Anyone build a Missle Silo on Their Layout?

My wife and I recently visited the Titan missle silo museum in Arizona. Perhaps you can find some useful information on their site.

I am surprised you are going to have smoke! 

Lee

 

I have no Moon rockets on my layout.  The seven foot deep silo required to place a Saturn V below the terrain would lead to an undesirable layout height and insufficient ceiling height to raise the booster out of its silo for launch.  Besides, keeping such a large launch vehicle or the facility to launch it "secret" strains the suspension of disbelief.

 

Your drawing and concept for a silo and elevation of the vehicle to the surface prior to launch fits with the Titan I.  An O Scale Titan I would be plausible at about two feet tall.

 

As for me, only Minuteman and Bomarc missiles are allowed on the layout.  If it's not Boeing I'm not going. 

 

 

 

Why not load it with a REAL Estes model rocket?

That would make for one heck of an operating accessory!

Another approach is a cover (manhole?) and a sign that says SECRET MISSLE SILO / NO ADMITTANCE

 

How about a UFO (landed or crashed) nearby and a little green guy (or E.T.) knocking on the cover to ask for assistance?

The Nike bases that we had on the east coast looked primarily like a large fenced area with a lot of berms or humps. So, I would go for something more modern, like your photo of the ICBM site.

 

An automobile power antenna may provide you the mechanism for the missile.

Not me.  But, hopefully one of our forumites...Tonkanut...will jump in and show us some pictures of his awesome missle compound....complete with visual and audio effects.  In fact, Terry is, IMHO, the master of special effects.  A visit to his MI layout will be unforgettable.

 

KD

If you want it to be real mysterious just put up some fencing and signs, e.g Area 51A.  Would also be very easy to build.  

 

There used to be a Nike base one town over from where I grew up.  We all knew there was a base and that the radar array was on top of Mt. Nebo and could be seen for miles around.  What we didn't know were the missile pits were about 600 feet east of Route 303 behind some trees.  It was a base and there were guards and fences but I don't think it was common knowledge there were 6 SAM interceptors hiding under the steel plates that looked like covers for fuel storage tanks.  Everyone thought the missiles were on top of the mountain.

Thanks for all the suggestions.  I will look at the Titan Silo site, etc.

 

I realize that a real "moon rocket" would be much too big - as observed about seven feet high -  but keep in mind that this secret rocket base uses "eight-year-old kid technology" - in fact eight-year-old kid 1950s technology.   I figure a roughly 30 inch high rocket with fins and scoops, powered by double-enriched Potensium could easily take six 1:48 Cosmic Commandos to the moon and back.

There's also The National Museum of Nuclear Science & History (http://www.nuclearmuseum.org/).  This used to be the Atomic Museum and when I toured it 3 years ago it was mostly focused on Atomic weaponry (missiles, bombs, etc.)  They may have some missile silo info.

According to the information given at the Titan musuem, the missle would have been launched while inside the silo. It was not intended to be raised up to the surface and then launched.

It might be an interesting project, but not for me.  The time frame of my layout predates the guided-missle-silo era.

 

The Train Lady  (http://www.trainlady.com/) has a hidden missile base that raises to ground level by means of an elevator. The normal ground level "cover" is a park with a carousel.You can see it operating in these photos, taken at her open house a couple of months ago. 

Titan 1 had an elevator to raise the missile out of the silo like the Atlas launch complexes did.  Titan II and Minuteman were silo launched.  

 

Titan 1 used LOX and kerosene like the Atlas.  Titan II used storable liquid fuel, UMDH/Hydrazine and Nitrogen Tetroxide.  

 

A work crew found out the hard way that you don't want to damage the tankage in a 1980 accident when a dropped socket creased the skin and started a leak.  The fuel ignited and blew the warhead through the silo's blast doors.

That's right.  Decades ago, when a young engineer, I worked with someone who had designed part of the lift/launch cradle for the Atlas silos.  Without a doubt, launching from inside the silo was faster, etc., but a rocket rising slowly out of the silo to the accompaniment of blinking lights and a wailing siren is, well, just too cool (to that eight-year kid, again) - has to be done, along with the vapor . . .  

 

As for the liquid fuels, the LOX boiling off created the vapor I want to model with the smoke unit. 

That's neat what Trainlady did. Thanks for sharing!

 

--Greg

I look forward to seeing another GREAT layout.

 

Brent

Lee,

The picture you posted is the current Minuteman Launch Facility static display of D-09 near Ellsworth AFB, SD.  It was one of 150 such launch facilities, hardened and dispersed across western South Dakota.  All the launch facilities, except D-09 have been deactivated and destroyed.

