Grain elevator progress (pics)

So size does matter!    Very nice!  Russ

That really looks nice. I like it.

Wow! Look nice!!!

Hi Chugman,

That looks great!!!!!

Alex

My favorite historical quote fits this nicely: "Quantity has its own unique quality," - Joseph Stalin.  

Your grain elevator fits that very well.  It looks really good and it does remind me of some of those massive ones I've seen in the midwest.  Excellent!

NICE JOB !

WOW!

Looks great! Its good to see you posting on the forums again. Im anxious to see your layout someday.

That has a great look!

Like it it reminds me of the one at Hershey PA. 

More, more, more!

Wow!  That looks like the world's largest that they have a post card of, in south

central Kansas.  Don't think you will find any larger models of them.

Nice work!

What did you use to cap the top of the silos?

Looks real nice.

Having a pesky six-year old inside me who often channels his bizarre ideas, I've thought of modeling an exploding grain silo. Unfortunately, I don't have any place to put a set of silos and elevator and all, but it would be cool and a nice emergency scene to model/play with.

 When I was a kid (1960s?) I saw one in western Kansas/eastern Colorado about a week after it had happened.  My grandfather was a local judge who had to go inspect and certify the damage or something and I went with him.  The grain dust inside a half-empty one had exploded - the silo looked like a ruptured firecracker - concrete rumble everywhere.  No one had been killed, but Wow!  Years later i saw a video of cirvil engineers trying to blow up an old grain elevator.  It defied their efforts with dynamite: Grain dust can be a powerful explosive - it tore the one I saw to pieces. .  

Chugman,

That is one serious grain elevator. 

Bill would have a field day with that one. He would want about a thousand lights on it.

Alan Graziano

WOW, is an understatement,

Looks like someone made a couple

trips to the plumbing supply house.

Now that's what I call a grain elevator complex. This is wonderful work, Art. Having been to your layout, this is a perfect use of the space. It makes an impressive difference. 

Thanks' for all your comments.

Harry - I will have to see if I can find pictures of the one at Hershey, PA  Does it have any connection to the famous chocolate company?

Coloradohirailer - I think that one you are talking about is at Hutchinson, KS.  That is the type that I have in mind, but not to that extent of course.  They have very large elevators in central Kansas to handle all the wheat harvest.  I may call mine CENTRAL KANSAS COOP.

Ricky - I used 1/4 Masonite on the bottom and illustration board or Strathmore board on the tops.

Lee - I had forgotten how dangerous elevators are with the grain dust being so explosive. 

Brian - I am pretty happy with the overall looks so far and think that this will work well for this area of my layout.  It was meant to be a rural area and what's more rural Midwest than big elevators?  This is the country that the real UP and BNSF travel through to the west coast.

Art

Harry - I was able to find this picture of the elevator in Hershey, PA.  Not a great picture, but you can make out the number of silos.  It says that it is full of cocoa beans.

That's a very impressive structure.

Regarding explosions, real grain elevator silos have ventilation fans and very serious looking ground wires.

Which of these elevators in Hutchinson, Kansas is the "BIG ONE"?

It's non of these in the background picture.

Must be the one we are standing next too.

This last picture is of the end of the "BIG ONE" which is many silo's wide and over 1/2 mile long.  With some of the smaller elevators in the background.

Enid, Oklahoma and Fort Worth, Texas have very large elevators also.

Hi Art,

Storing grain in there for the Kraft Macaroni and cheese? Ha Ha.... Since Kraft separated in 2012 from Nabisco, I no longer am employed by your former and my former company, Kraft. I ended on with Nabisco. Had no choice but I'm riding it out to the sunset to almost retirement. Just maybe, I can spend the time like you building a really nice layout like yours.

I always enjoy your pictures of progress.

Thanks.

I love grain elevators. Saw a couple of pretty good-sized ones in the Houston, TX area yesterday. You definitely did a good job with yours. What kills me is that just when you think you've seen the biggest, there's one that's even bigger.

This one is supposedly 2000 feet long. Oh yeah! Let's build this one in the back yard at over 40 feet long.

Great job Chugman.  Can you please share your technique or pictures of the construction?  Or did you in a previous thread?... seems familiar.

Is anyone familiar with the ADM elevators on Hiawatha in Minneapolis?  

I've always liked the Port 86 Elevator layout in Seattle, would love to model this one but I'd have to switch to z scale.  One interesting fact is it has the capability to load directly from a train to a ship.

I really love big, concrete grain elevators (Wow, AGHRMAtt - 2000 feet!) - in addition to just being very impressive on their own right, they look like an ammunition clip for some impossibly big automatic gun or something. Growing up in the west/mid-west I saw a lot of them.  I don't really have room for one on my layout.  I might be able to fit one as a shallow backdrop in - would love to, but I'm not sure I have even enough depth for that . . .

Here in NC, where we live now, we have only a few big concrete silo elevators - I see them from time to time but not nearly as many.  We have a lot of sheet-metal oines as in the photo below, nice no doubt, and probably fun to build as a model, too, but just not a "grain elevator" in my world . . .

Thanks for the nice comments everyone.

Keith - The "Big One" is the 1/2 mile long one in Hutchinson, KS.  But there are so many "big" ones that it's hard to tell sometimes.  Great pictures!

Ted - So you will have an Oreo in your retirement stocking instead of Mac & Cheese?

Apple & Spud Line - I will share basic construction in a separate post.  It is very easy though.

Matt - It looks like a lot of us have a love of grain elevators.  Every small town in the Midwest seems to have an elevator so we can model so many different types and styles.  A Midwestern town just doesn't look right without one.

Ironhorseman - Beautiful picture of the elevator in Seattle!

Lee - There are so many ways to find space for one.  The area of this one is 9" wide, that's the width of an Ameritown building.  That was too wide for a track beside my double wide silo version, so I added a single silo extension that works well in 4 1/2".  I am going to cut single silos in half and mount them on my backdrop at my town of Ruthven.  So I think they can be worked just about anywhere.

Art

Is anyone familiar with the ADM elevators on Hiawatha in Minneapolis? 

Very much so, I plan to devote 40' x 4' of layout to model the mile and a half long milling district.

Elliot - That will be fantastic!  I can't wait to the progress as that begins.

Art

Thanks Art, I like the monster you've created. I suspect I'll need as much pipe as you used, only for multiple elevators.

Good one!  My sister used to live in that tall white condo (415 Mercer)sitting over the south end of the silos.  She had a great view of all the activity there.  Modeling that elevator and all the train sights between there and the stadiums would make for a cool layout!

Originally Posted by Apple & Spud Line:

Is anyone familiar with the ADM elevators on Hiawatha in Minneapolis? 

Very much so, I plan to devote 40' x 4' of layout to model the mile and a half long milling district.

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you include the Cardinal across the street, I'll come visit.

Terrific looking area. Did you use PVC pipe? What diameter piping would be the best size?

Ed Kaz

Art...great thread!!  Looks like you are creating a beautiful model of a huge complex.  Here are a few pictures of my much more modest attempt.  I have added a lot of details with smaller supporting structures around it.

Alan

Alan - Thanks.  You did a great job of capturing the big grain elevator complex look.

Ed Kaz & Apple & Spud Line - I was going to wait and take a few pics as I completed the construction of the addition, but it is so simple that I can easily describe it. 

I use 3 1/2" plastic PVC sewer piper from Home Depot or Menards for the silos.  Make a jig and saw the pipe to exactly the same lengths, I cut mine at 14" tall.  I cut a base of 1/8" Masonite and glue the pipes to it with construction adhesive.  Cut a top for the silos of rigid illustration board using the same adhesive.  You can also use Titebond or Gorilla glue for the top.  I sprayed mine with flat off white paint to represent silos that are painted white but weathered.  The structure is made of foamboard with wood bracing inside.  I made my windows by using wood strips cut and fit into the openings but you could use plastic windows more easily.

Art

 Art, always a pleasure to see your work. It's great to keep up with your layout. Somewhere I saved pics of the control boards that also look great. Keep 'em rollin' !!

Ricky - Wow! Very nice pictures!  I've never seen a grain elevator I didn't like, but I like some better than others.  Love the Gold Medal Flour sign!

Art

I agree!  I gotta find an area to put some on my layout.  Just gotta do it.

I visited an HO layout recently that had about 20 grain elevators on it and they were done extremely well.  I will post a couple pictures of some of them later today.

Art

I'd like to see the control board.  I think there was a thread on that, I'll search.

Originally Posted by Big_Boy_4005:

Originally Posted by Apple & Spud Line:

Is anyone familiar with the ADM elevators on Hiawatha in Minneapolis? 

Very much so, I plan to devote 40' x 4' of layout to model the mile and a half long milling district.

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you include the Cardinal across the street, I'll come visit.

I need the 4' width to get the elevators and the track in. I might be able to get it on the backdrop. Tell you what, if you come to visit, we can go there.

Want a grain elevator but  have a small area on the layout?  Check this out. This elevator is at Dodge City, Kansas.  They must have been short on money and/or it was a small company that built it.  Or did not have much plactic pipe.

Looks great Art!

Thanks for the comments and the great pictures.

I recently attended some HO layouts and one of them had the best selection of elevators I have ever seen.  In fact, this layout might the best overall I have ever seen.  I didn't count all the elevators but I'm guessing it has about 20 different ones.  Each is based on pictures taken of real ones.

Here is my grain elevator complex. You might remember that Alan (leavintracks) custom built it for my layout, and he had to fit it in the only space I had left available, which was along a curved section of track. As you can see, Alan did a wonderful job, and I am ever so thankful and fortunate to have an example of his superb craftsmanship on my layout. Afterwards, I added the piping, ‘metal’ structures, and lettering. Finally just today, after a year and a half, I had enough nerve to weather it.

 (Click on pictures for better detail)

Alex

Now Alan don't you think we could get twice that many on them

I'm with Bill on this one, the more lights, the better. 

I just never picture a grain elevator as being lit up like a refinery for example.  Maybe a few lights so workers can see but nothing special. 

Art 

Alex - What a beautiful model!  You and Alan did a great job on it.  Love the weathering.

Bill - Wow! That's a lot of pictures!  Where would you put a lot of lights?

Art

 Art,I like a lot of lights and think it makes the layout look very nice when running at night time. So I add a lot of lighting that people who like to run only day light don't really need.

So areas that I have lights are,  In the work house and around the silos and in the elevator and the unloading facility. If no work house then at the top of each silo so that the manhole area is lighted. Also on the Grain trucks themselfs. Lighting at the doorways and access ladders.

I think that the lights up on the silos themselfs really add dimension to them when the room lights are down a bit. Art Itried to get the pictures big enough so that you could see the little light fixtures.

Bill - I had forgotten that you had Alan make these great elevators for you, very nice!  I can't argue that lights make just about anything more dramatic.  You have proven that before with your refinery. 

Concerning this latest expansion of mine, I am struggling to not just try to make mine bigger for the sake of size, but rather try to represent the look and feel of the prototype.  I was so impressed with the large elevators in Kansas and Nebraska when we lived there that I wanted something like it on my RR.  Iowa and Illinois have large ones too, but usually more smaller ones.  I want to represent that too.

Art

Your new addition is looking great. It will also serve a little bit of a room divider for you sorta like you did with the farm dield I think.

I wamted a large complex that might be for flour and grains and some feed bins for the bye products of the varous milling operations. I wanted to have an unloading area that was enclosed due to the cols weather in the grain belt. So I have some larger diameter silos for corn,rice and sugar, smaller ones for flour, lite and heavy bran and salt.

I like the Big silos as well as the small ones. Just like in real life the concrete(slip formed ones are great) as well as the welded metal tanks. The bolted Harvestal probably are my least favorite.

Art & Bill:

What I like is you are both following your vision. That makes every model railroad special and reflects the design criteria each of us has in us. They both look sensational.

I especially  like these types of threads as they provide so many good ideas. Thanks for starting this thread, Art.

Here are three more pictures from the HO layout.  These are different types of complexes than we normally model in O gauge.

Art, that's a fantastic model. Can you post some more photo angles? By the way,since this has become a portfolio of grain elevators, here is one that is on the layout of the local HO club (http://www.lcmrr.org/).