I want everyone's opinion on this one.
What do you think of those that decide to model scrap yards on their layouts? If you do approve of scrap yards, do you agree that they should include a steam engine or two to depict a railroad that is modernizing?
Also, could they generate enough traffic for a model railroad?
The Lehigh Valley Railroad, the Route of the Black Diamond Express, John Wilkes and Maple Leaf.
-Jake, modeling the Barclay, Towanda & Susquehanna.
I like to think of a scrapyard as both a scenic opportunity and an industry, but then, I look on all of my industries that way. The typical scrapyard, like mine, probably doesn't even deserve a rail siding. It's more of a dump for rusting hulks of cars and, yes, some railroad parts thrown in too. But here, there's no active "scrapping" going on, no shredding, no compacting.
Still, any industry with a track might get the occasional load out followed by empty in sometime during an operating session. It just might happen to be that day of the week, or of the month, when those Woodland Scenics checker players (don't look, they're not there yet) get up off their crates and do some work for a change.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
scrap yards are an industry, although some railroad equipment has met the cutter's torch there, some has been saved by people walking through.
I would like a scrap yard personally. But nothing past a couple old wagons being broken up or maybe a boiler or two. It is a part of the cycle, something is made, useful life is used up, and then it is broken up and the reusable components are recycled and the process starts over.
As much as I would hate to have a locomotive being scrapped, it is a part of the cycle.
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When in doubt. grab a hammer.
If it moves and isn't supposed to, get a hammer
If it doesn't move and is supposed to, get a hammer
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If it can't be fixed with a hammer... DUCK TAPE!
I think scrap yards are a very good industry for any model railroad because they can be as large or small as one wishes. Not only that they can fit any spacial footprint.
I would think only large to really large ones would deal with items as big as scrapped steamers.
Likewise the size would determine whether it needed rail service and how much traffic it generate.
Around here, steam locos were either cut up by the railroad, or shipped, dead-in-tow, to a steel plant. Once there, a few often got a new, albeit short, lease on life.Scrapyards can be interesting to model, but most of us don't have room to adequately portray more than a small portion of one.
Wayne
Scrap yards actually make great industries to model for the very reason that rail-served scrap-yard are sizable (as opposed to smaller salvage yards for vehicle parts). Why, you ask?
Because they have mountains and mountains of scrap, such as this (google image scrap yard brings up lots more) - postion the scrap yard near your backdrop, put a few mountain of scrap flats along the backdrop - in front, the active rail siding, maybe a small office, and a few cranes/front end loaders with either claws or electromagnets to load the gondola. Bam!, a nice industry along a narrow (but long, I'm afraid) section of layout
I have read many suggestion for modeling scrap mountains (rigid insulating foam almost always serves as the base, same as coal piles or dirt piles): pencil shavings, cardboard clippings, metal filings (securly glued, of course), saw dust, coated broken pieces of lasanga(!), and so on - usually a mix of materials and all suitably painted, weathered, and grimy.
My scrap yard is called Reggie's Junk Yard. Reggie buys scrap from various sources including junk autos and trucks. His crews are working in the first photo to cut up some structural steel for loading into a gondola.
In the second picture, you may see piles of scrap. Included are old parts from railroad freight cars that Reggie's crews have cut up. Reggie does not handle scrapped locomotives. He did salvage an old wood box car, and he converted it into his auto parts store.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Lehigh Valley 2089 I want everyone's opinion on this one. What do you think of those that decide to model scrap yards on their layouts? If you do approve of scrap yards, do you agree that they should include a steam engine or two to depict a railroad that is modernizing? Also, could they generate enough traffic for a model railroad?
Let's look at the other side of the coin.
Scrap yards that require rail service is usually large and there lays the trap.As to date 99% of the model scrap yards I've seen was small and couldn't fill a gon in fact it may be impossible to load a gon unless its none by hand since there's no crawler crane with a magnet-a very important item for loading scrap..
Another thought is scrap is classified into various groups such as mill,aluminum,iron,industrial,automotive,rubber,tin and some forms of scrap may need process such as stripping electrical wires for the copper.
As far as old railroad equipment sorry,but,those are usually cut up by specialty scrap yards that specializes in scraping large machinery,railroad cars,locomotives and heavy equipment.
Modeling a scrap yard is possible as a rail served industry as long as you allow enough space,have a crawler crane and understand how scrap is stored.Also don't forget a scale for weighing inbound scrap and a office building.
