So I want to model Wind turbines on my layout. My first attempt was to buy what's called Bachmann Scene Setter's Alternative energy set. The wind turbines only stand about 6-7 inches tall from top to bottom. Well in HO scale that is only around 50 feet tall in real life. The problem is the real ones stand around 300 feet tall. My next stop is the Lionel Turbines that stand 23 inches tall and are closer but still not tall enough and the base is kinda fat because it's for O scale. Any other suggestions? Walthers had a kit way back, but they're impossible to find.
These are dowels I put in the drill and tapered with sandpaper. You could make any thickness or taper to accommodate your scale. As far as the propellers you could go to an R/C aircraft shop and buy the right size, but you would need to sand down the width of the blades. You should also be able to use model airplane propeller spinners on the front as they come in all sizes. It looks like an easy scratch build.
The solar panels that come with the kit should be really easy to replicate. Good luck.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Wind components come in 4 types"
Towers
Blades,
Nacelles
Hubs
The towers are normally large tapered connical sections. For them I would look at "modern" table legs from a home improvement store.
Blades are in the 75-150 foot range on the prototype. That's 18' to 3 ft in O Scale. I would look at model airplane shopes for large propellers or helicopter rotors.
Nacelles are the heavy parts that ride on heavy duty flat cars They contain the generator. A large square plastic tube, with the edges rounded over and the bottom of one end tapered, then the open parts covered with .040 plastic sheet would work.
Hub, use large model airplane propeller hubs.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
I built both the HO offerings from Faller & Kibri. I like the Faller ones because they have a motor & it looks a little closer to US prototypes. (although it's box shows a lattice tower, it does have a sectional round tower in it) As for the size they are both quite condensed.
The Faller one measures: (in HO scale Feet)
Nacelle: 11' L x 4.25' W (not counting hub or spinner)
Blades" 36 feet, on a 40' radius
Tower: 120' tall
I apologize I don't have the HO Kibris here to measure, but I know the blade radius is almost the same. Their tower was two half round parts that clamshell around the optional drive shaft.
Also to note, windtower blades do not resemble any RC blades or props.
I recently built an N scale Kibri one for a Z scale display, it didn't look too out of place.
Check the HERPA Vehicles web site. The make or made wind turlines for HO truck loads.
Holy smokes! Don't put up any wind turbines the greenies will acuse you of altering bird flight paths, killing migrating birds and interupting the wind itself. Imagine that, these are the same groups that want green power! Just for fun build 100s of turbines just like in East Texas along I-10 and I-20. And then like the wind farm in Deming NM sell the power to Arizona, the company by the way that built the 20 some odd 250ft towers are out of Oregon! And no one individual in our county is allowed to put up a private property wind mill except the ranchers who still pump water to the livestock. Crazy but true. This post is the un-official opinion of one that has seen the above mentioned actions in life.
johncpo, SW New Mexico
Having seen a few wind farms here and there, they tend to be on hilltops or otherwise well away from any rail facility. OTOH, I have seen wind turbine components being shipped as flatcar loads.
If you do model a wind farm in HO, I would like to see photos of the gymnasium-size layout you would need to justify it. OTOH, if the technology wasn't a couple of decades in my layout's future I might put a couple of T-scale turbines on a distant ridge. Any closer and they would totally overwhelm my 1:80 scale world.
Whichever way you bounce this ball, have fun.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
There was, at the Galesburg Railroad Show, selling resin-casts of the blades, and had models of the trucks and cars to carry them. The farms themselves may be off the tracks, but there are a number of corridors where they move these blades on modified Impack Inter (Athearn BB for example) cars. Two blades to a 5 car set, and they move them in multiples of three cars (two complete blade sets), in dedicated trains.
-Morgan
The spine line runs through a commercial wind farm in Franklin county iowa and I think it runs through another in Worth county iowa.
Morgan,
Does anyone have contact infor for that guy?
I've seen IA Railroads hauling components & wouldn't mind a 12 axle HD flat with 3 Generator bodies on it, like in the ICE DVD's..
I may need an excavation team, but I should have his card around here somewhere. One thing though, all he's doing is the blades, he doesn't have ayn parts for the towers, or the generators.
EDIT: Here's Facebook, if you are on there: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hel-Mart-Train-Room/304279526183#!/pages/Hel-Mart-Train-Room/304279526183?sk=info
The flyer is for Hel-Mart in Farmington Iowa. Where's that in relation to Cresco?
Thanks for the info, I had to look it up, & that is down in Bobcat country. Farmington is directly south, near the MO border & the claw of IA. I, otoh, can see MN from here, so it's a little ways..
Thanks again!
You might want to do a yahoo/google search on the Tehachapi wind farm. In the nearby town of Mojave, there is a company that transports the parts for these wind farms on flat cars. They are unloaded on a siding about 1/4 mile east of Highway 14 on the north end of town, right next to the Mojave Airport. There cranes unload the parts to these wind turbines where they are trucked to the wind farms that can be seen northwest toward the Tehachapi's. I don't model current railroads, but if I did I'd probably try to include this industry on my layout.
Best,
Jeff B