Lionel Grain Elevator

I first removed the over-track porch, for you wouldn't want the Super Chief blasting

through that if it was on your main line (but that demands some filling and replacement door fabrication). If your building is on a stuff siding, that overhang

can stay. I painted it barn red and used some "Co-op" decals.  I then fabricated a round silo shaped, with a conical roof, grain bin from Plastruct corrugated styrene, and connected it to the Lionel elevator with tubing.

I also added two other kit built (Plastruct, I think,grain bins...one HO with door

modified to "O", and another O scale one), to enlarge the grain capacity, and to

give three different adjunct storage facilities.

"stub siding", that is...

I will post some Silo pictures as food for thought.

Here's my small grain elevator from Lionel. The office/scale house is a old depot that I had.  The elevator is on a siding. When I was looking at grain elevators in Western Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma panhandle's I did not found 2 alike.  So paint and change the design of  the elevator anyway you want too. Elevators come in all sizes tall/short, large and small. Wood, steel and concert.

The plastic of the walls of the kit would need to be spray painted in several light coats inside and out to look realistic. The plastic walls will transmit light from an artifical light source inside or out of the building, if the walls are not properly painted.

 

You can use a spray paint like Krylon Fusion.

 

Andrew

Dave Friedlander did this Lionel grain elevator. I installed it on my layout with a Walthers Sur-sweet Feeds store and a BTS Orbisonia station. 

Very nice results with the Lionel grain elevator. I have three painted a faded red, never decaled but was going to letter them in my 3 kids names.,

Mikr very nice!!

This photo is "art!" What a beautiful picture! Thanks for sharing. Malcolm

Thank you for the compliments.  Dave had done an exceptional job on the model, when I set it in place most of the lettering/decals were not visible so I added a few, left-over from the Sur-sweet Feeds model.  The Farmall M sign was downloaded from the internet, copied, and pasted to the model.  The exit ramp was done custom with a small piece of luan board and a scribe tool. 
Exit ramp that is part of the model


Ramp detail to cross the tracks.

Mike the level of detail is VERY GOOD. I love Silos and Grain elevators, I think they are a great addition to any layout.

I really like all the Elevator/silo postings on this thread. They are all very well done large or small. That is part of the beauty of these ICONS from our past.

 

Malcome Yes it is art and when I was looking for references for my Silos I had the same thought and their are several more in the group of picrures posted above.I also think many of the Grain rail cars display beauty in the art work on them.

 

The Grain elevator/silos is trylu an example of how something very simple can become ART!!

Here is my contribution to this thread....

 

Thanks,

Alan

 

 

Alan your new tubing that Alex made for you looks very nioce.

Hi Everybody,

 

Thanks for all of the pictures, info and comments.  There are many great photos here.  My favorites are the colorful old wooden elevators.  I especially like the green and red/yellow ones pictured tgether.  Are those in Canada or the US?  Those are cool!  There is some amazing modeling evident in the photos.  I really admire the talent and effort invested.  I think for my "Rural Town USA" set in the 1940s and 1950s the buildings and scene posted by Mike CT is most along the lines of what I envision.

 

I really like seeing the layout and scenery pictures and discussions that get posted here.  Great thread- Thanks again everybody.   

 

Mike M.

Mike, many of the smaller elevator picture's I posted are from Canada.

Thanks Bill....you wouldn't believe how small diameter the guy wire is....I couldn't have made those unless I had a microscope!! LOL!

 

Alan

Alan, How small is the wire you used? Your tubing looks to be a good size for the model. What size tubing did you use? Thanks, Bill

Awesome work all of you guys

 

Alex

Thanks Alex...you too!!

 

Bill...I am not sure since Alex (we have two different Alex' here!) built them.  He and his wife just got back home from a train related trip.  I will ask him to chime in here.  He and I are planning a joint article which involves him showing how he built them.  They are all metal...not one piece of plastic!!

 

Alan

Hi Alan, Thanks for your reply. I did send Alex an email asking about the derails.Thanks for your reply.

Heres some nice kits found on altoonamodelworks site.

Bob those are nice!

http://www.west2k.com/mnstations/mnstations.html

 

The Minnesota Railroad Station database has a huge number of photos of railroad stations next to wood grain elevators in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Most of them appear to be painted dark red.

 

Andrew

The August 2012 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman has an article on modeling a grain elevator.

 

You might want to check that out.

 

George