Sailormatlac 2012 Resolution Challenge

[sailormatlac]

Never know when to give up...

I wasn't sure about "L'abattoir Legrade", but since jwb thought it fitted well, I decided to give it another try. I think I'm gonna keep it, I like it, lot's of nice perspectives, and I live to see end of cars near a crossing. This will be a service gravel road, nothing fancy.











Now, I must decide what will go in front of the lumber yard. For the moment, I'll keep it as a team track / wood unloading area. I don't want to pack the place too much... Needs some place between industries.

A question / poll about Canadian Glassine which is the very long flat industry along the wall. I'm thing about making it a brick factory with almost no windows, a few large doors and lots of ventilation equipment (read "not your typical DPM warehouse!!!) instead of the real building that is a corrugated shed. What do you think. Here's a picture of the real thing.



I feel like it wouldn't fit very well... I remember a brick warehouse called Brick Citadel. It had a surelevated passage over the road. It could close the perspective on the backdrop... which is quite plain...

Matt

[sailormatlac]

Matt,

Moving right along!!

That sure is a fancy building for woodchips, most of the ones I have seen in Oregon are like the one from Walthers, a large overhead bin with doors that open on the bottom. Have you thought of a design for your woodchip loader? I have seen a huge variety of designs out there, so you will have lots of options.

Also one thing, it is the Spokane Portland & Seattle Railroad Most of the first woodchip cars were just gondolas with wooden extensions added to them, I know most of the Western railroads in the USA had some sort of variation on the theme.

Keep up the great work!!

Thanks Greg! I knew I inversed the cities name!! A lovely road. That right, it is a rather fancy building. I don't knwo if climate asked for a covered shed. I'll keep the woodchip loader simple, maybe just a kind of hose going through the upper level and supported by a steel structure as depicted in May 1976 RMC issue, p. 51 (picture by Tony Koester). It was Laurel Bank sawmill in West Viriginia.

Other question. On the Google Earth picture of the actual sawmill, there's a ramp for the forklift. Did such ramp existed in the 1950's? It seems to be mobile.

Honestly, I don't know what CN used back then. My web-based searches were fruitless. I guess Doctorwayne of CN Nut have an idea about it. If I don't find nothing good enough, I'll use a 55-ton hopper with steel extensions and letter to QRL&PCo. Their freight cars were getting old at this time, they could have been converted at any moment. Western Maryland had a few like this. I wouldn't be surprised that CNR used old wood boxcar for this purpose. Removing the top of an Accurail cars could be a good option too.

I remember these CN Rail woodchip cars were a staple on every freight trains in my area. But a little bit too modern for my era. The Walthers version just don't do justice to the CN prototype (ours had small doors in the middle of the car).



Matt

[doctorwayne]

I haven't got a clue about what the CNR would have used for wood chips in the '50s, but I do recall seeing 40' steel reefers, roofs removed and sides extended with what appeared to shortened gondolas hauling chips or sawdust to the paper mills in Thorold during the mid-'70s. The reefer doors, if i recall correctly, were still in place, but I can't say if they were operational or not.
The TH&B used similar cars, and, while these pictures don't show much (I was more interested in the diesels), this would also be in the mid-'70s. Note that the first picture is not the same train seen in the other two shots, so, while there weren't a lot of carloads, the cars were common in many trains. As I recall, the CNR generally had more chip cars in their trains, although I can't comment on the frequency.






Wayne

[Southern Tuxedo]

Matt,

In the words of Hannibal Smith of the A-Team, “I love it when a plan comes together!”

It’s great to see someone else’s layout unfold in front in front of me. Your latest mock-ups are looking great and give a real sense of how your layout will come together.

Keep up the good work!

Mark

[sailormatlac]

Wayne, interested in the diesels? You? For real? ;-) Just kidding. In fact, I wonder if CNR really hauled wood chips in the '50s. It was probably marginal compared to the '70s 'til now.

I checked Ian Cranstone's website. The oldest wood chips cars I found were roofless 40' boxcar:

"455000-455054, Roofless Boxcar, Revenue service: 10/1960-1/1972: Stl. frame. Wood chip svc. x574000-574696 series /60, re#851000-851111 series /66-/68."

According to him again, a few of them were rebuilt from old automobile 40' boxcars serie 573500-574696 built between 1936-37.

The ANSWER: no specific cars, just your plain average hopper.

in 1958

I like the flexible hose for filling them up (or cleaning). It's that kind of piping I'll had to my structure.



Here a regular hoppers with steel extensions à la SP&S.









This website is a mine of information. http://www.toucherdubois.ca/tdb/theme.ph...=1&lang=en Images range from late 19th century to late 20th. Check "Thematic Collections" and choose sawmills.

Matt

[jwb]

Glad to hear the abbatoir got a reprieve!

[sailormatlac]

Glad to hear the abbatoir got a reprieve!

I tried a few other versions of the warehouses, but it still didn't work. I love the Legrade signboard with the pig! Anyway, the abattoir got this "end of line" feeling.

I'll also saw few scraps of wood to mock up the lumber piles since they will have an important scenic role to play.

My biggest problem right now is to figure out British-American Oil distributor. The siding is curved. They received bulk shipment in tank car, but also motor oil and other goods in boxcars. The space is limited and I wanted to have a truck loading platform like this one:



Boxcars were unloaded from a platform. Platform always looks awkward on cruved track, which means I should relocate it on the straight end of the siding, having the tank cars unloaded from pipes on the curved section. I'll see what I can do.

