PICTURES...Grain elevator complex on layout, at sunrise...

Very nice, what are the main silos made from? PVC pipe? Size?

leavingtracks,
Very nice! And right on time, as I am getting ready get back to work on my grain silo project. Mine will be much more simple than yours, with just 5 silos in a row made from pvc.
Great looking facility you have there!

That is VERY COOL!

Very nice structure, can you give us a low down on how you made it?

OMG Alan that is just awesome
great work.Keep us posted.

THANKS ALEX

Impressive work and size. Very good job.
Now time to go plant some spring wheat---then winter wheat--then spring wheat then.....to fill that huge complex up!

Alan, that's an excellent job. Everyone really appreciates your craftsmanship. And I hope you don't mind some questions as I'm really interested in it.

Can you elaborate a little on how you went about choosing the design? Did you take pics of a real one, then reduce the size and work from there. And what facility was it. What logos will be applied. Is this a Riceland by any chance.

If I was going to do this, my first thought would be the huge Riceland elevators at Stuttgart that you can see from ten miles away when approaching from Hazen across the endless flat seas of flooded rice fields. It's a real sight for those of us who have a special love for agriculture and the outdoors and everything connected with those.

Btw, how are you going to handle the truck unloading and hopper car loading areas.

For cars I'm going with grain hoppers from Atlas, Lionel and Weaver and trying to stick to ones I've actually seen in the Mid-South. The tricky part is researching which cars are used for grain and not accidentally using hoppers meant for other loads. As for grain trucks, that's harder to say.

That is very nice; inspirational, really. Is that a Korber kit? I have a smaller version and added a couple of details, but your additions of the tanks and the pneumatic transfer lines is excellent. I think that I also recognize a Lionel grain elevator right in that complex. Very good use of materials, design and combinations.

I like it.

Paul Fischer

FANTASTIC!

I don't know (yet) whether Alan used any kits for this, but I do know that with his creativity and ingenuity, he does not need any kits! (Except maybe to finish quicker. )

I am sure he will let us know what portions he did from scratch and where he used kits.

Great work, Alan!

Alex

Really looks good Alan, I know just where you placed this on your layout. You are squeezing every inch of space to enhance your layout. Keep up the good work.

Thanks guys! I am in for a bite to eat so this will have to be short. The main "concrete" structure is scratch built out of PVC pipe, foam core, and Grandt Line windows. The related structures around are pieces from an Ertl Farm kit that have been lightly bashed and incorporated into the scene. The Lionel elevator is part of the complex but of course was there first before the new concrete elevators were built.

I will address each of you when I get back in tonight from the office.

Thanks for your comments...
Alan

Outstanding, *AND* you spelled "granary" correctly!

That looks darn good Alan.

Thanks for sharing.

moed321...thanks....the silos are made of PVC. Each was cut to scale out at 70 feet.

Scott...I found that the PVC works great. I look forward to seeing yours when you post pictures, thanks.

JDaddy...I have e-mailed Allan Miller to see if he would like this to be submitted as a article for the magazine. If I don't hear back from him, then I will go into a step by step explanation

Alex....thanks!

Dewey...the wheat prices are rising

Ginsaw...thank you very much. Please PM me, I would like to ask you a few questions too!!

Paul...this is not a Korber kit. To get started and get some idea as to size, I asked my friend Roger Wasson to make a few measurements on his Korber but I decided to upsize those measurements.

Alex...thank you for the nice comment. As I said above, this is a scratch built project other than the Lionel elevator and the Ertl components.

Brian...I knew you would figure out where it was going. There is now only room for one more industry. It will be in front of the granary.

Arthur...thank you and yes, it is not "grainery"!!

Johnny...thanks to you too!!

Alan

A few PMed me about the paint color. It looks more white in the pictures than in person. The paint I used was from HD....Rustoleum metal white primer. It is an off white resembling new concrete..

Alan

Looks great; I should be so good with buildings.

...but, "morning sunrise"? When else would it be?

Sorry. Great work.

Good point D500 ...does sound kind of obvious...DUH! I'll change that title.

Thanks,
Alan

Alan your silo complex looks very nice.I think that will look excellent on your layout with all your fantastic finishing plans.

I also have a Grain Milling operation for the layout. I have two sets of the Korber Silos and head house. This gives me 16 Silos. We are building 2 Grain Mill Structures and they will look something like the drawing I am posting below.
You also can see that I plan to place my complex to the left of the Power Plant Complex.

Congrats again on the very fine job you have done.

Very nice! I got the ERTL kit a couple of years ago, and a barn and pig farm, thinking I'd build a Scrapple factory from beginning to end, but that project languished along with some others among the cobwebs in my mind.

Nice design, build, and photos!

quote:

Originally posted by Farmer_Bill:
Very nice! I got the ERTL kit a couple of years ago, and a barn and pig farm, thinking I'd build a Scrapple factory from beginning to end, but that project languished along with some others among the cobwebs in my mind.

1 open fire
1 cast iron kettle about 40 gallon size supported by tripod.
Lot's and lot's of otherwise UN-usable pig parts.
1 meat grinder.
Lot's of square cake pans to pour that God awful concoction into.

= 1 Scrapple factory

David

Fabulous work Alan! All the components together looks great. Thanks for sharing!

Bill...thanks for the nice comments as always! I don't understand your first drawing above the smaller one that shows the overall power and grain complex...PM me and give me more details..it looks very interesting.

Keith...thank you! Always a pleasure reading your posts and comments.

FarmerBill....on the back side of the granary, there is a livestock delivery area and the pork is ready to go, scrapple we can make!!

David...I have a job for you at the mill...

Brian...thank you very much. I spend a couple of hours tonight rearranging everything so now the complex looks different. I will post new pictures after the new format gets going.

Alan

Alan the building in the middle of the grain silos is to clean the grain of flour, stones and tramp metal. The grain is pneumatically moved from the middle building to the taller building. The Pneumatic tubing has a steel X bracing at a couple of places that cables attsch to for supporting the light weight tubing.

The grain enters the top of the taller building for further processing into various products like milling it to make brewers grits or sizing or making various flour. The second building is more of a sorting products for sending to processors for further  finishing. Some by products for things like animal feed will be comming from this unit. Grains like Corn will be transported to other processors for further processing into finished products.  

Bill...I just figured it out!!  I thought that the upper drawing was a plan view and just didn't understand....now I see it is an elevation.  Great!  I am also working a distribution building and trying to figure where is is going to go next to the silo complex.  I spend until 12:30 this morning moving things around so nothing looks like it did in the pictures above.  New pictures to follow later...

 

Thanks,

Alan

I am in the middle of building a similar Grain Terminal as a backdrop. The concrete silos for one area are plastic tubes that need to be carefully measured and cut in half. The measurements are what is taking the long time. The results will be that all the half tubes will be identical.

 

Andrew 

I'm impressed.