Sugar beet refinery update

FANTASTIC!!!! what an amazing complex you should be proud of this. how big is the area that this fills?

Wow - beautiful work. I could sit and ogle at that for hours.

the sugar beet area is about 5x7 ft...about 7x7 including the pacemaker area

Yup...  That's a lot of work!!  I appreciate how frustrating the time trail is.  Life gets in the way and you want it done. But, you are building a very intricate mill.  It looks terrific, just take your time and keep moving forward. 

I was raised in southern Florida and when we travelled to Miami, next to the Okeechobee, on Alligator Alley I remember those beat-up cars lashed full of cane.  I'll look forward to the day when you are running cane into the yard. 

Looks very much like some of the GW plants - especially reminds me of the one in Brighton. Really, really nice work.

That is one great looking facility.

Alan Graziano

Won't be "cane into the yard"....sugar beets, per the title.  That complex is larger than

the ruins of the several I viewed in NE Colorado, and my model is a whole lot smaller, with no interior.  I hope you show that somewhere: Chicago March Meet, Sept. Narrow Gauge Convention...somewhere they appreciate O scale models.  Looks like a lot of

unique farbrication, and attention to detail.

Here is a bit of background on these factories, for those that are interested in that type of thing:

http://longmontian.blogspot.co...ctory-1917-1977.html

What a facility.

That is so neat. Don't let Forrest Jerome see  it. He'll convert it into a Brewery.

Yeah this industry was really interesting. These buildings externally were modeled mostly after refineries in utah. Most of the floor plan layout came from a colorado plant. I was amazed at how much info is available in this area!  I even found engineering manuals for much of the equipment used from digital archives at google and universities! Many of the links I used are in the other threads on this build. 

Thank you, Tripleo, for that posting.  I have driven around four or five of those sites,

but certainly not all of them.  My interest is the GW Railroad.

Way Cool, Are from kits, and were did you find the barrels and crates?

Thanks

Nope all the buildings are scratch built, a little more details on the process can be found in the other threads.   The metal barrels are tichy train the wood barrels are JV models and the crates in the warehouse are made from the wooden cubes u can get from michaels craft store. A couple of smaller ones are probably from woodland scenics. 

Impressive!

There was a remaining smokestack in our town in Utah that they finally bought down a few years ago,. Great model as soon as I saw it I thought of the one that used to be here. Sugar beets were a huge industry in Utah and then vanished for several reasons.

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=188367

incredible detailing!!!

Love those farmer industries.

I have been following your work with interest. Your modeling skills are beyond museum quality!!! I was an Industrial and Manufacturing Engineer before retiring so I am amazed with the thought and planing that must have gone into your building interiors. So often we just show a nice "exterior" of our factories. I find what goes on in the production processes "inside" to be absolutely fascinating and educational. 

I admire your work,

Paul Goodness

Beautiful.  Doesn't that just beet all?

Outstanding work!

Stubby,

That scratch build is excellent!  What are you using for brick material?  Are the windows Rusty Stump?

Great job!

Dave

thanks for the nice words!!  i spent so much time on the inside of these buildings i thought i would never finish but it was a lot of fun figuring out how some of this stuff worked.  here are a pic of the washroom, boiler and refinery insides before i covered them up with the building.  Obviously the refinery was a challenge given the size and floors.  i know most of this will really never be seen looking thru the windows of the buildings but this stuff is why i enjoy playin trains.

washroom inside

boiler and lime kiln inside

refinery inside

thanks, i am using rusty stumps lightly aged brick sheets on resin coated cardstock (product id L1502).  i am so impressed with the details you can do with this stuff.  It can get a little pricey when you have large buildings and also do inside using it but the results are great.  Highly recommend it.  the windows are also rusty stumps (product id D4543) he was kind enough to create them according to my specs but they are available on the site for anybody.

Thanks for sharing and noting the earlier posts...  I went back, read the earlier posts, and watched the progression.   As everyone has noted, truly exceptional modeling, planning and great execution.  Lot's of great ideas, tips and supplies shared as well.   The quality of the photographs really adds alot of value, so thanks for taking really good well lit photos.     Keep posting, it's inspiring many of us !!!   

We play with trains, but we really like to build neat stuff. The sugar beet refinery is spectacular, and I for one, know how easy it happens that a project starts to take on a life of its own, well past the actual requirements to populate our layouts with buildings. If it wasn't for the great photography none of us would ever know how wonderful the insides are.

Wow, it looks really cool.  Love all the detail.  Where did you get the pallet jacks from?

I got the idea from the pallet jack on the morrison door factory that woodland scenics sells.  It doesnt look like they sell it separate i cobbled one together. The hardest part was the back.  I used an L shaped strip and clipped the short angle to allow it to bend to contour i needed, glued it to styrene and trimmed the excess. The rest was just some strip, 1/4 rod for wheels, channel for the forks, tube for jack, front rollers and handle, .060 for handle, t-beam to mount wheels. I always try to make 2 parts every time so after i build one i still have a template.  I will make the back thinner next time its a little too thick on that one but infigure at 10' thru a window it would do. Here arebthe basic parts left over from building that first one. Once ya do the first its not too bad. 

It's great to see the inside walls finished.  Again, fantastic job and thanks for posting!

This build is fantastic.  The washroom details are so good it looks like it could actually operate!

Thanks for posting this.

Great complex!!!!

Yikes!

Better than 1/2 my layout space.....

Wow! Really nice work!

I have serious doubts you have kept a record (in hours spent on this), but what year

did you start?  I am always worried about time on a project.

That is fantastic work! Wonderful detail inside and out!

Wow i had to think about that one probably sometime mid year 2011 is when i started.  I laid out whole set of buildings and then I did washroom first and used it to get a process together. i spent lots of time on research and turbocad so not all the time was building. I also spend much of summers on other hobbies versus trains. The refinery took longest and would guess i have several hundred hours of work on that building. However i seem to be slower than the average bear!  Here was the original idea which got changed a bit along the way.   

I guessed this took years, and that would have applied to anybody, who wasn't getting paid 40 hours a week to gin it out.  You certainly went at it systematically and professionally, with mock-ups, and with patience.  Largest, most detailed, model I think I have ever seen displayed or pictured.