My mostly steam era industrial area with various Railking and Menards structures is lacking one obvious element - brick smokestacks. I looked through Scenic Express website - nothing to speak of. Tall smokestacks - 12-18" high next to the buildings would be awesome.
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Might look on the used market, in the mid-2000's, Lionel made an impressive industrial smokestack that worked (smoked) and had flickering LED's to simulate a glow of a fire and also aerial markers. I have one and it is nice. Surprised Lionel has not re-issued this accessory.
Altoona Modelworks.
MELGAR
@Chuck Sartor posted:Might look on the used market, in the mid-2000's, Lionel made an impressive industrial smokestack that worked (smoked) and had flickering LED's to simulate a glow of a fire and also aerial markers. I have one and it is nice. Surprised Lionel has not re-issued this accessory.
Chuck, you are correct. Lionel did make one (6-14142), although it depicts a metal smokestack, not brick. I've seen a beautiful one at York by Harry Heike but it's ungodly expensive ($400 
). I bought two for my Open Hearth but found they were too short. So I acquired 2 more and used the middle section to make them taller. They will go in my new (version 2) Open Hearth. The "shorties" will also be used for other industries. Below left is the Lionel image. On the right is a comparison of the "shorty" to the "tall boy".
And below is a photo of my old (version 1) Open Hearth (stacks are normal size).
George
George - your steel plant looks great.
I use to have a couple of the Lionel stacks...~ 15 or so years ago ~ on a previous layout, sold them a long time ago. Was hoping to find brick type, though, this time around.
Melgar - I looked at Altoona model works and only saw structure kits.
As a last resort, I suppose using tapered table legs - hardware supply? - and wrapping them in brick paper which is readily available in O-scale via e-bay, would suffice, though I'd likely botch it up.
Botch away. You have nothing much to lose ( a little time and a little money) and a world of experience to pass on to us.
Thanks in advance.
I seem to remember that Westport Models made one years ago as well. Haven't seen it in a month of Sundays.
George
Thanks for that link, KD. They're a bit up in price, am not sure if they come as shown or just as plaster. I'll give them a call.
Paul,
Check our the thread titled
in the Scenery and Structures forum. Someone posted pictures of tall smokestacks that might be made of bricks. I believe he 3D printed them.
John
@Paul Kallus posted:George - your steel plant looks great.
I use to have a couple of the Lionel stacks...~ 15 or so years ago ~ on a previous layout, sold them a long time ago. Was hoping to find brick type, though, this time around.
Melgar - I looked at Altoona model works and only saw structure kits.
As a last resort, I suppose using tapered table legs - hardware supply? - and wrapping them in brick paper which is readily available in O-scale via e-bay, would suffice, though I'd likely botch it up.
A phone call to Altoona may be in order. Web sites are not always current nor complete. John
The tapered square stack referred to above, from RIVER LEAF MODELS by laz 1957, would be much easier to made than a tapered one that is cylindrical if brick paper is used.
It would be very difficult to line up the bricks on a tapered cylinder. It is also much harder to make a tapered cylinder. Making a tapered square paper brick stack should be an easy project and look very good.
Charlie
I have the Altoona one it is very nice, and I believe he can build it and paint it for you if you like. I gave used the Walthers HO chimney on a riser with good success. No riser needed if you mounts on a roof top. But if on the same level as a structure, simply make a riser out of any number of items to sakes the total height.
Square is simpler than round. I used a large square dowel covered With plastruct brick sheet, also I used small back splash tile from Home Depot to make the base, it looked like stone blocks.
Paul:
I built the smoke stack below using a Walthers HO smoke stack and styrene for the clean-out box. Total height is about 15 inches. The box is 4 inches high and is easy to build. It is just two boxes on top of each other.
Joe
Check out Harry Hieke, He has one available
Get a piece of pine the size you want. Use a fresh utility knife for the horizontal joints, sharp flat blade screwdriver for the vertical joints. Have at it. Knock a little off the corners here and there to age it. You don't want it perfect. Develop a crown on the top you like
When done, paint it with something like Floquil Boxcar Red. Wipe some latex white paint on into the joints, then quickly off. Some black on top.
You'll be surprised how much fun it is!
john
@CPF3 posted:Get a piece of pine the size you want. Use a fresh utility knife for the horizontal joints, sharp flat blade screwdriver for the vertical joints. Have at it. Knock a little off the corners here and there to age it. You don't want it perfect. Develop a crown on the top you like
When done, paint it with something like Floquil Boxcar Red. Wipe some latex white paint on into the joints, then quickly off. Some black on top.
You'll be surprised how much fun it is!
john
Okay John, you have our attention. Kindly share some of the steps in constructing this nice building. Great roof. Or start a thread with a lot of details. Thank you, John
hi John
I made the building about 20 years ago. It is as closely based on the Swifty Meat Processing plant of the 1949 Lionel Showroom layout as possible. Frank Ellison is the original designer and there are plans with measurements in the Model Railroading books put out by Lionel via Bantam. From the 6th edition, for example, on pages 214-15 are measurements and discussion (it is called a Small Parts Factory there).
The roof was intended to replicate the roof on the Lionel Showroom layout version. I used heavy construction paper for the material, then randomly sprayed a little paint to make it uneven.
The basic structure is alot of 1/8" plywood. The windows and doors are from Lionel, places like 445 switch tower. You could buy alot of them for really cheap; perhaps still can. Too white - need weathering.
The platform is scratch built with basswood. Should be stained/aged. Looks too new.
The building has a foundation made of plaster with rocks added in. Looks perhaps like 19th century New England foundations.
The oil tank probably came from Berkshire. They have tons of great detail items.
If any of these areas need expansion, I would be happy to provide them.
thanks!
john
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