Did a little foiliage work around the grain elevator today. There is a gravel parking lot in the forground, the longer wispier stuff is suppose to be grain that has grown up around the track. Before I continue, should I? What should I change or correct. I am a straight forward , doesn’t beat around the bush, says it like it is, matter of fact guy. So let me have it.[(-D]
As always, thanks.
Edit; Had a couple of PMs asking who made the kit. It is a Kanamodel.
Brent,
Maybe, a little overkill, but looks OK! All you need are the rats. They love Grain storage facilities. [:D]
Frank
BTW: Forgot to mention, they look to be chest high, unless that guy is a Midget.[bow]
Looks fine to me,but I think it needs a little more weathering low on the buildings like dirt kicked up in a rain or windstorm.The tall grass/grain looks good.I think your on a roll keep it up.
Brent, I can’t really criticize your rendition. It looks quite realistic, like straw grass that has tufted by late July and dried, and now it’s falling every which way. I hope mine looks as good if I ever get around to doing that.
However, since you invited criticism…[ahem] [swg] and it might just be the server holding your image, or this one, but your photo could use some definition and sharpening so that I can see the details a bit finer. I would use image stacking, personally, or try a macro shot, or maybe more light…not sure, but the image seems a bit fuzzy and I can’t really appreciate all you’ve done.
What time era is this supposed to be representing? I see an outside braced wooden box car. Tounge and grove wooden siding buildings. The weedage would say to me long neglected (maybe 10 years) rail on an almost abandon spur.
Looks like your average weedy country industrial siding that was and still common.Seldom does these tracks get maintain–today maybe once in a blue moon a maintenance man with a weed eater will cut the weeds back.
Looks good. Only thing I would question is, will locos run over this track or just push in cars? I am wondering if the very prototypical looking weeds will get caught in loco gears?
Have fun,
Richard
Well, the elevator and the storage building both look good to me, and the idea of spilled grain growing on the tracks is a realistic one. However, like Richard, I wonder how much the tall stalks will affect train operation.I also think that the taller, dried ones look out of place - it’s partly their height, but also the angle at which they’re standing, and, to me at least, they don’t suggest growing grain but rather dead weeds.
I’d also guess that most of the growth would be around the area where the cars are filled, and, for the most part, not very much beyond that, as one of the expectations for grain cars is that the siding be tight - the Fowler Patent cars like the one you show were made specifically for this commodity, as the siding could be periodically re-tightened as required.
Frank is also correct about the rats, but field mice and all sorts of birds would be picking up the grain almost as fast as it falls. That’s not to say that there shouldn’t be anything growing on the track, but I think that some static grass might make a better representation of it, along with some finely ground light green foam representing newly sprouted shoots.
Finally, I give you full marks for modelling a part of the scene seldom modelled, and that includes my own grain elevator - I’ve got some ground foam weeds, but completely forgot about the effect of spilled grain. [banghead]
Wayne
I like the look of overgrown sidings like that. The tall grass, at least in my experience, does not interfere with any of my switchers that would go down those stubs. The grass actually is helpful from an operational standpoint, as it holds the loose cars in place, which can be a problem after you do all that work with a truck tuner and new metal wheels to make them roll freely.
I use “field grass” rather than static grass when I want to keep cars from rolling. It’s stiffer, and can be cut to length.
Needs mowing, get a crew out there
Just one thought. I live in the southeast so this may not apply to the midwest. Around here, the plants growing from spilled grain tend to be right down the center of the track from leaks around the doors I suppose. Of course, in the box car era the leaks could be around the doors and therefore on the outside of the rails on both side. Anyone know for sure?
It seems like the gravel lot is a bit too clean and weed free, especially with the amount of weeds and grain on the track. Usually there will be a few weeds in the gravel if it is not maintained.
Jmbjmb.
In the 50’s, I lived next to a very large grain Elevator complex in Chicago. The grain would come in on closed hatch river barges and shipped out in 40ft steel boxcars, doors half way open, with wooden grain doors half way up the inside of the car doors. Inside a thick paper was stapled to the inside of the wood to try and seal for leaks, obviously they still had leaks and a lot of grain spills up and down the tracks about right where the doors would be above. There was minimal amoun.t of ballast, more like rock, dirt and sand They used to switch that and other Inds. there at nite, with old SW’s and RS2’s. I could lay in bed and hear the high rev of engines getting speed, then stop and wait for the large bang when the cars they were kicking hitting the ones standing still. I got to know the crews so well, they would let me ride in the cab sometimes.
Memories!
Frank
Thank you everyone for your comments and suggestions.
Catt, I agree that there should be more weathering on the grain bin. I went and looked at more photo’s and there is a little more grime closer to the ground.
Crandell, we have a Nikon D5000 and I still need to learn how to use it to its full advantage. I think more light would have helped in this situation. That being said we can put the less than perfect quality down to the operator. I have looked at photo stacking and will take the plunge at some point.
I sent the photo to my Cousin who lives in small town Saskatchewan. As a kid he spent a lot of time at the elevators in town. He said the growth was a bit on the heavy side but was believable. Depending on the time of the year the track could be clear and look in good shape, however could get overgrown quite quickly by late spring. He said the RR would spray to kill the foliage sometimes and on slow days they would clean it up with good old manual labour.
I gave a couple of cars a push and they rolled right through it with little restriction. I want to make sure everything is well glued down before I send a Loco through. Maybe a snip here and there.
I went to use my $4.00 flyswatter static grass applicator and a capacitor blew.[xx(] It has served me well, may it rest in piece.[angel] Anyway I have built the new and much improved version, this time using a piece of 2" ABS pipe. I can get into tighter spaces with it.
Here is a photo that shows some early Spring growth. The grain gets spread far and wide by the wind and other things and is not limited to near the rails. In fact it would show up growing blocks away from the elevators. It would fall out of the trucks and wagons that would be coming to and from the elevators. Tires would get coated on a wet day and it would fly off as they left the area.
Through work I spent time around the big grain elevators in Vancouver. At certain times of the year all the tracks of the ladders would be covered
One mistake, grain tends to grow straight up and does not blow over as easy as grass. Straighten your grain and it should look fine and as for spillage, depends on how it was loaded, if there was no elevator a truck might even dump on a tarp to an auger, depends on your era too!!!
I was trying to get that very trampled look. From the videos I have watched the guys were always walking up and down the track to hook up a winch to pull the next car along or they would use that lever pole they would wedge under the wheels (can’t remember what they called it) to move them. Regardless the track saw lots of feet on it. Also don’t forget the kids with their slingshots trying to get a rat or pigeon. The elevator was a popular hangout at certain times of the year.[:)]
For a more trampled look, I would spread diluted glue over the area, and then press static grass fibers flat into the glue with just a few sticking up a little from horizontal. It would give a flatter look that what you have, so it might not be what you were going for.
You might want to consider increasing the denisty of your tall weeds, though again that might not fit what you are trying to model.
S&S