Lolly column camouflage

Lally Column.

Click here. Or here, here or even here

Thonks 

Not easy - add a couple more shorter pipes (PVC works well) of varying lengths and paint all as grain mill/silos or make pieces to disguise as a cell phone tower.

Tornado, Smoke column from a building on fire or make an 'N' gauge double helix.

There was an article in OGR a few years ago by Bill Bramledge about just that issue.  He built a "power plant" and the column was one of the smoke stakes.  He added a railing and lights to it, and painted the top black so it kind of disappeared in to the ceiling.  the power plant building was built around the column, and the other smoke stacks we actually plastic tubes from a vacuum cleaner.

Sorry to say, but I think you are a little late to be trying to hide the columns now. I have three of them in my layout, but only two small sections are visible, the rest are hidden in the backdrop.

Here's one. I plan to put a cement plant over the lower part of this.

Here's the other. A yard tower will go here.

I have to figure out how to deal with these two on my layout.   At 9" in diameter, they're a bit harder to disguise.

John, are those structural or decorative or decorative covering structural? At least they are close to the corners.

John, I know you're a long way down the road..., sawing them off just short of the decking, filling the hole, below they would look like supports for the decking, above, gone and restore the ceiling.  Have you heard the saying “Nothings so easy as the job you imagine someone else doing”    

John,

I remember you saying something about extending the layout around them. What was the reasoning behind that? Just curious. What are you planning to put in that end of the layout? Any way to hide things with a mountain (equipped with an Area 51 7/8 Batcave)? Bury them in a rock face? Water tanks on top of a mountain?

Chris

LVHR

Years ago there was a photo on here of John(?) Menard's layout that showed how his post was camouflaged. He did a very nice job. Maybe the photo is still around somewhere. I mentioned at the time that OGR should do a piece on his layout, but, I don't remember anything coming of it.

John, have you considered making a suspension bridge between them or a mountain?  Maybe build a small trolley at eye height around them, so have an elevated section?

I like Ron's suggestion, maybe a fun suspended feature.   FWIW, they are decorative, but given that I'd have to fix the carpet and flooring under them if I ripped them out, that's not going to happen.

lehighline posted:

I remember you saying something about extending the layout around them. What was the reasoning behind that? Just curious. What are you planning to put in that end of the layout? Any way to hide things with a mountain (equipped with an Area 51 7/8 Batcave)? Bury them in a rock face? Water tanks on top of a mountain?

 Simply because of the work in trying to fix the floor after I ripped them out.  The reason for extending the layout is so I can have larger curves, not to mention a little more space on the layout.

I'm actually considering a feature where I cut a hole in them, that would be cool.  I could even run a track through one!

Looks like a smoke stack. 

I built a clock tower:

All three clocks work and have illuminated faces:

 I wrote an article in OGR on this

That's a pretty cool use of the column!

I could paint one of them like a giant redwood and have a track go through it!

I like the redwood tree idea, along with the paint you could add branches and greenery, etc. And it would be really cool with the train running through it! My second would be for the suspension bridge between them, or something like that. MAybe the road could go through them instead of the trains? Or maybe even Super Streets with cars and trucks? These columns might just turn out to be a real asset instead of an obstacle, especially with the help you have from a highly skilled craftsman!  

In my last home we had a post which would be in the right of way.  A structural engineer determined that due to the nature of our basement beam and location of bearing walls above, we could move the pole 3' which opened up a right a way and hid the pole in a room divider.

We cut out the floor, poured a new footer then installed the new relocated column.

Something to check out.

Tom McGriel posted:

I was hoping one or more of our creative forum scenicers could give me some ideas on how to blend this column into my layout. Thanks in advance 

First question, is it truly a support column?  It looks a lot like mine, and they're purely decorative in nature, just hollow beams for looks.  My floors are truss construction, and no support is required for the span, the columns were just for show.  You can see the gap, there's daylight through that gap.  If it was truly a support, there'd be something solid there.

If you don't have a gap, consider a small drill to tap in and see if you hit steel.