Freelance 2011

[Tyson Rayles]

Reinhard just paint the ballastrade grey and you won't have to worry about it the next time you paint!
General Mills is looking very good!

[Russ Bellinis]

Russ, Andy, don't forget to pick me up when you go to Vernon next time. Just honk the horn. Will be with you in a minute
Reinhard

I would love to take you along, Reinhard. I had a great time last time when you were here. I don't know if you can hear the horn across both the U.S. and the Atlantic Ocean. As far as that goes it would be quite a swim and hike to get here. How many weeks in advance should I honk the horn?

[faraway]

Some progress with the simplified superstructure of General Mills in Vernon. The selective compression becomes very noticeable if you compare the structures with the covered hoppers on this photo and on the posted photos of the prototype.

The four main parts of the superstructure are put together but not glued by now. I am still optimizing the overall appearance.



ps. The balustrade got three additional layers of yellow paint until the gray spots have been fully covered.

[FCIN]

Reinhard;

Your General Mills facility is looking GREAT!. Have to ask - how did you get the General Mills "G" on that silo? That alone easily identifies who the facility belongs to and really looks like the prototype in spite of having to compress everything - which we all do for most of our industries.

[Russ Bellinis]

Reinhard, did you paint the "G" on the last silo free hand or does someone make a decal of the General Mills "G"? It looks great. I'm thinking that if the low structure is close to the General Mills complex on your layout, you may need to compress it a bit as well just to keep proper perspective. Your complex doesn't loo all that compressed. You kept the same # of off white silos and only eliminated one set of the grey ones. The building is shortened somewhat, but I think if you something more behind the loading area, perhaps a picture of the plumbing "nightmare", on the back drop I think the complex will look big enough. The other possibility would be to put a picture of the plumbing behind some modeled plumbing in front to hide the angle of the photo a bit and give it a bit more depth.

[faraway]

Russ, Ed, if you google for "General Mills" "pictures" you get several of their "G". I downloaded the largest and printed it on plain white paper, cut the outer outline and glued it to the silo. You can see within the "G" the white paper. But I had luck and the paper and the paint are very similar Have to do the same on the tall building.

I am currently building more small silos to be put behind the unloading umbrella roof. I think there is enough space to the right of the white silos (street) to shift everything 2 - 3 inch and add another building to the left. It is a smaller building that would fit in the corner. We will see. I am currently using the parts and play around to find the best overall solution.

[Ralph]

Some progress with the simplified superstructure of General Mills in Vernon. The selective compression becomes very noticeable if you compare the structures with the covered hoppers on this photo and on the posted photos of the prototype...

Looks great so far but if you want to suggest a larger plant how about a backdrop photo of more silos if you don't have the room for additonal 3-D silos?

Ralph

[FCIN]

Russ, Ed, if you google for "General Mills" "pictures" you get several of their "G". I downloaded the largest and printed it on plain white paper, cut the outer outline and glued it to the silo. ...

I figured that you'd found the "G" on the General Mills web site, but actually thought you'd probably printed out the image on decal paper and applied that to the silo. I never noticed even the slightest hint of a paper edge.

I've been doing something similar to what you have done. In my quest to find suitable names for the industries on my freelance L&N industrial spur, I look for company names that won't necessarily locate a specific type of facility to a specific location and that have interesting looking logo's that I can either print out on paper or perhaps on clear decal stock for future use on structures. I've acquired quite a collection of nice or unique looking logos in the process.

In some cases, there are existing facility names that work just fine on my layout and are found in my area, such as Lowe's Lumber and Clark Distributing. In other cases, when I find a "generic" name for a specific type industry that could be in my area and with a nice looking logo, then I'll use that. Otherwise, I'm just making up my own names and creating my own logos or signs to use.

Ah, I do like freelancing!

[faraway]

A small and tall structure has been added to the right hand of the main building. The center got four smaller silos (glue has to set until I can sand the caps). The entire installation shifted right. Distance to the road is now 1" only but that is ok. That shift provided the room to add a building to the very left. That building mimics as the main production building and has the loading docks of the finished products. It is key from point of view of operation to use covered hoppers (input) and boxcars (output). Without that little dock only hoppers could be used.

The glue has to set over night for sanding etc. Shop closed for today

The total length of my General Mills is 1 meter (40"). The depth is 12 cm (5")

I hope I can do it without silos on the backdrop. The silos behind the modeled part would not be visible at the prototype. They are lower then the foreground silos.