No space for all of that? Then place your scrap yard along the back drop with large plies of mill scrap,a fence with gate,a crawler crane with magnet and you're good..Again and I stress this have large piles of scrap so it looks like the scrap yard is larger and needs rail service.
A note about the ground..Be sure its dirty and not looking like a well manicured front yard and bury the track in dirt and there's no need for ballast.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Hi!
Hope this doesn't turn out to be one of those polarizing pot stirring posts..................
Scrap/junk yards have been around for as long as our railroads and are a fact of life. I don't have one on my layout and really don't care to have one. I do have some scap loads for gondolas, however.
The teardown facilities for steam locos were doing big business in the 50s and 60s, but after that I doubt if many would be seen.
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
The New York and Atlantic serves Gershow Recycling in Medord NY. When I lived in the area several years ago they switched several cars in and out almost daily. Gershow was a big operation, dealt mostly in scrap autos and was home of the Auto Gobbler. Space limitations would make this an ideal background industry.
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=386355
I think they add a great amount of visible interest in a small front of the layout setting as well.
John R
John R.
Personally I like scrap yards, so much to look at with all the textures and rust. I just wish Snake Eye Bennett's place could have more room, buy I wish that for my industries. '.
This is not what you would call a scrap yard but last year on several occasions I saw where CSX had place some old gons on a dead end spur to no where that hadn't been used in years. Next a crane with a claw showed up followed by semis loaded with scrap.
The gons were filled, taken away and returned several more times.
Where the scrap came from and where it went is any one's guess.
They haven't showed in some time.
This would be a ligitimate scene to model.
Bob
Don't Ever Give Up
mobilman44 Hi! Hope this doesn't turn out to be one of those polarizing pot stirring posts........
Hope this doesn't turn out to be one of those polarizing pot stirring posts........
How about a thought provoking post?
There should be several ideas on modeling scrap yards beyond the to small for rail service type.
This is good stuff. My son requested a scrap yard scene for the expansion we're working on. I wasn't sure how big to make it to be rail served, and hadn't started researching. But now I've got a better idea of what to do. I've got a narrow area between the yard tracks and view block that should be perfect. It should look good there on the outskirts of the yard.
Over on the Railwire, we did a "12" x 12" modeling challenge", wherein we had to build something that fit in 144 square inches. I have an unlimited supply of stuff that I've accumulated over the years, so a scrap yard seemed like a natural fit. To that end, I present to you, Nathan's Supply and Equipment...This was a fun project... especially since everything in it came from the parts bin... not a single dollar was injured in the process of building this diorama! I have a mobile crane I have to build to finish the scene, and a few signs to add. The irony of it is that I don't really have a place for it on the layout.
It will probably end up on the shelf at my office as a conversation piece... We deal with a lot of scrap metal where I work...
Lee
Route of the Alpha Jets www.wmrywesternlines.net
I chose to model a salvage yard I frequented in my youth, and like most everything we model, had to be compressed to fit the available space. DJ.
If you model the Rust Belt as I do, a scrapyard is a necessity. I'm sure the "junk"n my scrapyard would horrify many here [there has to be a better place for a brass steamer] I assure you it will be either put back into service someday, or parted out for other B&O brass projects. She needs a lot of work, and at least for now, my patience has reached its end. The rest of the scrap actually tells the story of a layout that is over 40 years old. The Rivarossi locomotive remains are leftovers from projects as well. This is a busy industry on our layout, and that is the significance of it, and it makes a nice scene. There is beauty in just about everything! -Stan
The area I'm trying to model had a scrap yard in part of a former Rock Island railroad yard. They even used the old roundhouse and much of the former shop grounds. While the CNW operated the rest of the yard, and had several tracks still running into the scrap yard, I didn't see a whole lot of rail movements out of the scrap yard. Most of the scrap piles looked like they'd been there for 20+ years.
Then, there was the week they hauled a bunch of scrap a few hundred yards to an industry siding.
The Cedar cRapids Industrial Branch: Proudly Shipping Yesterday's CrunchBerries Tomorrow!
While I'm not planning to model a scrap yard as such my larger colliery has some obsolete equipment which is being cut into convenient size for shipment out. Whenever a gon load accumulates it's loaded on tram cars, run over to the overhead crane and loaded aboard. My smaller colliery, which is doing what I think of as, `Strip out and back out,' loads such things as used rail, pipe and pumps salvaged from the worked-out part of the underground mine.
