I'm looking for warehouse loading dock doors and seals. Can anyone offer any assistance? They can either be ready made or instruction for making from scratch.
Thank you ahead of time.
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
First,I believe you mean dock door bellows not seals which can be easily made by using thin Evergreen ABS plastic strips. I am not aware of any commercially made bellows.
Shipping doors is offered by Pikestuff.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Marion,
I picked up the ones in the pic', from a Walthers cornerstone kit that was on sale. A Lauston Shipping and Lakeville Warehouse....they both were half off and I only bought them for all the parts that are in them, to use on other projects. All kinds of railroad doors, dock doors, etc. etc. I believe there are about six of those in one kit, small ones also, don't recall off hand.
Take Care!
Frank
zstripeI believe there are about six of those in one kit, small ones also, don't recall off hand.
Frank,For clarification both Bud's Trucking and Lauston Shipping background buildings has two dock doors and bellows for both doors. The kits does include extra walls for extending the distance between the dock doors.Lauston Shipping includes optional walls with window openings.
These are excellent kits for small ISL that uses structures along the backdrop. I like them due to their length with two car spots or you can opt for one dock door.I use two doors and a storage silo for unloading a covered hopper or tank car for three car spots plus a off spot.
Must be bellows in Ohio -- or just on the RR, where a seal is just the metal tag set on a door to show it's not been tampered with enroute. Both are seals in Illinois, at least since 1976 when I started in the warehouse
Easy door seals/bellows? Find a piece of black foamcore and cut them out of it. Looks very realistic for virtually no cost. Sorry about the poor image quality, had to grab them on the fly as nothing on file and cooking breakfast...
Keep in mind measurements. Mine look a little fat, was working from memory, but they do differe somewhat in size according to brand. Their location vertically sometimes is a function of the trailers serving the facility and its age, as OTR trailer heights did change several times before settling on what's in use now. Some traiers like this milk trailer are relatively low and there can be a gap at the top, although technically this could be a health code violation, depending on era and jurisdiction. The goal was to exclude insects and dust, especially in food distribution facilities.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
BRAKIEdock door bellows...which can be easily made by using thin Evergreen ABS plastic strips
I'd like to see some guidance on making a bellows with the strips, as I am rather unimaginative when it comes to such things.
Thanks
Max,First place to start is by looking at Mike's photos very simple construction.
Then you will need:
Plastruct 90746 MS-412 solid styrene rectangular strip at .125"
Plastruct thin styrene to fit the solid styrene-I'm not sure what size so,I would eyeball the fit at the hobby shop or Hobby Lobby.
Cut three pieces to fit door,then glue to the building next to the door,then paint black-like Mike's photos.
mlehmanMust be bellows in Ohio --
I think that's one of those things that varies from locale to locale..I was told they was bellows.YMMV.
Speaking of docks..Where's your trailer bump post(part of the dock) and ICC trailer lock?
BRAKIEFirst place to start is by looking at Mike's photos very simple construction.
Thanks for the response. I was hoping, however, for something that more replicates the bellows effect.
BRAKIESpeaking of docks..Where's your trailer bump post(part of the dock) and ICC trailer lock? WhistlingWink
No bump posts until the lot and dock get detailed.
My era is somewhere early 70-ish, but I'm flexible...in any case, well before dock locks, which IIRC were required starting somewhere around the early 1990s? But that's another detail that decidely places your structure either pre- or post-whatever within a couple of years. It was a major project where I used to work, with 120+ dock doors, most of them with extra racking installed over the ramp area.
BRAKIEPlastruct thin styrene to fit the solid styrene-I'm not sure what size so,I would eyeball the fit at the hobby shop or Hobby Lobby. Cut three pieces to fit door,then glue to the building next to the door,then paint black-like Mike's photos.
Yeah, an overlay of the flaps represented by styrene would make some nice detail, as you could build that up to suit the specific app. These things do vary, so if going for a particualr prototype this would allow that.