An open basic question is the number of tracks. I can stay with one track only and use the other one for the other industry in front of General Mills or reroute the other track and serve General Mills with two tracks. That would imply severe destruction in that area. I am currently not motivated to start that mess again...



The mill in context. You see the street right to the mill and the second track to be moved. The crossing with the wig wag signal would be a victim...

[Tyson Rayles]

That's going to be one more serious rail customer!

[faraway]

General Mills has been suspended and is on it's way to the storage. It will be resumed when I have desire for modern mostly white structures. At this time I want to proceed with the older low profile buildings I did during the last weeks.
However, I am glad I did it because I had serious doubt if that key industry of Vernon could be done on my layout space. I learned it can be done, good to know for the future I really enjoyed that experiment.

[Southern Tuxedo]

Reinhard,

That was an amazing structure you had there and hopefully we will see more of it in the future if you decide to go that route. I really enjoy seeing large industries that can really justify some serious rail traffic.

You gave us the length and depth of, but how high was it? I'm curious because I think that height gave it some real presence and made it look larger than it really was.

Thanks, Mark

[faraway]

Reinhard,

That was an amazing structure you had there and hopefully we will see more of it in the future if you decide to go that route. I really enjoy seeing large industries that can really justify some serious rail traffic.

You gave us the length and depth of, but how high was it? I'm curious because I think that height gave it some real presence and made it look larger than it really was.

Thanks, Mark

Mark, the silos have hight of 10'. The main building about 9'.
i should have build the nice mill when I had the layout populated with the slab buildings. They would fit fine together from their optical appearance, the method of compression (often more than 50%) and the area (modern industry in Vernon). All my other buildings are older, smaller, have no compression (except the depth) and are located in south LA. That did not fit. However, I still like the mill and it has been carefully stored in the cellar. The conveyors on order will go directly with the raw buildings. I know for sure how to populate one meter backdrop on my next modern industry layout.

Don't worry, the next targets at 6.th St. and Mateo in south LA have been focused some hours ago

[Russ Bellinis]

I can see where one problem with actually having visited Vernon and L.A. is that there is so much that could be modeled that it is difficult to decide exactly what to build and what to skip! When a modeler lives here, it can get even worse. In addition to Vernon and South Central Los Angeles, there are switching districts in the San Fernando Valley, out through the San Gabriel Valley, in both Long Beach and Los Angeles harbors, Los Nietos near Whittier and Pico Rivera, and probably other areas in Los Angeles County. That isn't even considering Orange County, Riverside County, or San Bernardino County! So much to consider, so little space!!

[faraway]

I can see where one problem with actually having visited Vernon and L.A. is that there is so much that could be modeled that it is difficult to decide exactly what to build and what to skip! When a modeler lives here, it can get even worse. In addition to Vernon and South Central Los Angeles, there are switching districts in the San Fernando Valley, out through the San Gabriel Valley, in both Long Beach and Los Angeles harbors, Los Nietos near Whittier and Pico Rivera, and probably other areas in Los Angeles County. That isn't even considering Orange County, Riverside County, or San Bernardino County! So much to consider, so little space!!

Russ, you are so right. I am an active reader of the West Coast Rail Forum. The form does mainly, but not only, focus on the LA basin. It is amazing how much switching and local trains takes place in that area. If we had the space or model in Z there are even more main routes that could be modeled. It is somewhat helpless...
I drifted into south LA when I looked for smaller buildings not rail served just for decoration purposes on my layout. It was great fun to build some of those structures. There are plenty of them in south LA that can be build with non or minimal compression. But there is a catch... south LA has few rail served industries that match the other buildings this time (at least compared to Vernon). I got a map of the rails in the old patch and identify still existing buildings that have been rail served in the past. The decoration and advertising has changed but the basic structures and rail loading docks can still be identified. That is what I am currently working on. I hope to end up with rail served industry that matches the other smaller structures and might be rail served after 1995 even they are not 2011.
I am looking in detail at those buildings
1. http://maps.google.de/maps?q=vernon+cali...5,,0,-2.67
2. http://maps.google.de/maps?q=vernon+cali...9,,0,-6.26
3. http://maps.google.de/maps?q=vernon+cali...7,,0,-0.98
Two or three of them would fit into the space at the background (25' x 5').