Unique Grain Elevator on the Great Western Railway

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Fri, 2012-09-14 17:27 — Sugar Beet Guy

Modeling topic

One of the signature scenes on the Great Western in northern Colorado is the spot where the GW crosses I-25 just south of US 34 near Loveland. It is named Birds after a local farmer. Besides the really neat overpass that the GW runs across, there is a fairly unique grain elevator. No commercial models of this type exist (I think) so I scratch built a version of it. As far as I know, there were two on the GW, maybe more. I’m sure they may be more in Colorado.

Prototype photos taken in 1985.

Model photos. The main cylinders are PVC tubing with photos of the metal panels glued on. The roofs and other details are freelanced styrene construction. I decided to not model the cell phone antennas since I'm modeling the late 1950s.

I need to add scenery and other details as soon as I get a round toit.

George Booth
Director of Everything, The New Great Western Railway
http://users.frii.com/gbooth/Trains/index.htm

Comments

Nice job on the grain elevator!

Fri, 2012-09-14 21:50 — TTX101

An elevator built of battleship armor should be around for a while (or maybe it just LOOKS like armor!) You did a great job of capturing the look of the real scene!

Rog.38

Unique elevator

Fri, 2012-09-14 22:55 — steve r

Good work on a unique elevator. It should be a conversation starter in your layout room. One question, every elevator I've seen has two doors for the truck dump so it's a drive through; does this prototype only have one?

Drive thru

Sat, 2012-09-15 09:38 — Sugar Beet Guy

This one also has a drive thru dump building. I didn't plan enough scenery around it to support the opposite ramp. I may redo the siding by lengthening it and add the other door and ramp. Of course, the track is already ballasted...

George Booth
Director of Everything, The New Great Western Railway
http://users.frii.com/gbooth/Trains/index.htm

Thanks

Sat, 2012-09-15 11:06 — steve r

Thanks for clearing that up for me. Again, it's a neat looking elevator.

interesting

Sat, 2012-09-15 11:44 — Jurgen Kleylein

It's funny, the prototype looks like a really poorly executed model, with crude detail and heavy seams on the silos, and overdone weathering. Even the prototype can make poor structures...

Jurgen

HO Deutsche Bundesbahn circa 1970

Visit the HO Sudbury Division at www.wrmrc.ca

The preceding message may not conform to NMRA recommended practices.

Seams

Sat, 2012-09-15 16:46 — Sugar Beet Guy

The prototype seams look heavy because they are! Each panel has about a 1" raised edge around it and the edges are either welded or bolted together (I looked once but failed to note how they were connected).

It would be complicated to scratch build the metal panel siding and even more complicated to paint and weather it properly. Thus I chose to use photos for the siding.

George Booth
Director of Everything, The New Great Western Railway
http://users.frii.com/gbooth/Trains/index.htm

Grain elevator

Mon, 2012-09-17 06:15 — Catt-1

Hi George,

I see where you used PVC pipe for the silo cores.I'm wondering if I missed how you attached the photo of the siding (Neat idea by the way) to the PVC.

Bird's Elevator

Mon, 2012-09-17 16:56 — Great Western R...

I hope to have the same Elevator on My GW layout someday! Fine Looking Model George!

Ronald Teed

http://www.youtube.com/user/ammoguy5

Nice job!

Mon, 2012-09-17 18:42 — IAISfan

Great looking model George. I always enjoy seeing prototype/model comparisons, and I think you've done a nice job capture the look of this elevator.

Good looking switcher too! You don't often see big plows on SWs, but that was an interesting feature of your prototype, so I'm glad you modeled it.

Joe Atkinson
Modeling Iowa Interstate's West End, May 2005
http://www.iaisrailfans.org/gallery/Sub4WestEnd

Securing photos

Wed, 2012-09-19 19:34 — gregcochenet

I don't know how George did it, but if you secure a photo to anything, make sure your adhesive is acid free. The spray adhesive usually works the best. I have used an acid free Loctite spray with good results.

Great job George. That really is a unique elevator. I have seen metal ones in the upper Midwest, but nothing that large. The large ones tend to be your typical corrugated metal and/or concrete.