Question: how they unload tank car in such a small oil dealer. By flexible pipes? My guess is that there's a pumphouse to send the oil in the tanks. Well, I'm at loss!

I also design a cross-section for the industrial avenue including the nice power lines you can see in the electrion traction picture I posted previously. This scenery will run all along the amovible cassette, which will probably be quite permanent.



Matt

[jwb]

Grandt Line has a good kit that includes a pump house and related equipment <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/300-5907">http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/300-5907</a><!-- m --> Life Like has something similar <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/433-1331">http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/433-1331</a><!-- m --> a little more crude, but cheaper, and a talented guy like you could probably do quite a job with it.

[sailormatlac]

Grandt Line has a good kit that includes a pump house and related equipment <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/300-5907">http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/300-5907</a><!-- m --> Life Like has something similar <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/433-1331">http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/433-1331</a><!-- m --> a little more crude, but cheaper, and a talented guy like you could probably do quite a job with it.

The Life-like one (the old version with only one tank) was among my first three kits when I built my first layout. It isn't half bad, but Grandt Line kit looks more like B-A oil tanks I've seen on old pictures. They could be easily scratchbuilt from plastic pipes and styrene strips. We use the L-L oil tank as an auxiliary fuel tank for diesel engine on the club layout.



I'll try something like this with the lettering on the sides of the tanks.

BTW, I decided to put the warehouse on the right side, tank cars will be unloaded on the curve at left. The B-A tanks will be near the street, just like the photo and will serves has advertising. The abattoir mock up is now 50% completed. Some picture to come soon.

And a sad day today. I went to the restaurant and drove along the old QRL&PCo mainline in Villeneuve (where the color picture was taken). SHOCK!!! They put down the old power line. I can now officially announce that all catenary related structures from this venerable electric traction company disappeared from the surface of Earth... Don't ask me why, but they replaced the steel pylones with wood pole... Vive le progrès!!!

Matt

[sailormatlac]

Did some work on Legrade main building. Next are the truck loading bay and boiler house. I had to fudge the proportions a little bit to make room for this interesting structure.





I put about 3 hours trying to recreated the Legrade billboard. THe original one is so weathered you can hardly recognize the pig. THe funny thing is that I found a 1933 picture of Disney three little pigs that fitted perfectly over the billboard... Hum... Let's just say they had a source of inspiration! Even the arm movement was the same! I used Adobe Illustrator to redraw everything in vectors. Modify details, clothing and arm position and the golden cane. It's funny how they translated Meat Packers with Salaison which means Salting. Sure it sounds better than abattoir with its macabre connotation!!!

I'll print it to scale tomorrow. Colors are an educated guess, I could ask my dad, but I'm pretty sure he don't remember it at all since this building war about half a mile from Chemin de la Canardière.



Sorry about the crappy pictures. My train room lighting is deficient. I'll try to build up the light valence this week-end. It's hard to work on a model in half-obscurity. I'll had a few shelves over the valance and between the actual library for my railroad and modelism books.

Matt

[Tyson Rayles]

That will make for a very intreresting building complex when it's done Matt, good work on the logo also.

[jwb]

Well, I think that sign and the interesting building are part of what modeling's all about. Shoeboxes are OK, but. . .

[mountaingoatgreg]

I realyl love the old photos you have been posting, especially the hoppers beening loaded with woodchips.

I also a gree with the comments on the Grandt Line tanks, they are far superior then the old Life-Like. I know Walthers sold a tank set that you could modify as needed but it is discontinued. They also do have a oil distributor but the tanks need some reworking, the flanges are way to oversized.

The sign is great and the building looks to be pretty interesting too.

Keep up the great work!!

[sailormatlac]

I realyl love the old photos you have been posting, especially the hoppers beening loaded with woodchips.

I also a gree with the comments on the Grandt Line tanks, they are far superior then the old Life-Like. I know Walthers sold a tank set that you could modify as needed but it is discontinued. They also do have a oil distributor but the tanks need some reworking, the flanges are way to oversized.

The sign is great and the building looks to be pretty interesting too.

Keep up the great work!!

Greg, this hobby is all about sharing. I've just received a few Rix vertical oil tanks for the club layout, I'll see if they could fit there. Anyway, I've got a bunch of plastic pipes from when I installed the vacuum.

JWB: What I meant by shoebox was more in the sense of "generic" buildings as opposed to craftman architectural buildings that have too much character of their own to feel industrial spur. Legrade is just a big two-stoyer box with different add-ons and plugins corresponding to different functions. Anyway, I'm really satisfied with this building. It came out beter than I thought and it has a lot of operation potential.

Here's the completed Legrade plant without the stack and signs.



And with the signs:











I used open-air cattle pens. In fact, Legrade's were covered with a flat roof. The back was made from concrete block. Maybe I'll model the real prototype later. I was just trying to get the feeling of the place. I'll probably do something relatively similar to Doctorwayne's covered cattle pens. One unloading bay will probably be for two-level stock cars for pig and other small livestock.

Here's an aerial picture of the area in 1948.



Matt

[jwb]

Those signs make that mockup look like a million bucks! Heck, you could just leave Legrade the way it is for a while and bring the rest of the layout along. But I think a lot of layouts could use this kind of treatment. Here's an industry just north of the Los Angeles Junction, for instance: