O Scale Sub Stations?

Didn't Scrapiron have an ex new Haven one built?

Also Lionel has a substation building kit.- that's if you are looking old school pre 1970's style.

On my Link. Covered on here many times.

prrhorseshoecurve posted:

Didn't Scrapiron have an ex new Haven one built?

Also Lionel has a substation building kit.- that's if you are looking old school pre 1970's style.

Yes he did and it is spectacular. I have a Walthers HO station for my layout...

Not exactly 1:48 scale, but who's to say how big a substation really is??? Put it into the background; a little forced perspective and it looks fine.

Max,

What type did you want to model? Scrapiron's from Bryn Mawr was for the rail line catenary. There are power grid substations located along the rails for the utility companies.

They just upgraded one near me over the last year and a half. Pretty fancy now, with a lot of fan and air conditioned computer controlled boxes the size of trailers. The supports and insulators still look the same, just modern materials now. The main power lines happen to hang over the rails for a few miles.

I can get a few photos if you want them.

Moonman posted:

Max,

What type did you want to model? Scrapiron's from Bryn Mawr was for the rail line catenary. There are power grid substations located along the rails for the utility companies.

They just upgraded one near me over the last year and a half. Pretty fancy now, with a lot of fan and air conditioned computer controlled boxes the size of trailers. The supports and insulators still look the same, just modern materials now. The main power lines happen to hang over the rails for a few miles.

I can get a few photos if you want them.

I have a cat system on my layout, and actually live a few minutes from the sub station in Bryn Mawr. I was hoping to find one that has multiple transformers outside along with the building, and I would probably use the Korber models building. Im most curious on the transformers, as to if anyone makes them. 

Maxrailroad posted:

Moonman posted:

Max,

What type did you want to model? Scrapiron's from Bryn Mawr was for the rail line catenary. There are power grid substations located along the rails for the utility companies.

They just upgraded one near me over the last year and a half. Pretty fancy now, with a lot of fan and air conditioned computer controlled boxes the size of trailers. The supports and insulators still look the same, just modern materials now. The main power lines happen to hang over the rails for a few miles.

I can get a few photos if you want them.

I have a cat system on my layout, and actually live a few minutes from the sub station in Bryn Mawr. I was hoping to find one that has multiple transformers outside along with the building, and I would probably use the Korber models building. Im most curious on the transformers, as to if anyone makes them. 

here's some more ideas from an past topic  MTH has a depressed flat car with one.

Thanks for the info Moonman. Does Walthers attend York? If they do Ill buy the kits there. 

Max,

here is the meet information for the Fall - as I suspected -Walthers does not have a table- but I would expect some dealers to have Walthers items - probably better to shop the detail items online - it could be time consuming to locate what you want

(check the Dealer Hall Chart link)

Don't forget to post your layout updates here on the forum - not all of us are on social media

Max,

I used a Korber substation building and several parts from Walthers HO substation:

It was quick build.  Idea was to just create a place for coal and freight car movement.

Tom

Then there's this...

Entirely scratch built and I wouldn't advise doing it unless you've got a year to spend on one project. Transformer is freelance design, but the rest comes from ABB's 135KVA drawings as found on their website. Radiator fans are HO detail models of EMD late model cooling fans. Lighting is LED.

The only kit was the Brennen chain link fence. The transformer body is a scratch-built copy of the load on my MTH heavy duty flatcar. Insulators are auto plastic body fasteners available at Lowe's. Model is multi-media with styrene, brass and machined aluminum. I fully described its build in my on-going build thread of the Pennsylvania and Pacific RR. And was featured in November 2015 Railroad Model Craftsman.

Here's mine polluting my layout with a cloud of smoke.

Nice work by everyone.  You've given Max many ideas on how to accomplish a small substation for his layout.

I am building the Walthers HO substation and unfortunately it does not include instructions on how to wire the parts together.   I have attached some pictures.  If anyone can help me out that would be great.   If you can print out a picture then connect the parts with a colored pen then repost .  I will be using this on an O scale layout.   

