Hello everyone, i am looking for suggestions and or ideas for an N scale refinery scene for my layout. I have already purchased the Walthers North Island Refinery model but i am looking for more. I would like to be able to model a larger refinery kind of like the old Walthers Steele Mill kits some years back. I am looking for either model kits or just some ideas and suggestions where i might find pictures of model refineries for inspiration. This refinery will be a highlight on my layout so i need it to be operational as well as as prototypical as possible, i just dont know who makes model kits or componets to build such an industry. Below is a picture of about what i am looking for but im not sure what all kits they have used to build it other than the one i have....... Thanks again everyone!
Plastruct is a good source for industrial structural parts/shapes. Their wire core plastic tubing bends nicely and is real handy for piping runs.
Regards, Peter
HO-Velo Plastruct is a good source for industrial structural parts/shapes. Their wire core plastic tubing bends nicely and is real handy for piping runs. Regards, Peter
Thanks Peter, i appreciate that buddy!
Trainzman2435Hello everyone, i am looking for suggestions and or ideas for an N scale refinery scene for my layout.
Trainzman2, I've attached a picture of my N Scale scratchbuilt refinery/chemical plant/ethanol plant. I couldn't decide which, so I just put together things that I thought looked good.
The building is from from Rix, and the stairs and railings are from Plastruct. Everything else I pieced together from plastic parts, wire, etc.
It is not realistic, but it fit with what I wanted.
The most difficult was the lighting. Installing the lights took longer than building the entire thing.
York1 John
John, that looks awesome sir....Any chance you might have the part numbers for the kits? Thanks!
Trainzman,
The only kit I used was the building, from Rix:
https://rixproducts.com/product-category/pikestuff-n-scale/
The tanks were made from plastic pipe I bought at Ace Hardware.
The cooling tower and the other structures were scratchbuilt from Evergreen polystyrene.
The LED lights are the smallest I could find, called pico 1mm, from Evans:
https://evandesigns.com/collections/hobby-leds
The stairs and railings I got from Plastruct. I found them at Hobby Town.
The pipes are from Hobby Lobby. They sell K&S Precision Metals. Since it's N Scale, I got the smallest metal tubes I could find, 3/32".
I intended to put in more piping, but by the time I got the lighting done, I was tired of the project. Someday, when I feel like it, I will add more pipes.
Good luck! Please post pictures of your project as it progress - I for one am interested in it.
The HO scale tanks on the right were made with PVC pipe, an economical & ez aquired material. Curved staircase inspired by fellow forum member Mike Lehman.
Hey John, I like your refinery scene, especially the cooling tower.
Peter
Nice job, Peter! Your weathering is done very well. Your chain link fence looks good. That's another thing I'd eventually like to add, but I haven't found too much realistic looking N Scale fence.
I work in the refining industry so I felt my refinery had to be fairly prototypical so I spent better part of 3 years working on it.
As a little back knowledge on how refineries work.
The first unit in the refinery is call the crude unit. It take in raw crude, boils it in a furnace and then puts it through a distillation column which seperates the parts based on their density. Light ends (things like methan, propane, butane, pentane) come out the top of the distillation column and heavy ends such as fuel oil, asphalt, and resid come out the bottom.
The next unit is usually a vacuum crude unit. This unit does the same thing but usually in a vacuum condition which allows the product to be be further seperated.
From there the product go out to different processing trains. They go thru heat exchangers, reboilers (another furnace), and crackers to breakdown long chains into shorter more useful molecules.
The last unit in the refinery is called a coker. This unit takes the last, nastiest remanants of the crude oil and heats it super hot (~1100-1200 deg f) and turns in into petroleum coke ( a very pure form of carbon). It is similar to coal. While it is still hot it is pumped into what is called a coker tower, where it solidifies in the coke drum. Once the drum is full they have a drill that drills down thru the coke and once it reached the bottom of the drum the use high pressure steam to hydroblast the coke out of the drum as the head of the drill comes back up out of the drum. The bottom of the drum is open when they do this and it falls into a pit below. Many coker units have a built in crane with a bucket that scoops up the coke and either loads it on a conveyor or in the case of my refinery into hopper cars.
In the photos it is the large black structure on the left. Coker units are notoriusly dirty and coke dust covers everything.