My seals aren't painted, they're dead simple because I use black foam core. The paper facing represents the part that contacts the truck, while the foam showing on the sides represents the side of the cushion well enough here, as the whole facility is in the middle of the turnback loop that forms Durango on my center penisula. Closer up, a detailed bellows/seal would be nifty, but with my eyes and the average viewing distance, mine are good enough to slap up. If you do use foamcore, remember that core melts with many spray paints if you do need to paint it.
And these are usually not all black, as they often have yellow or some sort of reflective striping on or adjacent to the seal to help drivers back things in square.
maxman BRAKIE First place to start is by looking at Mike's photos very simple construction. Thanks for the response. I was hoping, however, for something that more replicates the bellows effect.
BRAKIE First place to start is by looking at Mike's photos very simple construction.
If I had a extra building that needed the bellows I would be more then happy to show how its done on You Tube.
You don't really notice the bellows unless you standing next to the dock.All they do is protect against the rain,snow and sleet-in theory.Every one I worked with leaked..
Does anyone know when bellows/seals first came into common use? I don't remember seeing them at all here in the mid atlantic until the late 70's or early 80's.
My father supervised the building of his new terminal for Carolina in the 70's and they did not have them.
I've never seen a picture from the era I model, 1954, showing dock bellows.
Sheldon
BRAKIE mlehman Must be bellows in Ohio -- I think that's one of those things that varies from locale to locale..I was told they was bellows.YMMV. Speaking of docks..Where's your trailer bump post(part of the dock) and ICC trailer lock?
mlehman Must be bellows in Ohio --
Trailer lock, something else from way after my era........
Back in the day, they just used wheel chocks.......
Sheldon,
That's roughly right in terms of widespread use. They were fairly common in northern climes, because they also kept warm air in during the winter, and for perishable docks, when you wanted to keep cold air in all the time. The facility I worked at began as an offsite perishable warehouse in the 60s, then was expanded when the dry good moved next to it from a previous landlocked downtown location. AFAIK, it always had seals.
IIRC, the regs were always in place at the federal level about controlling vermin in storage facilities in the ag/food trade. Specifics like seals came along as technology improved. IIRC the nationwide enforcement became somewhat more strigent after several scandals of deficient, unsanitary conditions and payoffs to inspectors in the Chicago area in the mid-70s of warehouse involved in the commodities trade. Nasty food was apparently OK until some commodities traders complained about it hurting their profits when stored goods weren't exactly "good" because of warehouse conditions. This led to a general assessment of what needed done to improve things and seals/bellows were low-hanging fruit, likely promoted by the door seal industry , too, as that's the way things to work. Even when in the public interest, things don't seem to happen until someone can figure out a way to make a buck on it.
Well, since I don't model that era, I'll go back to sleep now.....
ATLANTIC CENTRALTrailer lock, something else from way after my era........ Back in the day, they just used wheel chocks.......
Wheel chocks work at low-intensity facilities. At large facilities like ours, even with well over 100 doors, a door could be reused 6 to 10 times in a 24 period. That's a lot of walking for the jockey drivers to ask them to set and pull wheel chocks, even worse when things are wet, snowy or icy.
Our crews were pretty good, even though a number of us had authority to order a pull or spot from the yard crew, but human are prone to error. I think we actually lost warehouse equipment due to a "docking" issue only a couple of times in the time I worked there, a pretty remarkable record.
I will say that I "took a ride" probably a dozen times...when you're in and out hundreds of time a night, you know when something's not right when you're in the trailer because the yard work involved spotters with hydraulic lifts. When the 6BT started roaring and things started rising, you know what's happening and stay put until you get where you're going, hopefully not a locked door -- or you might be there awhile.
Dock locks do serve a purpose in forcing the warehouse to release a trailer before it can be pulled, so if there's a mistake, the trailer isn't going anywhere until that happens. This does introduce a neat modeling feature, because dock-lock-equipped ramps have indicators lights showing red and green to indicate if the trailer has been unlocked to the truckdriver. Another reason to use LEDs
Bellows/seals,bumpers and trailer hooks goes hand in hand depending on era. Let's add the more modern dock safety lights.This light shows red when the trailer is locked to the dock and green when its released for movement.
Another overlooked detail is the dock plate.
