Anyone build a Missle Silo on Their Layout?

I'm already on the list, I voted for Ron Paul.  

Lots of fun Alfred and pretty easy to lose them -- I turn on my left signal and then swerve right at the last moment.    Dang, just gave away one of my "secrets"! 

What happens in the barnyard, stays in the barnyard.

The government is already tracking me - has been for years. Luckily the hat I wear made out of tin foil, and the rubber soles on my shoes, keep them from monitoring my thoughts, so I manage to keep one step ahead of them.

That's what they want us to believe:-)

I too have been planning a missile silo.  I served as a Minuteman Missile Launch Officer at Ellsworth AFB in SD.  I had planned to use the minuteman theme which has been reproduced by Lionel in the 3665 and 59. I will do a single silo for the Minuteman which should be just under 14" for model IB or just over for the II  Bob the missiles you purchased are not to scale for either the  I or II models.  They are about 16" which would make them closer in size to the Minuteman III. I know I bought one and measured it.  So I have turned my own I will post a picture later.

Anyway, the orginal blast door was somewhere between 50 and 70 tons.  I don't have the research handy  and the weight varied as they modified the silo due to Russian increase in accurracy. The door was mounted on rails and powered by catapult. I was told that the door would travel several hundred feet at launch. I plan to run wire or fishing line to to my model door and attach a weight to the other end. The weight would be released by a servo sending the door down the track. I think the same system could be used to launch the missile.  I will use scale flats to deliver the missiles (prototypes were delivered by both rail and air) which should give me plenty of railroad activity.  I may use the 175 to launch the missiles in an underground missile center.  I have both personal knowledge and have done extensive research on rail transportation and the minuteman system and would be happy to provide information.

I am trying to find a Nike, Bomarc, Mace, etc., in 1:48 scale. Not a silo Per Se but these are what I am looking for.

Most of the kits are re-issues of Renwal 1/32 scale kits (Hawk Battery, Nike Ajax, Teracruzer w/Mace).  There are a few "box scale" (aka kit fits in the box) from Revell/Monogram/Aurora that are either 1/48 or close, e.g. Revel Nike Hercules is 1/40 and there are some artillery missiles that are 1/48 (Honest John, Jupiter C/Redstone).  Revell did a Bomarc in 1/48 but that's pretty hard to find (even the re-issue).

The old MARX Cape Canaveral sets, usually available on eBay has LOTS of rockets that could be used in silos, too.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Reissued-The-Marx-Atomic-Cape-Canaveral-Missel-Base-/181219310195?pt=Vintage_Antique_Toys_US&hash=item2a31833a73

I'm just cowering in my hidden bunker as I type this.

"Mein Fuhrer, I can walk"

 -- Dr. Strangelove

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Thanks for your Air Force service at Ellsworth.  I have enjoyed several visits over the past few years to D-01 and D-09 and the Training Silo at the Museum at Ellsworth.

I agree with you that the Topping models are a little long but for my 3-rail layout that's close enough as I'm not a totally scale guy.  I was thrilled to find those on Ebay, as I plan to modify the model to work for me.

My flight of 10 missiles will certainly be deployed closer than the scale miles of an operational Minuteman Flight.

I believe the Launcher Closure was 80 tons, later increased to 100 tons.  While it would probably clear the fenced area of the LF at launch, several hundred feet is probably too much.  Once it left the rails and went through the fence it would probably bog down in the dirt pretty quickly.

Please keep us posted on your work.  Maybe even have a "Missile Away" light somewhere on your control panel.

There were Nike batteries around Pittsburg.  No ICBM's.

My understanding is that there were Nike batteries near Irwin, PA and Oakdale, PA but don't take that as Gospel.  I'd ask him...

George

Here ya go:

text

I remember the Nike sites around Chicago . . . ahhh the cold war!!

Now the only way to see Nike is look at a shoe.

"I'd heard stories of some type of underground installation near Blairsville, had no idea whether there was any truth to it..."

There was also a large command/control site in PA, "near a major metropolitan area" which wasn't identified but I assume was either Pittsburg or Philly.

Lee,

As to your original question, no I am not planning to build a missile site on my train table! My modeling design is late 30's early 40's back when the hobo's had the run of the land....There's no room for a missile silo.....aren't those things made out of concrete bunkers?

Mike Maurice

Lee, why not a Nike Base. Then you can at least see more than a hole in the ground. Revell still makes these kits. This is a shot of my old base. 1965-1968Don

I GUESS I SHOULD EXPLAIN A BIT MORE ABOUT MY PLAN.  I asked about missle silos because I am going to build a silo - with, as I explained at the top of this thread - a missle that slowly elevates to launch position from within, with opening doors, etc.  Too cool.  I wondered what other people had done with silos, etc.

My silo will be part of a secret rocket base - the idea to build something that an eight year old kid raised in the '50s (specifically the eight-year old kid still in me) who played with Marx tinplate rocket/army sets, would think is just too cool to be true.  I want it too look like something else until it "transforms" in the rocket base, with the super-impressive looking moon rocket/missile coming up out of a silo, a farmhouse changing into a control office, a barn into the fueling building, a tree becoming a radar dish, etc., - and yes, a second missile inside a silo - a grain silo that is, that retracts or opens up or something.  THAT is the kind of thing I'm thinking about.  It will be grand!!!!

