journal May97 p.16,19
Mobil standpipe, scale drwng, Rail Model Journal May97 p.17,19
Shell standpipe, scale drwng, Rail Model Journal May97 p.18,19
Texaco standpipe, scale drwng, Rail Model Journal May97 p.18,19
Modeling standpipes for unloading tank cars at bulk oil dealers
Rail Model JournalMay97 p.16,20
Model Railroader has also had articles on these operations and facilities.
Tank car terminal- standpipe Model Railroader Mar04 p.100
Bulk oil dealers, typical layout Model Railroader June90 p.100
Bulk oil dist. terminal, modeling. Model Railroader Dec78 p.108
Here are some pictures of my fueling rack (sorry about the poor quality of the pics, but I think you can get the idea).
I am building the same kits right now and placing the sanding and drying towers next to the fueling area, like you have. I see that folks are staying with the same colors as they kits (concrete for the base, black for the tank etc..). I am curious what folks are using for ground cover in the yards. Most yards seem to be dirt with a little grass scattered about and no ballast on the tracks. I am looking to use Woodland Scenics earth colored fine turf but I am not sure that alone will look right. I am also wondering if folks are putting fenching (i.e. chainlink etc..) around their yard or servicing facilities to make them look more realistic. I'll post some pictures when I am further along.
Engineer Jeff NS Nut Visit my layout at: http://www.thebinks.com/trains/
Jeff,
One thing you might try is to paint the ground cover rather than use a turf product. For the dirt, at least, you can find a suitable color quart of latex paint, and mix in a healthy quantity of playground sand or "texture" material of your choice. You can by filtered and screened playground sand at most hardware stores in small containers.
Anyway, you paint this textured paint onto the area, and then, when dry, drybrush the area with a lightened shade of the same base color paint. Just add some white or ecru to the base color (I've occasionally tried buff and even grey for varied shades) and using a 1" or 2" wide brush, lightly drybrush the area till you've got what you want. After it's dry, you can use an eyedropper to apply some various rust or black washes here and there to represent various spills, etc.
Once you've got all that done, then you could consider using some turf or static grass, etc, for the odd weed, grassy patch, etc. I've used this approach in the past for various dioramas with pretty good success.
Respects,
The Walthers kit contains the same double-boom "see-saw" arrangement as the Interstate Fuel Oil Company. I've got one of those, and we had an enthusiastic thread going a while back about how tank cars were unloaded. Another forum member provided some links, and from piecing together information I concluded that the booms really should have hoses attached to each end.
Many modern tank cars are only unloaded from the top. Two hoses are attached. One forces in compressed air at the top, and the other takes out the oil from the bottom, via an "eduction" tube which goes from the top dome down to a sump at the bottom of the tank. ("Eduction" was my new vocabulary word for the day.)
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
jbinkley60 wrote:I am curious what folks are using for ground cover in the yards. Most yards seem to be dirt with a little grass scattered about and no ballast on the tracks.
You can also use cinder. (Course, that would probably be more prevalent around the steam - steam/diesel transition eras.) Anyway, that's what I plan on using when the time comes.
Tom
ezielinski, you have it.
This top unloader is also used in Walther's Interstate Fuel and Oil. The picture on the box shows how Walther's considered it was "connected". Their vision only leaves off the hose that drops into the tanker.
Regards,
Hopefully I can post some pictures of my progress in a few days. One of the things I an struggling with is fuel unloading to the fueling facility to fill the storage tank. Are folks unloading from rail cars or from trucks ? This will determine how I lay it out. I am locating this with the sanding facility so I am planning to have a parking lot where trucks would drop the sand off. Of course there is the otehr option of bringing it all in by rail and using a front loader or similar to unload the sand into the holding area and unloading the rail tanker cars. If so, then I would have a much smaller parking lot, just enough to cover the employees and not large enough to have an unloading facility.
I read through the Walthers Diesel Fueling facility information again and it looks like the unloading stand is designed for rail cars and not trucks, since it unloads from the top and most tanker trucks unload from the bottom. This shouldn't be an issue. I think I'll still plan on both rail and/or truck delivery for sand. I'll plan on sand unloading to be done by a front loader or some other type of bucket crane. The sanding facility doesn't really look like it is designed for drop unloading from a hopper car. So my last thought now is the source of the diesel fuel to load the tank cars. I looked through Walthers and didn't find a lot. I found the Cambria Fuel Depot by ConCor. It is out of stock and loks like it is designed to load trucks, not rail cars. I did find the Walthers Oil Loading Platform, it too is out of stock and I could match it up with a couple of storage tanks. Does anyone have a similar setup they could post a picture ? Maybe a refinery operation with a rail tank car loading facility ?
So after some more digging, I found the Walthers Gold Line Difco dump cars for Norfolk Southern. These look like they will be great for hauling sand and dumping. Then a front loader can scoop the sand into the holding area. And Walthers has them on sale $15 off for a 3 pack. I am still looking at the fuel loading onto tank cars.