I am using modular buildings to create factories and mills for my layout. I'm having trouble finding anyone that makes concrete loading docks and concrete stairs. Does anyone know who makes these, and if not, has anyone made their own?
Modeling the B&M Railroad during the transition era in Lowell, MA
Pikestuff makes a concrete staircase (assuming HO scale)http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/541-1010
Walthers modulars used to have concrete loading docks, but they are out of production. Design Preservation has brick loading dock risers, you still have to supply the tophttp://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/243-30115
Basically, loading docks tend to be custom made for a building. I would recommend getting some 0.040 Evergreen Styrene sheets and build the dock you want. It is a good idea to get some 1/8" square (or similar size) styrene to reinforce the joints. The Pikestuff stairs can be incorporated into the design
It is not a difficult project, and a good start into scatch building. This is a simple loading dock I made to go with a DPM modular building
and another for a Pikestuff building
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
Most all my outside loading docks are made from #1 pine Parting stop 1/2 x 3/4 found at lumber yards and big box stores....I believe, never bought it there, but lumber yards for sure. They just about match any building in HO scale. Some I use Northeastern stripwood planks to put on top, a lot of older buildings had them outside, for concrete is slippery when wet, unless they poured with grit on top and even then it was slippery. The stairs I used the same material and although takes a little time, I carve my own stairs. The building dock is made with the wood and also the floor inside with same material, same height as dock. Building is only two inches deep, forklift truck is a white metal casting.
The bare parting stop, is the stuff I used in the second pic' to reinforce the foundation in the building, so it could be removable to work on at bench. The third pic', the saw tooth type dock is also cut and shaped from the wood and glued to foundation.
Take Care!
Frank
These are the sort of things that you make from scratch. A snip of foam, a piece of cardboard, some paint and you are done.
What sort of stairs to you require. Start with some 3/16th" stock, as wide as your stairs, cut them from 1" long to however long you need by 1/4" intervals, stack them up and paint them.
LION also made some stairs like this. Here the bottom step is at platform height and the stairway goes up to the mezinine, where are the turnstiles and token booth, and then another flight would take the geese up to the street.
Here the stairs are made with corugated cardboard in the same manner as I suggested to you using wood.
Many locations simply use a ladder either at an angle, or vertically.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Basswood works for me. The grain is finer than balsa and it's usually cheaper than balsa.The loading dock at the brewery I'm building here, along woith the drive in front, are all basswood.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Though I've not had an opportunity to give real concrete a try, the Oct. 2013 issue of MRR has an interesting article about building a loading dock using real concrete.
regards, Peter
George - Love the mortar job you did on that DPM modular. Have you ever described your technique in another thread? I've read many and still get mixed results - some very good but struggle with most. Checked some of your many postings but didn't find anything. Would love a link if you've ever described it.
It's a shame Walthers modulars went out of production because I used those not only with their modular componenents but other structures as well. I had enough left to extend the concrete platform on their Grocery Distributor structure by making them double wide and butting them together end to end. I used up the last of my extra ones doing that. You might get lucky and find some on ebay but I was unable to score any of the pillaster and cornice components so that might not be an option. As others have suggested, scratchbuilding them from strip styrene should not be a difficult progject.
HO-Velo Though I've not had an opportunity to give real concrete a try, the Oct. 2013 issue of MRR has an interesting article about building a loading dock using real concrete. regards, Peter
Peter
I tried it and it works. I used half plaster and half patching concrete. It took a while to set up but gave a nice finish and in a proper concrete color.
Joe
A chunk of foam cut with a hot knife works very well. If you don't have a hot knife, make as clean a cut as possible, sand to desired texture, then paint.
You can make a complete platform with stairs and ramp (if desired) from one piece, if cut carefully.
Good luck,
Richard
I've built many a loading dock from styrene sheet and strip material.
This stand-alone dock was assembled from .060" styrene.
I kitbashed this structure from a City Classics kit. The dock was also built from styrene, and I added strips to the face of it to mimic the look of the concrete pillars on the kit walls.
This industry was scratchbuilt. Again the dock is .060" styrene. The steps and railings are from Pikestuff.
Rob Spangler
Paul DGeorge - Love the mortar job you did on that DPM modular
I use DAP caulk, either the white or the "goes on pink, dries white" variety. After painting the brick color, I trowel the caulk into the mortar lines. I use the flat side of a small screwdriver, but any similar tool would work. I let it dry overnight, then wipe off the excess with small pieces of paper towel that I have dipped in water. I try to wipe on the diagonal, especially is the mortar lines are shallow. The caulk is a bit abrasive and some color will rub off into the mortar lines and onto the towel, so change the towels often. I keep an X-Acto knife handy to chip away any excess caulk if it builds up around windows or trim. It helps to dampen the chunk to make it softer. I let it dry overnight again, and do a bit of touch-up wiping if necessary.
I have been using this technique for more than 20 years, and it is difficult to tell the old ones I did a long time ago from the most recent.
Buy the smallest container of caulk you can find, unless you have other uses for it around the house. I usually have to throw the container away when it is about 2/3 gone because it gets too hard to use.
This is a topic that comes up on the forum from time to time; and there are many other favorate techniques that other people use.
G Paine DAP caulk, either the white or the "goes on pink, dries white" variety
George, Might you mean Spackling instead of caulk?
Thanks and regards, Peter
G Paine,
Interesting thing about the new Vinyl Spackle that goes on pink and drys white.....that if You dampen it again, like using a sponge to smooth it out, like I have been doing, to fill in joint lines in some brick streets.....it will turn pink again, when wet and dry white. I havn't started it yet....but I'm curious to see what happen's when I stain it with the water based pigment I plan on using. I'm thinking, I may have to seal it first. I kind of liked the old Spackle that was always white and you could add pigment to it before you applied it. Kinda hard to judge what it will look like, when you start out with Pink. LOL.
Thank you, George & all - Don't want to change the direction of this thread but you share that method with other great artists on here. Have been using a thin mix of acrylic but I'm very inconsistent so will have to try your way. T'anks
This one was made from .060" sheet styrene:
...as was this one:
This one, still under construction, uses the same material (and also for the roof, interior walls and bracing and unseen back walls)
This loading dock (for passengers) used more .060" styrene, and the whole passenger station, express building and post office were built from it, too:
Wayne
Wayne,
In Your last pic'. That is a detail absent from a lot of modeled buildings.....an access stairway to the roof and elevator shaft.
Thanks for your comment, Frank. I think, with most of our layouts viewed from above, that roof details are important. Chimneys and plumbing vents are others which can be added easily.
Thank you for so many great ideas. One think I forgot to ask was dimensions. I believe that the standard height for a loading dock is 4 feet. Is that correct?
All of the ones in my photos above are 4 feet.
All buildings and loading areas (team tracks) are not necessarily on absolute level ground, so a better rule of thumb to use is to make the dock as high as it has to be to get from the ground to the bottom of the door on a box car sitting on the tracks (on one side) and as high as it has to be to get from the ground to the warehouse floor on the other (simplified but works in most cases you will find.)
Johnboy out.................
from Saskatchewan, in the Great White North..
We have met the enemy, and he is us............ (Pogo)