All of the substations look good.  Max just needs the general gist of one.  I have two depressed flatcars with transformers on them. Yes the transformers are probably best to be purchased.  For those who followed Trainman2001's build above, it takes a lot of work to do one from scratch.  I worked for 20 years in power stations and substations, but have been away now for 22 years in telecommunications instead, but I could figure out where to put in the wire or prefer bus bars.  It can get quite intricate, but remember there are three phases, and none of the three can ever touch another.  The Walthers is a very nice modern one, Myles' is modern too.  I worked in some stations that were built before WWII, still in service in 1990, and there are distinct differences from modern for sure.  And yes, I will be building one in O myself someday, not to the level of detail Myles goes to.  I built a Japanese N-scale kit when I was modeling N scale.  It wasn't bad.

Stu,

Look at the post directly above yours by Trainman2001. The last pic is a good guide.

I had Al Granzano build this for me 

gene maag posted:

Here's mine polluting my layout with a cloud of smoke.

 

But where's the mighty "Hi HO Silver..... Away!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9lf76xOA5k

I would like to thank MARK BOYCE for his help on wiring the Walthers Substation.   Here are some progress pictures.   To make it look better with O scale trains I added 1" to the height with concrete foundations.   The color of the bus wires represents patina copper.   I used O gauge fence from Scenic Express and added opening gates.  I still have some weathering, paint touch ups, gravel and warning signs to do.  The first two pictures are of an older substation I just happened to walk by Sunday.

Stu, the wiring looks just right!  Also, you got the color just right on the copper also.  Your concrete pads look good too!    I could walk right into that gate and go to work.   I was downsized from the power company in 1995, and have worked in telecommunications ever since, but I still remember so much from those days 1976 to 1995.  In fact, the telecom company has equipment in substations, and lightning would come in and fry our equipment.  So, I got to visit three other power companies' substations from time to time and would always look to see how they did a lot of things the same as we did.

We had stations that looked like the one you walked by in the first two photographs.  My job was the relaying, controls, and communications in the outdoor cabinets and control houses.  We had to know exactly how everything was connected in the yard to verify what we were doing was right.  A lot of guys moved on to be operations managers.  

I am glad I was able to confirm your thinking from observing other photographs. 

I think Walthers did a very nice job on this kit.  It is very authentic for a modern station, yet it is affordable.  Steam era stations would look more like the one you observed up above.

Max,

I built this power/boiler house kit from Altoona Model Works. I haven’t added any details yet, but will in the future. 

Andy

Photos of the substation and connections to the catenary are forthcoming. You may see the substation fairly soon in our favorite magazine.

Here are the finished pictures.  I did a lot of closeups to show the connections of the parts.

Andy, that is a really nice job you did on the powerhouse!

Eliot, I'll be looking forward to seeing yours!!

Stu, the substation looks great!!

Very nicely detailed.  Just needs a squirrel climbing through so it shorts out to be more realistic . 

Yes sir, Fred, I could tell some squirrel stories from my time with the power company!  They caused much overtime, and I don't know of any who lived to tell about it. 

Thanks Mark, I’m getting a few really good ideas on this thread for some details!

Andy

Steamfan77 posted:

 

Max,

I built this power/boiler house kit from Altoona Model Works. I haven’t added any details yet, but will in the future. 

Andy

 

 

 

Great building.  With the large windows it is a great candidate for an interior.  I have been looking and some of the parts that could work are by crow river.

they have steam boiler, steam engine and dynamo.

http://www.crowriverproducts.c...ndex.php?cPath=22_24

I always wanted to build one of them gizmos but who has the time when you are seventy.

Menards needs to make one to go along with its power station.

Millers engineering  needs to make a sign.

Squirrel on wire(Light) Squirrel on wire with lightning bolts behind him(light)

Squirrel on wire with lightning bolts behind him and cloud of smoke above it(light)

If you make it we will buy it, may even buy a few.

No my mother had me tested. 

Thanks Stu, I’ll check them out.

Andy

Stu thank you for the close-ups of the wiring.  I've got the same Walther's HO kit, so now I know the add the concrete bases and how to wire it all up.

Joe, once you get into wiring it up, you will see it is quite logical.  Walthers did the hard part by putting all the buses in the kit.