Freelance 2014-2 - Printable Version

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Re: Freelance 2014-2 - lajry - 04-08-2014

Reinhard
How is sugar unloaded from the hoppers - by air, gravity? Guess your sugar must be granular. Could airslide hoppers be used for powdered sugar? Fisher Flour on the LAJ Lower Alley received airslides at their tank spots.

Re: Freelance 2014-2 - faraway - 04-08-2014

lajry Wrote:Reinhard
How is sugar unloaded from the hoppers - by air, gravity? Guess your sugar must be granular. Could airslide hoppers be used for powdered sugar? Fisher Flour on the LAJ Lower Alley received airslides at their tank spots.
Andy, I do not know facts. Google shows some covered hoppers at the plant. the actual unloading takes place in door and is not visible http://goo.gl/maps/nK1yv
This is the web side of Domino http://www.dominosugar.com

Re: Freelance 2014-2 - FCIN - 04-08-2014

lajry Wrote:How is sugar unloaded from the hoppers - by air, gravity? Guess your sugar must be granular. Could airslide hoppers be used for powdered sugar? Fisher Flour on the LAJ Lower Alley received airslides at their tank spots.
Sugar would indeed be hauled in Airslide hoppers, but if you're modeling the contemporary scene, then most of the Airslides have been replaced with Pressure Differential covered hoppers. Both types of covered hoppers work on the same principal, where air pressure (5psi) is introduced to help the contents flow out of the car or in some cases to unload the commodity by vacuum.

I still see quite a few Airslides on trains in my area, transporting flour and sugar, but they are getting fewer all the time. In my modeled era (1978-1984) the Airslides would predominate. Sugar and/or flour would not be shipped in gravity discharge covered hoppers such as those designed to handle grain.

Here are a couple of images showing an Airslide being loaded with flour (note that the roof hatches seal airtight)
   
and a detail view of an Airslide being unloaded (the hose is pumping the air into the car to allow the contents to flow more easily from the hopper discharges)
   
Hope this helps.

Re: Freelance 2014-2 - fast car - 04-08-2014

Granulated sugar is normally unloaded from tanker trucks using vacuum motors located on the back of the trailers. The vacuum motors pull the sugar out of the tankers and push it up to the top of the silo to be deposited. In the bakery facility where I was a microbiologist the truck mounted vacuum pumps were assisted by vacuum pumps that were located inside the plant. I'm assuming that rail cars would have some type of assist from vacuum pumps located on site since these silos are in the 90' height range.

Larry

Re: Freelance 2014-2 - Brakie - 04-08-2014

100 pound bags of sugar is still being transported in 50' boxcars..

I seen a 50' loaded boxcar with its door jarred open and notice the plain brown bags said "Sugar" and some smaller print.

Re: Freelance 2014-2 - lajry - 04-08-2014

Thanks for the loading/unloading airslide pix Ed. Only modeling thru the '80s so my airslides will be OK. Think Fisher Flouring Mill was a distributor of bakery supplies. Fisher is #5 in the Attached Switching Map from Charlie Slater. Looks like there will be alot of traffic in & out of there.
attachment=0]LAJ 3 LOWER ALLEY REDUCED.jpg[/attachment]

Re: Freelance 2014-2 - faraway - 04-09-2014

The scrap yard moves in the background and replaces a shoebox.
[Image: IMG_3217_zps83b23861.jpg]

Re: Freelance 2014-2 - faraway - 04-12-2014

The current track plan has been stretched to and over it's limits. There is no other way to proceed than to rework the track plan. Most of the tracks will be reworked at the end but I decided to do the rework in smaller steps. The scenery will be mostly ignored/destroyed during that phase. The new track plan will not be optimized for dual Genset operation with long tracks but single short engines serving more and shorter industry leads. That was not an easy decision but the limited space takes it's toll. The track plan will be pure freelance. I am sorry but there is no track plan drawing available and details will be worked out when the tracks are laid.

Step 1 is the center cross as the anchor for the east and west industries at both sides. You see the two tracks of the east industry at the left side to be connected with a new switch to the left side of the cross. The west industry needs more serious rework to be started later. I will also give it a try and use Atlas #4 switches in the industry leads. It is not beautiful but saves a lot space.
The light gray/white stuff under the crossing is tight as concrete. I could not remove it totally and put the track on top. It is not really level. I will watch it carefully and may have to remove the cork as well and redo it.

