new project

[e-paw]

Here is the space where I will plant the plant, It's roughly a five foot by thirty inch space. I am bashing two of the Walthers Valley Cement kits to build Hercules from. It sounds like a large structure, but it is small when compared to the prototype. I had to compress the plant greatly and leave out several of the buildings to make it fit the space that I have. I started by scanning the parts of the kit and building mockups to see how things would fit as far as buildings and structures go.    

Then I was able to start on the loading building. I built a jig and cut some of the silos in half and glued them together to make 16 short silos instead of 8 tall ones.    
   
   
   

[e-paw]

Here they are with a roof cut from a plastic sheet installed.    

and the bulk loading shed is added.    

I also started on the Bag house.    

At this point " with most of the bag house finished" I was able to come up with a track plan.    

   

[e-paw]

The next two pics show the east end of the plant. Here I will add a dropdown section that will hinge out of the way when not in use. But that is a latter project. I will need this as the turnouts to the west are out of reach from the front of the layout making single person operation difficult. with a second operator this is not a problem. You can see where the double track main ends at the edge of the layout, That is a roll out section Called Saylor's junction. The second operator would be on the other side of it. He, "or she", is only really needed when a train is entering or leaving the plant from the branch that connects to the main in Bath.    

   

I have also started on the Head house of the bag and bulk loading building.    
   

I have also added the office that is on the end of the silos.    

[e-paw]

Here are a few links about the prototype that I am using as reference.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.odysseygreenenergy.com/HerculesCementStockertownPAOnsite/slides/20_herculesCement.html">http://www.odysseygreenenergy.com/Hercu ... ement.html</a><!-- m -->

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.gingerb.com/Hercules%2520Cement%2520View%25201.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.gingerb.com/stockertown_station.htm&h=457&w=700&sz=41&tbnid=ckPWS7_wkZeLbM:&tbnh=86&tbnw=132&zoom=1&usg=__j8ge2YYOVUlX-zt0a_U2S0fkW-s=&docid=t8L_JXBP3CLliM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=qjwgUMn4MYye6QG1g4HABQ&ved=0CEAQ9QEwAA&dur=287">http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt ... AA&dur=287</a><!-- m -->

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://media.lehighvalleylive.com/nazareth_impact/photo/herculescementjpg-d379c2d97554791c.jpg">http://media.lehighvalleylive.com/nazar ... 54791c.jpg</a><!-- m -->

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.siahq.org/tours/lehighvalley/hercphotos.html">http://www.siahq.org/tours/lehighvalley/hercphotos.html</a><!-- m -->

I am also using the ARHS publication called Flags Diamonds and Statues volume 16 number 3. It has several overview of all the cement plants in the Stockertown aria that were served by the LNE on the Martins Creek branch ( there were eight plants on this branch alone ).

[sailormatlac]

Very interesting rendition of the prototype, maybe compressed, but the way you assemble buildings together work convincingly. Those small cement silos are great! The perfect foreground industry.

Matt

[Tyson Rayles]

That's shaping up very nicely!

[Ralph]

Great looking work! I appreciate the photos of your construction process that included the use of your home made jig, as well as tools like the clamps, weights, and level. Looking forward to more!

[faraway]

An interesting industry with a variety of structures and buildings of different shapes. You mock ups are very helpful.

[e-paw]

Thank you gents. I've got a bit more to post today.

A bit more work to see how the track will fit.    

I have also started on the smokestack    

   

I was able to enlarge the top of the stack in this pic to get the details correct. One nice thing here is that the stairs and ladders did not get added till some time after the period that I model, so it's a lot of work that I don't have to do.    

I have also enclosed the rest of the head house over the silos for the bulk loading aria. I blanked over the windows on the head house too.    

[e-paw]

Here's a better shot of the closed up windows and a dust collector that I added.    

This is what I was going for....    

I will be masking off the lettering on the silos so they got a coat of rattle can spray-paint.    

I want it to look like this eventually. With age the letters have faded to a greenish blue as it is still the same paint that was applied back in 42.    

[e-paw]

I have a few more pics to post ... first off is the start of one of the furnace buildings for the rotary kilns.    

   

While that dries I got all the track wired, and the control panel built.    

   

   

[e-paw]

I stuck some temporary labels on the panel.    

I assembled the kilns and started the other kiln building.    

   

Here are a few overview shots of the aria....    

   

[Kev1340]

Very interesting build, and it's coming along great

Cheers,

Kev

[e-paw]

Some more progress pics...

I started on the boiler house....
   

   

   

And the bag-house and silos also. If you look at the kiln building you'll see that I've started on an extension that would house the "guns".    

And I added the roof to the bag-house. It's just some cardstock that I had laying around.    
in the far right of the last pic you can see the bulk storage building. I am building it to look like it is under construction as it was added to the plant in the early 50's. It also looks like I will not be doing the Preheat tower, it was put up some time in the late 60's. My layout is set in the mid 40's to early 50's. It's such a cool structure I may have to use some modelers license.

[Ralph]

Keeps getting more and more interesting! Love that big smoke stack!