Another critical item in a refinery is a flare tower. This is a safety device and present in all refineries. If an incident were to occur they can always send product to flare and have it burn off.
The North Island Refinery kit distillation tower is a fairly decent representation of parts of a refinery. I used two of them as part of my refinery but split them up. The furnace included in the kit is well suited for use as a coker unit. The pipe alley is very remininecent of those in the refinery. The one major thing the kit lacks is any type of cylindrical type furnace which are common place in refineries since they take up less area.
As for my refinery about 3/4 of it is scratchbuilt. I used stryene and PVC pipe for alot of it. All the distillation columns (other than the North island refinery ones) are PVC pipe as well as the cylindrical heaters. My choice for piping is actually 14 gauge solid core wire. Flanges are made from washers. Hand railings were all scratchbuilt from phosphor bronze wire. I prefer it over brass wire as it much stiffer and takes solder way better.
Here is my construction album of the refinery. https://www.flickr.com/gp/159269054@N04/o64F61
There is still plenty to do. I have alot of detailed work to add (street signs, gates, people, bicycles, etc.) believe it not bicycles are very commonplace in refineries as mode of transportation around the plant.
As for the backdrop, they are high resolution images that I printed and secured to the backdrop with spray adhesive.
As for rail traffic, there are chemical coverred hoppers, coke hoppers, crude tank cars, acid tank cars, box cars and flats for the warehouse. Its a very large industry (2nd largest) on the layout.
I hope this give a bit of inspiration on your refinery and PM me if you want any additional info.
Colorado Front Range Railroad: http://www.coloradofrontrangerr.com/
HO-VeloThe HO scale tanks on the right were made with PVC pipe, an economical & ez aquired material. Curved staircase inspired by fellow forum member Mike Lehman.
Thanks for the mention, Peter! You've taken that modest idea to a whole different level. It's a wonderful scene, up to your always outstanding level of realistic modeling.
Like Peter, I'm in HO, but can offer one tip that helped me. I was pretty space constrained, so my part of the actual refinery and tank farm is tiny. What I did devote a lot of space to was loading facilities. These take up a lot of room with the associated sidings, racks, plumbing and control system leading from your tank farm for finished products. In cases where crude comes in by rail, provisions for that are often made separately, although on my layout I combined them.
In N, you've got more elbow room most likely. But I'd design a loading facility that suits your needs to prioritize space for it first. Once satisfied with those arrangements, then see what else can be squeezed in.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Renegade1cI work in the refining industry so I felt my refinery had to be fairly prototypical so I spent better part of 3 years working on it.
Wow! What great work! Thanks for the pictures. Modelers like you always inspire me to work harder.
I've been at this a little under two years; I picked up model railroading after retirement. In about 40 years, I might reach the level of some of you posters on this forum.
Beautiful work all! I've always been fascinated by the mazes of track and pipes found in refineries on the Gulf Coast and elsewhere.
Renegade1c, PM sent. Thank you in advance!
Some nice modeling in these pics. The one thing all such facilities seem to have in common, no matter the age of the photograph -- lots of lights. There is something about capturing all those lights that enhances the sensation of intense complexity that you are after.
Some observation about ethanol plants by the way - very well lit up at night.
Dave Nelson
Renegrade,
Your refinery looks great and the detail is unbleaveable !!!
I worked at a refinery up in Canada and the facility had 2 full time people that worked on a very large model of the facility every day doing up grades to the components that made up the model, the model took up a very large room at the facility.
I wanted to take some photos of it but that was not allowed.
Finding this thread especially enjoyable being an ex-'Standard Oiler'.
As said oil refinery rail traffic is huge with a myriad of different rolling stock needs. Covered hoppers for pelletized process catalysts. Plenty of boxcars for various warehousing, on site 55gal drum refurbishing and packaged lube oils. Miles of tank cars for crude and lube oils, LPG, chemicals, molten sulfur and asphalt.
Also interesting opportunities for specialized loads like hazardous waste, vessels, piping, columns, exchangers, structural materials and disassembled giant cranes for the really big lifts.
Renegade1c, like your terrific refinery and diggin' the super details like tank field berms, fire monitors, walkways, etc.
Gee, this has almost got me wantin' to turn my switching layout into an oil refinery, well, almost.
Keep on 'boilin' the oil', thanks and regards, Peter