 

I served in the Air Force at Whiteman AFB, MO, which also supported 150 launch facilities, all have been destroyed.  I worked on a maintenance team that replaced warheads and guidance systems and aided in the R&R of the missile.

 

My plans are to model a Flight of Minuteman Missiles (10 ea) when I start my layout construction.

 

I purchased resin replicas of the Topping Model of the topside of the Minuteman Launch facility from a guy on Ebay.  I purchased 10 to model an actual Flight of missiles.  One or two would do but I am nostalgic about my Air Force service.

 

Here is the link to the Ebay listing.  What he sells can be modified to make the missile appear to be inside the open silo, or to be launched, coming partially out of the silo.  The Minuteman was silo launched so if you model it coming out, it's time to enter your 1950s Civil Defense shelter.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-48-R...;hash=item337f2a1165

 

450 Minuteman 3 Missiles remain on Strategic Alert, supported by three bases in Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota.

 

Contact me directly if you want to discuss further @ bobgoat67@aol.com.

 

With your modeling skills I'm sure you can make a realistic scene.

 

Best regards,

Bob

can't wait to see these pictues of progress. and when will the open house layout tour be lee.....

 

The best missile I've seen on a layout is at the end of this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbKRbB4Nd4Q&list=PL3Xq503D_mgAwain0pSTz3YMw3qiuWAsx&index=5

 

It's really nothing more than the Lionel launcher concealed. Not very realistic but loads of fun. A realistic model would be pretty out of place since most such launchers were located well away from cities.  

 

A Nike missile site could be interesting. There's a fully restored one just north of San Francisco in the Marin Headlands. http://www.nikemissile.org/

Lee we have one on our club layout, when I get back from vacation I'll send you pictures and a video.

There was one in a neighboring town where I grew up as well, one of 4 Nike Hercules sites surrounding the Twin Cities (posed to shoot down Russian bombers), and the radar domes could be seen for miles. They used to have annual open houses and we visited on at least one occasion. I remember their computer, such as it was, occupied a refrigerated structure larger than a semi trailer. Of course, it had computing power that was a tiny fraction of a typical laptop today.

 

A missile silo is neat idea. Personally, if I were doing a missile site it would be a Nike site, just because of the memories, which is what a lot of my railroad is about.

Your request for information is classified.

That's an awesome idea Lee!  Maybe I'll do something like that someday as well.  I would probably model a Nike site, as the remains of LA-43 are situated adjacent to my neighborhood.

 

-Dustin

when I lived in New York city, the Nike base was part of a multi role Army/Coast

Guard facility-- Fort Totten. one of the major highways was right outside the base's perimiter-- every time you drove by, you could see the launching revetments with the nosecones sticking out in plain view. Those were the days when the public schools still held A bomb drills---  

Not to change the subject BUT, Moonman, I would rather look at 50 beautiful women than 2 ugly guys any day.

 

Rick

I try to stay away from people who feel otherwise.

I don't have the room on my Ogauge layout, but I modeled a Nike launch facility on my HO layout. I have a small section in a corner with a underground magazine, missile elevator & 4 launchers above with a fence around it, guards, & vehicles.

Because a steel silo tube would likely twist or bend under impact, I recall that when I was working for a cement trade group that we designed a underground concrete missile silo. The concrete silo was actually a series of low-strength concrete tube sections that were designed to collapse under an impact from above. ( I guess the idea was that as we were firing at them the other side was firing at us.) AS the concrete tubes collapsed under impacts they did so uniformly, so the firing tube remained concentrically a tube and the missiles would still continue to fire through the silo tube.

 

 

 

 

Wow!  I probably won't model that feature.

Lee

 

I recall think how fertile the engineering mind that comes up with this stuff.

 

Well as silos are underground you would only need to model the silo tops and have a radar station nearby.

 

Bob

 

As you may have missed it was a "design" concept by a Cement Trade Group to, of course, SELL MORE CEMENT.  The design was never implemented or built, as far as I know. Although, it would have worked. I think after that point, we emerged from the cold war so fewer silos were constructed.

Lee, your talent for modeling is eclipsed only by your imagination! With Vladimer Putin writing op ed pieces in the Times ,it is a good time to install hardened missile silos on our train sets.  Fred

Great, now I really wanna build a 1:48 Saturn V.

Lee, we know for a fact NSA is monitoring the Internet, so why not this forum?  Their algorithms may not distinguish between 'real' and 'pretend'.  You now may be on the domestic terrorist 'watch list'.  Every email, every post, every website you visit, every purchase, every piece of snail mail, every telephone call will be analyzed.  GPS tracking devices will be sewn in your undergarments and attached to the underside of your bumper (in case you decide to go commando).  Way to go!

 

 

 

 

What, me worry?