Bourbon Whiskey Distillery

[Londoner]

Ed

I think constructing the pipe-work to load the dried mash by the warehouse would make an interesting detail and also mean switching a hopper onto that track. Although I concede you could use the plant track.

I was wondering about what the trestle crossed and how it looked given you have the coal trestle coming quite close. It is not clear from the photo you posted of #101 crossing the trestle.

Charlie

Wonderful pictues of barrel moving - this would definitely need to feature on a model in some way.

Ken

[FCIN]

Ken;

The coal trestle was almost up against the distillery building. It was probably 100 feet long. The coal trestle started at about the mid-point of the distillery building.

The main line trestle that the train is on crossed a very small spring and was perhaps 300 feet in length. It started almost at the end of the distillery building and ended a short distance before the railroad crossed the KY 1688 Woodlake Rd crossing going toward the Stamping Ground siding. That trestle was about 20 feet high at its highest point.

Here is an aerial view of Stamping Ground taken before demolition of the distillery had been completed and which I "doctored" some. Good thing that Kentucky doesn't update their aerial photos very often or we wouldn't have this for reference!



Note that the warehouse in question is still there, along with the main distillery building and grain elevator. Shame that all the other buildings are no longer standing in this photo. There were a couple of more warehouses on the hillside behind the remaining one. I probably should have tried to "line in" the railroad and the sidings on this view, but I think you can tell enough from this view and my diagram of the distillery to determine that.

Hard to tell from this view, but the distillery is built on a steep hillside. In fact the whole distillery is on a hill and the railroad right of way was about the only flat terrain in the place.

In the photo - that piece of Spring Street to the right of where I show the trestle location, is actually on the former F&C right of way and you can more or less see the roadbed along Railroad Street after it crossed KY 1688 Woodlake Rd. That small building that lays in the path of the right of way was of course not there when the railroad was. In the lower right hand corner of the aerial view is a large storage building now and it stands just about exactly where the F&C station had been years ago. Don't know when the station was torn down, but it was gone when I worked for the railroad.

Hope I answered your questions.

Charlie;

Good photo of a typical "Barrel Run". Those barrel runs were found at all the distilleries and ran everywhere on the property between the warehouses and ultimately terminated at the Gauge and Cistern Room where the whiskey was dumped from the barrels for bottling. Most of the ones I've seen at the distilleries around here, were constructed from very light railroad rail although not unusual to see them made from wood rails. Often they were laid right in the ground too. Just made it a lot easier to roll those barrels.

Ed

[Londoner]

Ed

Thank you. You did good with doctoring the picture, you can easily trace where the track went. I think it being on a hillside would make for a good model especially in a small space, and for the scenario I described in an earlier post, it slopes the right way! There are even trees for the track to disappear into heading for Frankfort.

Ken

[FCIN]

Ken;

You've got some good points there for modeling this distillery. As I'm getting deep into the planning stages for my HO layout, I'm tempted more all the time to model this on my freelance short line. Even have gone so far as to order a small fleet of coal hoppers (all to be painted and lettered L&N). Such an industry would be perfect for the major customer on a small railroad. In fact, this distillery and the track at Stamping Ground could be a great terminus for a small railroad.

Ed

[Londoner]

Ed

I am also now deep in the planning stage. This might be a stupid question but does the hillside slope down or up to Main Street on the aerial view?

Thanks
Ken

[FCIN]

Ken;

Sorry I didn't include information about the terrain! It slopes uphill from the "Main St" side. When you look at the photo, the terrain is relatively flat from Main St toward the distillery and the hillside starts at the distillery. In other words, the distillery building is constructed on the hillside - the railroad passes through the distillery area and is flat, then you have a gentle slope up away from the railroad. Where the railroad entered town from Frankfort (left side of the photo) it hugged the hillside (more like a ridge) between the hillside and the creek you can see in the photo.

