I'm thinking about putting in a small rail-served and rail-used scrap yard on my modern-era layout. How small can I make this (I'm thinking two tracks), and besides scrap material, a small office, a fence, and a crane, what else makes up a scrap yard?
My layout is late Transition Era, but there are common features to scrap yards across the years.
I picked up the pieces for this scrapyard at various train shows and sales over a few years. I spent some time painting and weathering them, and also set the piles atop pedestals of roadbed foam, to raise them up and make them look bigger than the resin castings were.
Walthers has a number of scrapyard machines, like crushing and shredding equipment. They are definitely modern-era, nothing for me, but you might find them interesting.
I scratchbuilt the office and the light poles, which have real lights on them. They look pretty good at night and create an effective scene. I used some Walthers chain-link fence, but mostly I built the plank fence from coffee stirrers. The cars are old cereal-box toys, with the windows and headlights removed with a Dremel, most of the tires gone, and the occasional door or hood removed with a razor saw. I used Instant Rust, a craft-store product, to highlight the more serious rust effects.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Nice looking scrap yard you have there, Mr. B.
I wouldn't think two tracks are necessary, but more is always better if you have the space.
One thing that's a marker of a scarp yard to me is a crane of some sort to load the metal into gons. It can have either a magnetic or "orange peel"-type scrap handling gear in place of the hook. Walthers 25-ton crane provides a rail-mounted variant. Sheepscot Scale Products offers some crawler cranes.
http://www.sheepscotscale.com/site/category/content-type/products
A tire-mounted crane is less common, because that scrap is pretty hard on tires.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
An automotive scrapper will frequently have a shed with racks for salvaged small parts (alternators, fuel and water pumps, window glass...) pulled off cars going to the crusher. Also drums for drained liquid, and possibly one of those horizontal tanks with an old-style gas pump head and filler hose. (Fluids have to be drained, and salvaged gasoline may be recycled into the crawler crane, the company wrecker and even the boss's personal car.)
If the yard doesn't have its own baler, it might make 'car pancakes' with a heavy crawler. (Think D7 Cat, not crawler crane.) That way more can be loaded in a gon.
One outfit I saw in Mojave, CA, 50 years ago had two tracks. One held a gon for the scrap. Obsolete freight cars were torched on the other...
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with a mine that ships salvaged/scrap machinery)
A couple of decent size mounds of shredded and baled scrap is always a good idea for modern rail-served scrap yards; pencil shavings, brillo pads chopped up; tiny shards of styrene and cardboard glued to shaped foam piles; commercial castings; IIRC at least one guy use broken pieces of lasanga noodles coated with sealant so it wouldn't rot over the years; and so on - all painted and weathered appropiately. Best if the mounds are larger than a gondola or two to justify rail service.And looking at google satellite view, lots of yards there's a single siding buried somewhat in the dirt, often curving around the mounds so the loading mobile crane can doesn't have to traverse too far to load the gondolas.Could work as a background model, mounds of scrap positioned to hide the back-drop while the siding curves around them - at least that what I plan to do (others have done so as well, with good results)
A thing to remember about scrap years is the black ground with weeds.
Most scrappers that require rail service is large and will have several crawler cranes with magnets.These are use to load mill gons and trucks with dump style trailers.
Scrap piles are in various grades from scrap iron to mill scrap.From appliances to scrap wire.Its not toss in a haphazard manner.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
You could make it smaller yet. A track with room for a car or three, gravel to drive a truck up next to the railcar, and a excavator like this one: http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/405-11282
The high cab on the excavator is pretty important, so the operator can see down into the car and the truck.
The scrap would come from the main plant (off-layout), and get driven next to the railcar.
A slightly larger yard is here: http://goo.gl/maps/ejCZZ
The track holds six cars, but they only get 3 at a time. That gives then room to move them around, and to weigh the cars. Usually they load cars, but they also get cars in to go onto the scale. The actual scale itself is hard to see, as it is a few things bolted to the rail, not as involved as an older installation.
I'm pretty sure they use the excavator to move the cars around. Also note the derail, as it is downhill a bit to the main.
This yard loads mainly cubed scrap.
Mike WSOR engineer | HO scale since 1988 | Visit our club www.WCGandyDancers.com
Sorry for the lengthy reply, but having visited our local scrapyard twice this past week... here is what I noticed for a scene on a future layout:
* the driveway was very rough, no maintenance, mostly concrete that has taken a beating.
* big entry gates (with huge chain) made out of various pieces of scrap.
*this particular site had several smashed UPS vehicles lined up in a row.
*lots of industrial dumpsters, beat up of course, for sorting.
*smaller front end loaders running around putting scrap in those dumpsters.
*a man cutting up scrap near the pile using a torch.
*the weight scale with office, in and out lanes.
(this scrap yard did not have rail service, just noting what I saw in general)
*a line of vehicles waiting to back under the shed to unload aluminum cans. Scale under the roof, and a conveyor loading cans into a trailer (van).
*lots of beat-up, older trucks and trailers: van trailers... flatbeds... open/canvas top trailers.
*a line of pick-ups with scrap in them or in the trailers that were being towed.
*a lot of scrap and junk all over the place, not just in the big piles
*a big pile of scrap with everything metal imaginable on that pile... all kinds of stuff including a truck body and an Applebee's sign.
*the crane with a "grabber" (?) There was also a crane, not being used while I was there, with the magnetic pick-up
(sorry I also don't know the actual terms for the equipment)
* as previously mentioned, there were also piles for appliances... a line of bicycles.... piles of this and that all over.
*a shop for fixing the equipment the scrapyard owns, a building for sorting more valuable metal and also a front office with a pay window.
*other equipment including bulldozers and forklifts.
Like I said, this one is not rail-served, and I did not notice any equipment that looked similar to the Walthers pieces... but maybe I just did not see them. You do have to sort of pay attention to what you are doing when the sign says "by driving past this point, you acknowledge we are not responsible for your vehicle or your life."
Not sure I recall seeing one, but I might include a small beat-up camper trailer for the nightwatchman, or maybe some big dogs.
Anyway, there are some more details from what I can remember.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Nice model yards above!
Scrapping metal is one of my favorite past times, if you can believe that. I just hauled in a ton plus today. I have observed this of modern scrap yards. Even the most modest ones (big enough to be served by rail still) usually use specially equipped excavators to unload incoming vehicles. Some won't unload a pickup with these, they'll only unload trailers. They usually have grapples (grabbers, jawhooks, pinchers) and can usually pick up the electromagnet with them when they want to use it. There are specialized scrap yard machines that look like excavators but have longer booms, elevated cabs, and a few other specialized features. I once watched one of those throw a full sized class 8 tandem rear axle Freightliner around like a Tonka!
These days, modern scrap yards make it very clear that they know exactly what rail road related items look like, and that anyone bringing in any RR related scrap items will be prosecuted. Railroads are very protective of their assets and go to lengths to keep the opportunists from trying to capitalize on them, and probably have private contracts with scrap processers, don't use public access ones. No law says your model can't be an exception. That's between YOUR RR and scrap yard! (My scrap yard would)
The yard I went to today has their vehicle scale such that, you enter the yard over it, and exit over it, even if you don't have to weigh in. (You may be turning in brass or aluminum, weighed in on a smaller scale.) Just an observation. Saves space.
Modern yards seem to take in their share of appliances. Making a convincing looking bunch of those in HO should not be hard.
As mentioned, even a minimal yard will have separate piles for;
"Tin" (sheet metal items, and thin stuff, bicycles, appliances, car fenders, lighter junk like that.
. "Number one prep ferrous" Heavier stuff, cut in less that 3 foot lengths. can and often does include cast items like engine heads, disk brake rotors, chunky stuff like that.
Number 2 ferrous, Anything over sized. Truck frames for example. Whole engines, large tanks, etc. (All tanks have to have large holes cut in them) That's where your crews are busy with the torches.
These 3 piles usually have lots in each that should be in the other.
Dirty aluminum. Items made from mostly aluminum that are not pure aluminum Anything that has steel fasteners still in it, for example, or other materials. (Lawn chairs.) And they'll knock down a very large item even if it has one single steel screw in it! There's a huge difference in price between clean and dirty aluminum. Sorted accordingly.
Clean aluminum goes in bins, and usually is sorted between cast (clean bell housings, transmission shells...), and extruded. (Aluminum ladders, clean lawn chair frames, sheet aluminum, etc. These may be stored outdoors.
There's usually a shed building where the smaller scale is, and they keep the pricier stuff in it. Copper, brass, sometimes a bin of clean aluminum, etc.
Scrap metal yards don't like tires on dead cars, they cost to get rid of.
These are some guidelines. There are no hard fast rules. The bins are usually beat up pretty well, the ground is often dirt, and that can be rough and dusty, big puddles in rainy season, ruts. This is NOT a clean, pretty trade! The equipment is well used, scratched up, dusty, dirty, often converted from other uses.
Those excavators could be substituted by small cranes, supplemented with front loaders with forks. (Oldies) Small wheeled fork lifts get stuck in dirt, so large-tired machines are preferred.
The fun part is that these places often reuse what comes in for their own purposes. Fences, which are always high, can be made of corrugated or other metal roofing material. Even cut up shipping containers. Some of the bins are old dumpsters, barrels, tanks cut in half, old dump truck beds, Etc. Some places "decorate" the walls of structures inside the yard with whimsical finds, toys, interesting automotive grills, anything someone found interesting. Beverage truck bodies can be converted to racks for metal if your dealer sells it. Many do, especially if they're not big corporate chains that overthink liability.
By the way I have saved a LOT of money buying metals from scrap dealers, anything from diamond plate aluminum remnants, angle iron, pipe, and machinable aluminum and brass.
Model scrap yards, like real ones, can't not be interesting! Dan
Two tracks is fine, but consider one track, and adding more scrap piles. Scrap yards I've seen have a lot of scrap sitting around, some piles are probably 20-30 feet high. Think about how the industry works (I'm no scrap expert, but...) people truck in small amounts of scrap and dump it (after weighing it so the delivery guy gets paid the right amount, of course). Then the scrap gets sorted into piles of similar material...you don't want to put expensive copper or aluminum into a cheaper steel pile. Once a carload of material is piled up (and the scrap price is right), they load it into a gondola and send it off to a metal processing industry to melt it down and reuse it.
Scrap yards are an interesting industry with a lot of variety possible...search google or bing maps and see what's around the area you model. If you mimic what is in the real world, you are sure to come up with a good looking industry.
I'd stay away from using real metal in your scene, even if it's glued down, there is a chance it might end up being attracted to motor magnets (if it contains iron) or short out (even non magnetic metal is conductive) something. It will probably be fine now, but years down the road, something could come loose and cause a mysterious issue.
In addition to what you already mentioned you need, I think you could use a truck scale, workers, maybe an indoor storage building (or garage if your scrap yard owns it's own trucks) and a few 'shop' trucks to move welding supplies and tools around the yard (I've seen an old junk jeep that was rescued from a scrap pile...it doesn't have to look or run well, just enough to move around the yard; no mirrors, windshield or fenders).
Post some pics if you can, we all love pics! Before, during and after construction are great!
http://delray1967.shutterfly.com/pictures/5
SEMI Free-Mo@groups.io
I just want to say that I am really getting a lot out of this discussion. I hope there is more to come because I really want to have a scrap yard on my ho layout.
Thanks
wdcrvr
eagle1030 I'm thinking about putting in a small rail-served and rail-used scrap yard on my modern-era layout. How small can I make this (I'm thinking two tracks), and besides scrap material, a small office, a fence, and a crane, what else makes up a scrap yard?
Hi everyone,
Thanks for all the awesome replies, links, photos (lot's of awesome modeling here!).
Like this happens sometimes, our small club had a building, Washington Salvage, built it, put in a spur track, limited space, and now that we are developing the operations for the layout, have to re-think what we've done and make sense of it.
In all cases, a certain amount of selective compression and modeler's license must be applied. In our case, we'll take a heavy dose of both, but I think the overall impression will be good once we're finished.
We're using a small work crane on a short track next to the spur (have to change from hook to magnet depending on the load). Our layout is mostly going to operated in a late 70s - early 80's era. Not sure if it is prototypical, but we think it looks believable. More photos to come as we add more weathering, detail, piles of scrap, a loader, trucks, etc. The detailing possibilities are lots of work, and lots of fun.
-Greg
Hello here is my scrap yard. It's a small one track in the yard its self for loading and one out side the fence for sotrage. I used left over parts from kits for junk. You can take foil and mash it into blocks use any socket with a 1/4 inch drive. Use hershey kiss rappers of different colors in your blocks to look like crushed cans.
Hope this helps Frank
Sullivan Steel in Holyoke, Ma is not far from me. I have seen a couple different cranes with claws for picking up scrap, couple bucket loaders. a four wheel self propelled magnet rail crane. Last couple of years a lot of new rail for Amtrak rerouting theough the area.
A bunch of large scrap containers that are put on trucks to bring scrap to the yard. All the hopper cars are labeled Sullivan Steel. Many at times are stored in Holyoke by Pan Am Railway. You can see the yard in Google Maps.
Search You Tube for scrap yard videos. There are many. You can download the videos and pause the videos and do screen shots.
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
Hello all,
Great scene!
Just one question: How does the crane move back and forth on the track?
I could envision several methods:
On my coal pike I have a bone-yard adjacent to the power plant served by an overhead crane.
I could incorporate several aspects of a scrap or reclamation center in this area.
Thank you for the great ideas.
Hope this helps.
"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"