The first test run on the cross without switch machines and two temporary attached tracks.
[Image: IMG_3220_zps93ae5ecf.jpg]

Re: Freelance 2014-2 - faraway - 04-12-2014

I have got a serious problem

My plan was to cleanup area about one square foot at a time to rebuild. The street running tracks are buried in plaster that can not be removed with reasonable effort. It is like concrete and bonds with the cork ground like hell. I would need hammer and pick and end up with a surface not suitable for tracks at all.
[Image: IMG_3221_zps90189776.jpg]

My backup (and initial) plan was to remove the cork from the wood and start with a new layer of cork after the wood got leveled with a smoothing plane. Problem is that I used a special glue this time with the cork and wood that sticks like hell. I can not remove the cork from the wood anymore.
[Image: IMG_3222_zps6f20e040.jpg]

Well, if I hammer like an idiot for an hour the cork can be removed from the area that needs to be cleaned up from the plaster now. It is ugly and I suspect it will never be really plain again. Have to rush to the home improvement market to get 6mm thick cork tiles to fill the hole.
[Image: IMG_3223_zps1266373a.jpg]

ps. Never ask me about street running on my layout anymore!

Re: Freelance 2014-2 - fast car - 04-12-2014

Reinhard,

"There is no operational layout any more and there is no plan to get one back except doing everything new from very scratch".

Initially, I thought you mentioned that you were going to start over from scratch. I had to revised my response to your thread since now it sounds like you are going to repair the section. I have always wanted to put down plaster to make a concrete area for unloading cars, however if I did it wrong I would have to tear it out. I'm not good at patching areas. For that reason I would probably use sheet plastic between the rails and covering the ties to make a concrete looking surface. All my roads, parking lots, track are held down with white glue.

I have come to the conclusion that I will be redoing my Miami River layout. However, it will not start the rebuild until late summer/early fall.

Good luck,

Larry

Re: Freelance 2014-2 - lajry - 04-12-2014

Reinhard
Those Xings at grade in switching areas are very normal to reduce space taken up by tracks. AND they also avoid switchbacks which really eat up space!

Re: Freelance 2014-2 - faraway - 04-12-2014

I am back on track Smile
[Image: IMG_3224_zpsb9bcf5be.jpg]

I was somehow hopeless when I removed the first little piece of cork and it toke forever. It became better an hour later when I toke the hammer and the pick and did real hard construction work. Brute force over 30 minutes removed enough cork to continue.

Larry, I have used and preferred sheet plastic like you. The problem is the lack of my precision to do that long road. That is the reason why I tried plaster. It looks better for me but I will NEVER do it again!!!

Re: Freelance 2014-2 - Mike Kieran - 04-12-2014

ps. Never ask me about street running on my layout anymore!
Reinhard

So what kind of pavement are you going to use for the street running?

(He says while ducking flying objects)

Re: Freelance 2014-2 - faraway - 04-12-2014

Mike Kieran Wrote:ps. Never ask me about street running on my layout anymore!
Reinhard

So what kind of pavement are you going to use for the street running?

(He says while ducking flying objects)
I will try to prevent it if possible. If required I will use it on straight track only. That works fine without plaster and precision. I use blue foam up to the ties and put thin styrene on top until it touches the rail side. That is quite easy on straight track with straight cut styrene.

Re: Freelance 2014-2 - doctorwayne - 04-12-2014

faraway Wrote:...... That is quite easy on straight track with straight cut styrene.

For curved track, lay a sheet of paper over the track and mark alignment reference points on the layout and on the paper. With the paper taped or held firmly in place, use a pencil laying almost parallel to the surface to rub the paper across and along the inside and outside edges of the rails - these edges will make distinct lines within the general smudge created.
Next, lay the paper atop the sheet of material from which you're making the road, and transfer the reference marks to it, then use a sharp blade to trace along the distinct lines.
Once the lines have been scored onto the road material, the paper can be removed and the cuts completed.
For the road surface between the rails, you'll need to remove additional material to provide flangeways for the trains wheels. I've found it easiest, after cutting the outer portions of pavement from the sheet, to simply set a pair of dividers to the width of the rail plus the width of the desired flangeway, then use them to mark the width of the needed portion onto the piece remaining after having cut away the material to either side. Don't forget that the material to be removed from these centre portions needs to be removed from both sides, not all from the same side.

[Image: Picturesfromnewcamera-2013063.jpg]


Wayne