Some thoughts on a modern scrap/salvage yard:
And an observation. Back in the early 1960's the JNR scrapped a bunch of obsolete 2-6-0s (8620 class.) They were lined up on a team track, then the cut-up crew came in with torches, a magnet-equipped crane and a parade of dump trucks. Within a few days there was no sign that there had ever been a locomotive on that track.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
There are two scrapyards that I am working on in our module club's layout. I have this one on my own modules:
and there is this one on another set for the branch line:
I was inspired by the lost engines at Roanoake, Va for this scene.
John
If everybody is thinking alike, then nobody is really thinking.
http://photobucket.com/tandarailroad/
The scrap yard on my modules is based on a real one that was located in Suffolk, Va. just off of the NS (N&W) main line. This yard was quite small, only about three city blocks, but it did have a rail spur into it. I have seen old boxcars being scrapped in there, I assumed that the scrap was hauled out via the railroad, too. The place closed down about ten years ago, and it is just a vacant lot now.
This is not a scrap yard as such, but isvbased on some yards I have seen in industrial districts where old parts and items are left for possible salvage re-use.
Mostly pieces of used insulin syringes.
Very inspiring modeling everyone. I am in the process of getting a 10x12' room ready for a switching layout and I think I see a scrap yard in its future.
I plan to have a scrap yard on my layout.........including thomas the blue turd being cut up for scrap.
Dennis Blank Jr.
CEO,COO,CFO,CMO,Bossman,Slavedriver,Engineer,Trackforeman,Grunt. Birdsboro & Reading Railroad
I model this gravel industry that is scrapping the old plant for the new one built.
Lehigh Valley 2089 Also, could they generate enough traffic for a model railroad?
The shortline that runs throgh my town ends in my town. The only industries are a small lubricant company and a scrap yard. the scrap yard gets three to mores cars at a time. If they can run on that, a model railroad should do well.
"Mess with the best, die like the rest" -U.S. Marine Corp
MINRail (Minessota Rail Transportaion Corp.) - "If they got rid of the weeds what would hold the rails down?"
And yes I am 17.
I live in a small town with a scrap yard just a couple miles outside town. Lately they've been doing a lot of RR cars. For a while the local short line was crammed with old hoppers.
One aside that could make an interesting model. The plant where I work had several old tank cars sitting on a siding for years. Rather than use the railroad to move them (they must have been too far gone to move in a train) they loaded them on a flatbed and trucked them the eight miles to the scrap yard. Made for an interesting sight to see a tank car loaded precariously on a truck convoy moving about 20 miles an hour.
I know this is an older thread ,but the target customer for my layout is a scrapyard. The scrapyard takes inbound loads of scrap, and then they shred the scrap and send it to a local steel mill ( off layout.)
like some scrapyards, Insly Steel uses an engine to move around railcars and dead engines which are going to be cut up ( naprano iron and metal used a Baldwin s-12 ex PC 8319 for those chores, and I believe northwest steel and wire used old GTW 0-8-0's). Insly's house engine is an alco switcher, but since Insly is going to cut it up when it stops working, it could be as rare as a Fairbanks morse h12-44, or as common as a GE 44 tonner. I keep it interesting with a two car spur. Insly goes through more than two cars a day, maybe 5, so more cars of scrap are stored in a nearby yard.
by the way, a scrapyard will need a crane if it's going to stack cars and remove prime movers.
Just to counterpoint TT, it must depend on where the scrapyard is. In my area loose junk is all over the place at most yards.
I plam to model a portion of Rockys in Mingo Junction. It's huge. Look it up on Wikimapia (just northwest of the junction proper) I need to figure out how to make a couple thousand junk vehicles cheaply though.
There are also a few right along the tracks in the Youngstown area, likely that at least one is rail served. Been awile since I was there but IIRC they are on rt7 or 11.
Modeling the Cleveland and Pittsburgh during the PennCentral era starting on the Cleveland lakefront and ending in Mingo junction
I'm replying simply because you asked everyone to.
The choice of modeling a scrap yard is purely up to the individual; however, I would say the choice to model one is a good one. Most scrap yards would not have steam engines included in the scrap they contain. However, most engine facilities probably would have a scrap yard and if it was at the end of the steam era, a steam engine might certainly be something being stripped in the scrap yard. What is enough traffic, would it be O.K. if it was to generate some traffic, or does it have to be enough?
I have a small scrap yard near my roundhouse, it was place to throw some “STUFF” I wasn’t going to use on the layout in any other way. Therefore I am a scrap yard proponent! “So, Yea for SCRAP YARDS!!!”
NP 2626 "Northern Pacific, really terrific"
Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association: http://www.nprha.org/