Scrap metal works

[upnick]

Hi All,

Is there a building for a scrap metal dealer or one anyone could reccomend, not too big as its for Novahill.

[LynnB]

Not sure on a kit but I would think any warehouse with front office, scales for trucks to drive over, and heaps of scrap piles all fenced in would do the job.

[upnick]

Hi Lynn,

Yes most buildings with an office would be ok i have been thinking it would be good to have a loading grab / conveyor for the gondolas passing the yard.

[Russ Bellinis]

If you are looking for a small industry that would feature loads of steel in-scrap metal out, there was a small tank manufacturer that was behind the back fence at the old shop where Carrier -Transicold used to be in So. Central Los Angeles. The office was in front, with an open shop in back. The entire property was probably 100 feet wide and perhaps 400 feet deep. The office was about the size of a 1950's gas station office and the shop behind was probably about the size of a 2 to 2 1/5 car garage only deep enough to fit 3 mill gons inside, two on one track and one on the other. They had two tracks going into the back of the building. I don't know if the company is still in business. Carrier moved out to a new larger facility in the City of Industry in 1991, and I haven't been back to the area in at least 10 years. They manufactured pressure tanks for commercial air compressors, and, I think for propane. I don't remember seeing any diesel fuel tanks there, but they may have manufactured those as well. The tanks were not any that would have an air compressor mounted to. All of the ones I remember seeing were 6-7 feet tall of various diameters. They may have also made tanks for other industrial uses. I'm just not familiar with all of the various tanks that might be used in various industries. The open shop had a steel roof supported by "I" beam posts with an overhead crane inside that would travel full length and full width of the structure. About once or twice a month the Santa Fe, later BNSF would spot 3 gons into the back of the shop, two on one track and one on the other one. These gons would be loaded with various thicknesses of sheet steel, plate steel, and various sizes of angle iron, "I" beam, and channel. There were racks on both sides of the shop area where the various sizes of steel were stored. After a couple of days the railroad would remove two empty gons and leave one. As the workers built the tanks, the cut off scrap metal was loaded into the empty gon. When that gon was full of scrap metal, the railroad would come in and remove the load of scrap and leave three more gons loaded with steel to start the process over again. In front of the building they had a small concrete pad with 4 or 5 tanks of various sizes bolted to it. I think these were examples of their standard product line, but since the tanks were all built by hand, I suspect that they also did custom fabrication. The scrap metal loads hauled out would be bits of plate, sheet, and structural shape steel. No old engine blocks or crushed cars, or the usual stuff found in typical model railroad scrap metal loads. The scrap would seldom be rusted, since we only average 13 inches of rain yearly in Los Angeles, and that usually all falls between the end of October and the end of February. I've often thought it would be a neat little industry to model, and I may "move" it into the city of Vernon so that I can service it with the LAJ when I build my model railroad.

[Trucklover]

Walthers has the Washington Salvage Yard Kit, but thats in HO scale....

[upnick]

Walthers has the Washington Salvage Yard Kit, but thats in HO scale....

Hi Josh have you forgotten i have Novahill to model yet ......... thanks for the info though i'll go take a look on Walthers site

*** Russ great idea sounds just about right for my size of layout a three car operation fits in well at one end

[Trucklover]

Hi Josh have you forgotten i have Novahill to model yet .........

LOL i know i saw the Novahill part in your first post, thats why i couldnt really help and said "but its HO Scale....."

[Russ Bellinis]

What part of the country is Novahill going to represent, or is it a real place that I have never heard of? Th reason I ask, is that a lot of work that is done outside here in So Cal in sheds that provide little more than shade and keep the rain off, will be done indoors out of the weather in snow country. A similar industry to that tank manufacturer in the Northeast would probably be enclosed on something like a "Butler" building, like the corrugated buildings made by Pike Stuff. It would be a neater model out here in So Cal because all of the materials racks, and large benders and breaks would be out in the open to see with no walls. If the plant is inside a building with large doors to access the back for the railroad, mush of that detail goes into hiding.

[upnick]

Hi Russ,

Novahill is a made up name for the layout Nova from a friend i have in Utah who works at Canyonlands and Hill the second part of my address .. so it is a ficticious place.

It could be a mix of variuos areas as with my layouts i dont concentrate on a particular local ..but go with what looks right to me and i get enjoyment from.

*** Josh *** I do worry about you ... but not a lot

[csiguy68]

i have seen the walthers scrap yard too . its a very nice set up. it is not to big either and best of all its reasonably priced to. if i had room on the layout i am doing i would definately have one.




todd

[Trucklover]

*** Josh *** I do worry about you ... but not a lot

hehe

Nick maybe you could use the HO Scrap Yard kit that Walthers has and just replace and do some kitbashing to convert the doors and windows to N scale? I know alot of people use HO buildings for N

[tomustang]

scrap yard is easy, you need 2 buildings. 1 small office for office stuff, cashier, toilets, breakroom etc, 1 medium-to-large size warehouse for the speciality metals to store like types of copper, brass, stainless, aluminum. everything outside should be steel either it be piles or stacks, any maybe a decent size pile of aluminum.

One think you got to add on in the warehouse is a small furnace or even gas tank to burn the coatings off of wires

[jim currie]

if you have a narrow space you could put in a scrapping siding like this one.
Jim

[Trucklover]

Walthers has the Washington Salvage Yard Kit, but thats in HO scale....

*** Josh *** I do worry about you ... but not a lot

:oops: Whoops :oops: I completely forgot that Novahill was your HO scale switching layout. For some reason i got your N and HO mixed up and i thought Novahill was your N :oops:

[Spitfire]

I've been to a couple of scrapyards back in the 1970s. In those days they sold to the public on site, as well as shipping to industrial customers, and were a bargain hunter's paradise. One was an auto wreckers and the other was run by a demolition company. My recollection is that there was a very large area that was all in piles: tires, radiators, metal sorted by type. Then there was an area that was wooden shelving (outdoors), with smaller parts in boxes.

At the wreckers they had doors and windows leaning against the fence, fridges and stoves, rads, pipes, sinks, toilets - you name it. Basically any salvageable items removed from a building before it was demolished. These yards could be huge and could have several different buildings.

If you're looking for something smaller, I'd suggest a trackside operation where the scrap has been pre-sorted somewhere else. For example, scrap steel catering to a steel mill. All you'd really need is a fence, some rusted scrap metal, a tiny shack for an office, and of course a nasty guard dog!

And, if you're looking for rusted metal reference, I just happen to have this photo that I snapped a couple years ago.




cheers
Val