BRAKIEFrank,For clarification both Bud's Trucking and Lauston Shipping background buildings has two dock doors and bellows for both doors. The kits does include extra walls for extending the distance between the dock doors.Lauston Shipping includes optional walls with window openings.
Larry, Just also for clarification. I mentioned Lakeville Warehousing...it is not a background building like Bud's Trucking/Lauston Shipping. It is a full size building and has seven (7) dock doors, two styles, bellows and pressure pillow:
https://www.walthers.com/lakeville-modern-style-warehouse-kit-12-x-19-x-4-quot-30-5-x-48-3-x-10-2cm
I used 1/2 of that building heavily modified, with large roll-up rail doors, scratch built at both ends, for My display case. Facing wall, is removeable.
Here's a couple of photos from the joint I used to earn my living from that may help if you decide to scratch your air-locks. Sorry there arent any close-up shots but maybe they will give you some ideas, anyway.
Around 1972?
1979 or so...
1982... (different dock)
2014!
There were at least three different makes of air-locks used. Chalfant Shelter Seal, Air Barrier and Air-Locke. Some of these may have been made by the same company. They ALL were a pain to maintain. Some blew up like inflatable rubber rafts and others had foam pads in them. You can see the outlines of the caulking on the brick from all the different ones in the bottom photo.
http://www.airlocke.com/
One time, temperatures dropped while a trailer was at the dock and the rubberized canvas froze to the trailer roof. The air-lock wound up somewhere out on the Interstate...
You can see what was left of the "Dock-Lock" mechanism by 2014 (the two vertical rails below the dock plate). Once they became "too costly" to maintain the company went back to wheel chocks like in 1972.
https://www.google.com/search?q=truck+dock+air+locke&biw=1344&bih=766&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjJ7obuwe_PAhUDPCYKHSuzDQ4Q_AUIBygC#tbm=isch&q=truck+dock+seals
Good Luck, Ed
Back in the day, portable dock plates were most common, but I think the built in dock plate goes back farther than any of these other modern advancements.
I grew up around the trucking industry, my father worked in that business most of his life. From 1967 to 1977 he was a terminal manager for CAROLINA, then the largest carrier east of the Mississippi. I worked in the terminal in my late teens.
Baltimore was a big meat packing town in the day, and I did electrical and refrigeration work in many of them early in my adult life. Loading docks with roofs over the trailers were very common, and many of those facilities had totaly indoor loading - trailer was backed into a bay deep enough for the whole truck and trailer!
Many regular freight transfer terminals also had roofs that overhung enough to provide weather protection without bellows or seals. Many still exist here today.....
In this region, indoor rail car loading/unloading is/was pretty common too. The oldest industrial parts of Baltimore had tracks in the streets and cars were switched into sidings that often go inside the building.
The now gone GM asasembly plant here had a massive indoor rail unloading area, eight tracks in pairs with door level docks like passenger platforms. Boxcars and flat cars full of frames, body panels, engines, transmissions, etc, were unloaded with fork trucks and rolling cranes. And that plant also had totally indoor truck loading docks as well.
Nothing against all these new gadets, they are just outside my era......
I believe I'm old enough to be Your Father.....I started working on the dock, for an outfit called Moore Freight lines in Chgo. in 1960, I was 18. The dock was two 35ft. flat beds back to back in an empty lot, for about three months, before a building was found. Been in the trucking/intermodal/owner business of same until 2004, when I fully retired....sold every truck I had left, starting in 1999 until 2000 when I had bladder cancer.....operation was sucessful, so now I take one day at a time.
Oh! I was in Vietnam in 1967 and came home with a lifetime gift from there..but that's another story!
zstripeI mentioned Lakeville Warehousing...it is not a background building like Bud's Trucking/Lauston Shipping.
That's what I get for trying to read before my second cup of java.
As you may already notice the walls and doors for Bud's Trucking and Lauston Shipping is the same as Lakeville's.
I've seen photos of Walthers Magic Pan Bakery cut in half and being use as a background building..Very sharp looking. I wished I thought of that.
I will "steal" that idea on my next ISL.
BRAKIEI will "steal" that idea on my next ISL.