My Nike site is now a museum. Makes me really feel old. There were three bases in the Bay Area when they closed down. Don

If you've got access to some model rocket kits you could make a "secret" rocket out of parts from a couple of 1/144 scale models (Saturn V, Space Shuttle) and a 1/48 scale Gemini rocket.  You can use 1 & 2nd stages and the shuttle boosters for the launch vehicle and the Gemini for the crew module.  1/144 tankage is about the same diameter as the service module base, you would only need a small adaptor ring you could fab from sheet styrene.

There is also a somewhat intact site near Dorseyville (photos below).  My wife and I kind of make a hobby of visiting former Nike sites (there are many).  If you know what to look for,  you can recognize many traces of this sad and scary era:

Each Nike site was actually composed of two installations:  one for missiles and one for radar/control. The radar had to be some distance from the launch site in order to be able to track the (very fast moving) missiles immediately after launch. In the above pictures all but the last two are from the radar site. The last ones are the launch site.  The dining hall of the latter is now a senior citizens center and the launch site itself is a soccer field.   There is also a little neighborhood nearby that consists entirely of former barracks, now converted to private homes.

I know a lot of people on this group like to talk about the good old days.  As far as I'm concerned, these were the bad old days.  The history is fascinating, though.

Lee,

You have started something!! WoW!  I have thoroughly enjoyed reading all the posts answers. Are Bomb shelters next on the agenda for you??

And as for NSA, yeah, they probably are cause one sure can get an education from the

minds of this forum!!!

Thanks for making my night...now all I'll dream about is Putin and Putting or is it Putting and Putin, dunno.

Ok this is not prototypical, but rather for the 8 year old kid mindset. How about a small trailer park. maybe 4 or 5 trailers. All the same. Plasticville would work. But set in a park that just doesn't look right. You know one that has that military installation look about it. All trailers spaced exactly the same. Painted rock borders around flower beds with no flowers. Surrounded by a 6' chain link fence with razor wire on top, gated. A small office by gate that looks more like a guard shack despite the signs. A corugated metal carport type shed that hides a blue USAF jeep or pickup from aerial view. A radar tower not far away on small hill.

Now for the action. The radar tower start up. Then the roof on one of the trailers opens, two door hatch in the center, and a missile  raises up, maybe just 6" vapor from that smoke unit starts to rise up from around the missile. The roofs open on the trailers on either side of the missile trailer. One exposes a tank of liquid rocket fuel the other shows men at a control panel. Blinking lights and such. Maybe a sound module that has that unmistakeable movie warning alarm, and maybe a message indicating missile launch. Maybe the two other trailers would open too and a couple of nikes would raise poised to shoot down the bombers that would be coming.

Oh and not to forget. A slightly over grown rail siding near the gate to deliver the missiles.

Railroaded

Can you email a price with shipping?

I want it too look like something else until it "transforms" in the rocket base, with the super-impressive looking moon rocket/missile coming up out of a silo...

Lee

You may want to start looking for a couple of K-Line cars, the K693-8011 and 8012.  If there has ever been a "traditional size O gauge" Saturn Moon rocket this is it.

My only worry is that if Lee builds a model of a missile silo, it will most likely be fully functional - including the missiles! 

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone!  I will included some Nike missles - they look so good!

Don't worry Nicole - I won't fire the rockets at you!  You'll be not quite dead yet for some time to come.

And Dlo Traf's suggestion of the trailer park is aligned perfectly with my intentions: good idea - will have to use some of that suggestion 

As for the rocket - yeah, I'll buy some 144 and other scale models.  The Atlas ICBM is a good looking one, too, always one of my favorites.  But I particularly like Pegasus Hobbies' Mercury 9, below.  Absolutely ridiculous of course (air intakes on a rocket?), but it surely will excite any eight-year old.

Feel free to use any ideas. I thought of that this morning while reading your thread. I have taken a lot of inspiration from your post. And I really like the story lines you've come up with for each little scene. I'm glad you posted this picture. I saw one of these somewhere but did not know what is was. Now I've already located one. Will go nicely with the flying saucer I already got. I got the idea from you to use some interchangeable scenes, as I do not have enough space for my ideas. You are right up my alley. My layout, once it gets further along, will be what I call "Toy Scale" I'll use scale elements, and some more toy like features. Example I have acquired several super hero's. I was looking at a phone booth I was going to place on the corner of the lot my Texaco Station was on. I thought I need a Superman flying out of the phone booth. I don't know if you have stumbled onto this, but I've found a number of scale size, (1/48) figures. Hero Clix. Super hero's and anything popular like Star Wars and such. But a number of them can be used for anything. I have maybe 20 or so of just villian types.

And even the crew from the Enterprise. Maybe a leap back in time, beamed down to stop the launch of that ICBM due to some Star Trek type event, that I can't think of right now. I though I might use them in an alley or maybe an area 51 type installation.

revolgnad , Your right. Site 88, "A" batteries launching area still works. You can go down underground and see the missiles. They will raise them for you then move them down the tracks to raise for launch. If you look above the missile at the hill there is a little white dot. I worked MTR, missile tracking radar on that hill. Nothing much is left up there as the road washed out years ago. The building you can see is the generator building. When we went "Hot" we cut off all outside power. The radar vans are now sitting in the launching area. They work and can be seen by visitors. Don

Looks like the first and second stages of a 1/144 scale Saturn V mates up with the 1/48 command module of a Gemini Capsule.  

"Please forgive the crudity of the model, I didn't have time to paint it or make it to scale"

No silo but it does use rails

XL5

I like it.  Lots of possibilities here with all these missiles.  This project is going to be a lot of fun!

GREAT SCOTT!!!