The final piece of my IAIS Grimes Line layout is underway. I’ve attached a photo showing what looks like a random collection of Tinkertoys that will, hopefully one day, be the outbound crane of Chicago Bridge and Iron in Clive, Iowa. I’m guessing some of you may be wondering, is that all?

CB&I is a fabricator that specializes in water tanks for commercial and industrial applications. Everything from rooftop towers to those 100,000 gallon ones that serve entire cities are created here. CB&I receives steel plates via rail and ships finished pieces by truck. The spur runs along the full length of the plant from the outbound crane to the inbound crane on the north end, a length of 1500 feet. This is a monster industry.

To put it mildly, there was no chance I could come close to modeling it accurately. My original plan was to significantly compress the plant by cutting out most of the structures and focusing on the inbound crane and shed. Since the plant would sit on the end of the Clive peninsula, a space of less than 2 square feet, it basically was going to be nothing more than a glorified flat.

As it came time to start construction on CB&I I started to have second thoughts on my plan. A quick mockup of the proposed structure just didn’t give a feeling of mass that the prototype has. In addition I really started to appreciate a less compressed approach to the plant. My friend Joe Atkinson’s treatment of the Harlan Elevator and Atlantic Spur on his IAIS West End layout served as inspiration for the move to modeling the outbound crane area. It includes the crane, the warehouse and pump house, and about a million little detail parts.

Operationally it is exactly the same regardless of what I model. The IAIS spots loads as far north as it can on the spur. CB&I crews then use a front-end loader modified with a knuckle coupler to pull cars under the inbound crane, similar to a grain elevator loading process. This is not a job that the IAIS handles, and isn’t performed on my layout by my crews. I’ll remove loads and re-spot cars in-between sessions. My spur just ends a little bit shorter than the prototype does.

The crane is fresh from the paint shop. Next step will be to weather it within an inch of its life, then work on the surrounding scenery. I'm also going to build the supply shed that sits just to the left of the crane, as well as the guard house. Then there's the aforementioned matter of about a million little detail parts that should take several weeks.

I don't believe that any model railroad is ever finished, but it's nice to be close.

James