Larry,
Yes I do have the Bud's building also...that's what prompted Me to get the larger building when I found it on sale. I also will not have another layout or ISL, not in My lifetime anyway! But what I have been doing..is buying a lot of things on sale and building them for My two youngest Grandson's, who have an on-going build of a layout in their basement and have sections of My layout incorporated into their's. Mainly because I had come to the realization, that Mine was just too big, for one operator and I don't get around to well anymore.....So My dream hopefully will live on through them.
zstripe Sheldon, I believe I'm old enough to be Your Father.....I started working on the dock, for an outfit called Moore Freight lines in Chgo. in 1960, I was 18. The dock was two 35ft. flat beds back to back in an empty lot, for about three months, before a building was found. Been in the trucking/intermodal/owner business of same until 2004, when I fully retired....sold every truck I had left, starting in 1999 until 2000 when I had bladder cancer.....operation was sucessful, so now I take one day at a time. Oh! I was in Vietnam in 1967 and came home with a lifetime gift from there..but that's another story! Take Care! Frank
Well frank, you are a little older than me, but you would have had to start pretty young to be my father. I was born in 1957, my father served during Korea, he drove a Sherman in the army, then transfered to that new "Air Force" thing they were putting together. They needed machanics, he could fix anything.......
I missed the last draft registration by a few months, but have a good friend your age who was in Vietnam.
But here on my ATLANTIC CENTRAL we have rewritten history - It is only 1954 the government has already got out of the way of piggyback, all the trailers are still 35' and less, and Intermodal has a stronger start than it did in real life.......Trucks and trains work in total harmony for the greater good......
BRAKIE First,I believe you mean dock door bellows not seals which can be easily made by using thin Evergreen ABS plastic strips. I am not aware of any commercially made bellows. Shipping doors is offered by Pikestuff.
When I worked at a Wal-Mart FDC, we called them door seals. And, believe it, or not, they still used chocks for trailers. Someone from Asset Protection had to visually check for chocks before the door could be tagged for pull in/pull out. They had incidents where an unloaded pulled into a trailer that hadn't been chocked, which would shove the trailer away from the door, causing the unloader to hit the ground.
Marlon,I worked as a forklift operator at a warehouse and we also used wheel chocks and wasn't allowed to release the trailer lock until the chocks was removed. It was my duty to place and removed them.
My supervisor called them bellows. Another supervisor called them a boot. I called them junk because they was in poor repair and leaked.
I supposed sucking in cigarette smoke,propane fumes and diesel fuel wrecked my lungs.Thankfully I don't have lung cancer but,I get short winded. I had a near fatal heart attack in '05 that retired me and changed my life style..I haven't smoke since my heart attack.
I could have been a young Father...LOL, I was 15 when You were born.
Interesting to note..My father was in Indo China (Vietnam today) and Burma during WWII when I was born. I didn't even know I had a Father or see Him until late 1945.
Where did the time go?....
Take Care, My Friend!
BRAKIEMarlon,I worked as a forklift operator at a warehouse and we also used wheel chocks and wasn't allowed to release the trailer lock until the chocks was removed. It was my duty to place and removed them. My supervisor called them bellows. Another supervisor called them a boot. I called them junk because they was in poor repair and leaked. I supposed sucking in cigarette smoke,propane fumes and diesel fuel wrecked my lungs.Thankfully I don't have lung cancer but,I get short winded. I had a near fatal heart attack in '05 that retired me and changed my life style..I haven't smoke since my heart attack.
Brakie, I'm glad you survived. The one thing I noticed about dock doors was that they were too big for containers. Trailers fit the door fine, but since most containers are shorter than trailers, there were big leaks around the doors. In winter, cold air coming in the doors could ruin a whole shipment of bananas from being exposed to the frigid air. Bananas, by the way, are Wal-Marts biggest selling item.
Medina1128I'm looking for warehouse loading dock doors and seals. Can anyone offer any assistance?
Yes, it has been almost a year but...
http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/product-p/933-4070.htm
I'm sure the OP may have found other resources but for anyone else interested in modern dock seals, here 'ya go!
Cheers— Ed