The entire F&C right of way between Frankfort and Georgetown more or less followed the route of Elkhorn Creek. It is very hilly country. There were numerous cuts, fills and wooden trestles on that part of the line. Between Georgetown and Paris, the terrain is relatively flat in nature, and far fewer cuts, fills and trestles were required. The F&C was 40 miles long and at one time, had 40 bridges on the route. There were 3 trestles just outside of Stamping Ground on the Frankfort side, within a mile or so of this photo. The bridge abutments can be clearly seen from the road along with the roadbed of the railroad.

Ed

[FCIN]

Ken;

Here are a couple of HO engines that my friend Jerry customized and painted for the Frankfort & Cincinnati Railroad (Sorry about the poor focus, but had a time trying to get the digital camera to focus on them!)

First one is FCIN 102 - one of the original F&C GE 70 ton engines. Jerry modified the Bachmann model to more closely resemble the Phase I GE 70 ton by closing off the radiator opening in the nose. This is the original as delivered paint scheme
   
Next one is of FCIN 103 - An ALCo S-2 that Jerry painted in the Pinsly paint scheme. Jerry made his own decals for both models. Behind No. 103 are GE 70 ton locos 100 and 102
   

Ed

[Londoner]

Ed

They show the F & C colour scheme very well, good to know about the modification to the 70-tonner.

I am still figuring out how to fit a version of Buffalo Springs into the very small space I have and still be able to do some switching. Almost there.

Ken

[screen48]

I will have to follow this one as a distillery was along the way of my town but is no longer there and this may be a great idea to add.

Keep up the good work ! I look forward to more!

[Londoner]

Ed,

Bowser have just announce weathered freight cars and include 100 ton hoppers decorated for the L & N

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.bowser-trains.com/New_Products/New%2002_25_10%20Weathered%20Cars/New%2002_25_10%20Weathered%20Cars.htm">http://www.bowser-trains.com/New_Produc ... 20Cars.htm</a><!-- m -->

Would they have appeared on the F & C serving Buffalo Springs? I was looking to use smaller hoppers to delier the coal.

Best
Ken

[Brakie]

Ed,Nice looking F&C units. I don't recall ever seeing models of F&C's locomotives so,this may be a first..

[Londoner]

Ed,

When did the FCIN get their Alco S-2?

Back to Buffalo Springs, could you say something about how the distilllery meets the stream that has that trestle going over it. Was there a wall or did the ground just slope down?

I am on the verge of starting construction.

Thanks

Ken

[Londoner]

Ed

Scroll down after clicking this link, picture of FCIN Alco S-2

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.railpixs.com/misc2/misc2.html">http://www.railpixs.com/misc2/misc2.html</a><!-- m -->

Ken

[FCIN]

Ken;

The terrain at the end of the distillery building simply sloped off to meet the very small spring and dirt road that the trestle crossed. There was just enough clearance above that dirt road for a pick up truck. Sorry if I didn't make that clear in my earlier posts. You can see the dirt road in the photo on page 1 of this thread, but the tiny spring is not visible.

I don't have the exact dates when the F&C first began acquiring their S-2's and S-4, but would have been about 1971-1972. I'll have to do some checking to see if I can get you more exact dates if you need them. The photo (http://www.railpixs.com/misc2/misc2.html) is of ALCo S-4 No. 107, taken outside the shop. The concrete building you see behind it is the F&C's sand house and you can also see the front of the L&N local crews GP-40 behind it. Photo must have been taken in the afternoon just before we went to work that day.

I'm about to (finally!!) start working on my HO layout. IF I can make up my mind on the final plan. I'm submitting it for thoughts/suggestions in the Layouts section this morning. Haven't decided if I'm going to include a distillery on it or not, but there is a location for one on the plan.

Ed

[Londoner]

Thanks Ed,

I thought that's what it did, just needed to check. I am using your plan from page 1, of the ditillery with a short staging yard of some kind. I have been tracking down sources of embossed stone plastic for the main building.

I asked about the Alco but realistically I think I will be in a slightly earlier time frame that you so will see about getting a GE 70 ton switcher. Have decided if i keep waiting it will never happen, start with what you have seems to be a good way.

Your layout plan looks good.

Ken