Great idea and a nice story

Allen!

I really liked the story and your end result... so far! I cannot wait to see this scene with the pipings done!

I'm thinking that pumphouse...

...is going to end up filled with everyone's junk! 

Lots of storage space in there. 

Pumphouse

Gotta kill that grass and add some spillage.....no way it would be that pristine. Nice modeling,though.

Oh yes...

Muddy path from the door to the pad. No doubt there. 

Very Nice

This is really nice work. Thanks for sharing in text and photos.

Nice!

Looks very nice - the pump house is perfect!  What sort of provision would a facility like that have for getting to the valves and stuff on the top of the tank car?  I think they have to open those to allow air in as the fluid drains out the bottom.

Thanks guys!

Thanks Olav! Neither can I.

It could Jeff?  But I glued the doors shut so it'll be hard getting in there!  

Thanks,  but this IS a fertilizer distributor!

Either that or a rock path?  Haven't got that far yet...

You're welcome and thank you for the kind words. 

Thanks Ken!

You know, I wondered that myself?  Someone told me that they had some sort of a relief valve that was tied into the drain valve that ran up through to the top of the car?  Otherwise if the cars had a ladder on the side, they could just crawl up to the dome, and I suppose if push came to shove, I could always put a couple of ladders laying on the pad, you know? Those High-Tech climbing apperatices?    Which may not be a bad idea and a detail part to add later?  Thanks for the idea!

Accessing the tops of the cars

A local Pepsi bottler (lots of corn syrup) has an open frame ladder on wheels, sort of a skeleton version of air-stairs that they used to roll up to airliners. It includes a handrails that stretch across the car. You can barely see the tops of them between the cars and the building, "above" the truck (and if I'd known what I was getting photos of, I would have tried harder to get the whole thing): 

Railcar Mobile Access Platform

To follow up Jeff’s photo, I did a quick internet search.  The apparatus is called a Railcar Mobile Access Platform made by SafeRack*   https://www.saferack.com/product/railcar-mobile-access-unit/ .  They come in several different sizes and styles.

Lou in Idaho

*There may be other manufacturers but this is the first one I found.

great creativity!!! great Job Allen,

My Knowledge and ideas have grown ten fold since i signed up for MRH and this Blog article is a great example of the type of exposure i' am referring to.  Allen i hope you don't mind but i just might use some of your ides for my own  track side service for my chem/ oil/ other - depot.  

Thank you!

Knock yourself out, just be sure to post what you've done.

Great scene

Great scene and something being a fertilizer facility is a great idea. Something different and unique.

Have you thought of adding gooseneck lights to you pumphouse over the door and maybe some lighting from a pole to light up the scene. You may want to add an electrical box to your pump house.

Are you going to add some signage on the pumphouse or on the tanks?

Olney Jim

All in good time!

Thank you Jim.

Yes.  I have a long list of things I want to add to that scene and to Malvern (which is the scene behind the camera and to my back that I got scenery on several years ago).  Signs, trees, people, vehicles, details more buildings.  While I'll add some lights to the pump house and to the main buildings, great idea, I probably won't get to it for awhile nor will they be lit.  And I definitely want to get some electrical boxes and conduit for power as well as power poles!

My goal now is to just get the buildings built and scenery roughed in so I can keep moving and cover up the ceiling tile on the rest of the layout that I've looked at for the last 8 or 9 years!  I just mentioned in another thread that I felt like I was getting bogged down trying to "Finish" a scene before moving on.  So in time I will come back and add more details to each scene.

This scene is nowhere complete.

Great Idea!

Love the entire idea of this industry, very well done. I traded for an old UP car of similar vintage with the idea of turning it into some sort of "out" building, and now I know exactly how to do it. Well played!

Thank you!

Wasn't sure what I wanted to do in this location?  I wanted an industry that used tank cars and covered hoppers and a friend gave me the idea for a fertilizer dist so this industry worked out good.

I've got several of the 40' boxcar shells from experimenting with the weathering, so I have plenty of "sheds" to place around the layout now. 

Other uses for grounded 40' boxcars

Allen, I thought of your comment above when I passed this farmer's shed off of I-29 recently, just south of Council Bluffs:

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.1880968,-95.8231995,32a,35y,30.15h,64.83t/data=!3m1!1e3

40' boxcar of unknown lineage with extensions off both sides.

Boxcar sheds

That's an awesome idea Joe!

I think I just seen something similar to that.  I think someone posted here on MRH where they used two cars with a space between them and a roof for use as a farm shed or barn.  That would be a simple project and fun project.

Farm sheds

That's something you see around here quite a bit, and when you can spot the lineage, the boxcars usually seem to be castoffs from the nearest rail line.  This farm is just a bit west of the BNSF's line to Council Bluffs, so I'm guessing the car is ex-Q.  Are any of your spare 40-footers ex-RI?

Yup!

I've got tons of old 40's and a lot of them are Rock Island, I see what you're saying Joe.

When I was thinking of using a boxcar, and image came to mind of cars laying in the field.  My grandparents lived in Fairbury and sometimes we'd take the route through Beatrice and into Fairbury.  Along that route we'd path through Jansen, NE.  At the time there a was a bridge on 136 that went over the Rock's mainline and off to the southwest of the bridge were a pile of several cars.  The one that stood out was a ICG box that was mangled.  I think there was an old UP and several others along with a Rock Island car.

I always looked at that pile as we went past, wondering how they arrived in that resting place?  A couple of them always had hay bales stacked in them during the summer.  I might have to try and recreate that scene if I can find the right place?

Foreign road cars

Allen, I wonder if those other cars you saw were part of a RI derailment at one time?  That would explain Gavilon's WM car as well.  Damaged too extensively to economically repair for the home road, but perhaps still sound enough to be put to use as storage sheds.

RI derailment

Knowing where it was, Jansen, NE. I'm pretty sure it was, Rock Island was the only road in that vicinity.  They had been sitting there for decades and only got moved numerous years ago when the tore out the branch line that split off at Jansen.  The mainline headed NE towards Lincoln and the branchline headed due east towards Beatrice. The overpass was replaced with a grade crossing.  As a side note, UP now owns or runs on that line so it can serve the power plant at Hallam.

If you look closely you can still the roadbed cutting through the farm in the upper left, just south of 136.  The old high use to swing south as it rose over the tracks and then entered Jansen.  The mainline is still as it was.  So the area where the cars were piled up at was in the oblong green patch just SW of where 136 and 547th intersect.

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.1868972,-97.0737294,1397m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en&authuser=0

I wish I had a camera back then!  At least I clearly see them in mind yet. 

Captain Obvious here

I just re-read your earlier comment and realized that you mentioned the one car being mangled, so my derailment suggestion was truly worthy of Captain Obvious.  Sorry about that.

Are the two cars that are left there part of the group you saw?

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.1880339,-97.0701971,118m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en&authuser=0

You've got a better eye....

....than I have Joe!, I missed them completely!

Yes they are!  I seem to recall that there were 4 or 5 and at least one of them was upended and leaning on top of the others, which I'm pretty sure is right?  That was the one that was orange (IC). One of the others were laying on it's side.  I think there was at least one 50' car as well.

I was just past there over Memorial Day and didn't notice them? Jeeze....