Hi everyone!
I have just started to build a cement company kit from Walthers. Right now, I am hesitating. Should I continue building this kit normally or should I cut the eight containers in two so I could dispose this kit on a background to make it appear larger?
What do you think? And if I need to cut it, what should be my next steps? I have a razor saw but never used it yet.
Thanks for your help!
If this the N-Scale Medusa Cement Company building. I would think that you need to know kind of where you want to set the structure on your layout first before you build it whole or slice it up. I have whole built (per the instructions) buildings still in cardboard boxs. I have bought a second and third kit of same types to slice up and make it fit a particular space. (I have a-round-the-wall layout). Some day the whole built up building (per the instructions) will fit somewhere on my layout or be sliced up to fit. Some of my whole built structures in storage have been removed from my previous layouts.
I would think it would easier for someone to have a “drawn in the sand track design/plan” with a list of intended Industries first, then think how to fit what/which buildings in place before it is built.
With my Cement Co. (HO) I left off the rear section of the silos. The silos have one front, two ends and a rear section. I left off the rear section, it will never be seen or needed for that Industry. The rear section was used at the “feed mill” as added ‘‘building flats’’ silos. At the Cement Co. building I also cut open one of those rollup doors for a truck to park under that silo.
If you want to cut the four silos in half to make a longer section of eight silos, make the cut on the center joint of the two end silos on the ends. Or just do not glue on the rear section of the four silos. But you already fasten the rear section of the silos to the side sections.
There are at the least more then three ways to modify the silos, one is in two halfs, in one third two thirds and one cut diagonal. This diagonal cut will have on the end of the silos two silos deep for you to see and one silo deep on the other end for a siding going
I don’t know a lot about cement, but it’s my impression that ready-mix trucks would not be loaded from a facility like this. I think it would be loaded into a dry bulk trailer, something more like this:
For the ready-mix truck, I think the ingredients are already mixed before they’re dumped into the truck.
Ed
Looks like around here all of our Ready-Mix trucks get filled out of a building fed by a front loader, hopper and a conveyor or auger. The product gets mixed in the metal and steel building and loaded into the trucks sitting under/inside the building.
Walthers also makes (when they’re in the mood) “Blue Star Ready Mix”:
In the rear, over on the right, is a cylindrical bin that I think holds the dry cement. In front of that, towards us, is the “leg” that is used to lift up sand and gravel from the concrete dump bin at the bottom.
Ed
Cement is just one ingredient in concrete. A cement plant manufactures a dry powder then supplied to concrete mixing plants. Ready mix is now a genetic term for a concrete plant since nobody manufactures concrete in a “cement mixer” truck now, although you still can if you need to.
The model is of a cement plant, not a concrete plant.
It is not clear to me whether the OP is building the Medusa kit, which is a storage and distribution facility for cement, or Valley Cement, which is a cement manufacturing plant.
Both seem to feature the same vertical bin storage structure.
Ed
Me neither, but untill we hear more infomation from the OP, I would guess it is the ‘‘Medusa Cement Company’’ and not the ‘‘Valley Cement plant’’. Judging by the OP’s above photo showing only the silos and only wondering about sawing or not sawing them up.
Also the OP’s stock pile of N-Scale building shows the ‘‘Medusa Cement Company’’.
While we are on the OP’s supject of Cement and structures, anybody know where to get Dry Bulk Trailers, circa 1960’s.
In that case. If the OP cuts the bins up, he’s going to have to deal with re-arranging the roof details, too.
It does seem to me that IF the building is sliced up, it should only be done if there’s a specific location to put it. For any particular placing, there’s probably only one best way to do the cuts.
Without such a specific location, if the OP wants to build this kit anyway, I’d vote for not slicing it at all. THEN it can go “anywhere”, even maybe turned around.
I am sympathetic to the urge to build. I have a couple of the Walthers arc furnace kits I am REALLY looking forward to kitbashing.
Ed
I agree with your above first three thoughts.
As with your couple of Arc Furnaces, that will be an awesome build.
Shapeways?
The ingredients for concrete are dropped from their respective storage bins into a weighing bin, to get the correct porportions, then dropped into the redi mix truck, where it is all mixed together, along with the proper amount of water, to make concrete.
I bought a couple of dry bulk trailers from a Shapeway member. I’m happy with them, although I haven’t finished them yet.
Mike.
Around here the ready mix is mixed with water at the batch plant and the resulting concrete is transferred to the concrete delivery truck in fluid form. At the other end it is most usually pumped from truck to the formwork or lifted in buckets for flyform highrise construction.
The plants look the same whether the water is added to the truck or the wet concrete mixture is added to the truck.
Thanks guys, I looked at the Shapeways Dry Bulk trailers. I am not sure about those round bottom discharge outlets. There was a person in Canada that I was trying to contact but I think that person stopped making funnel bottom discharge outlet trailers.
Bulk pneumatic trailers usually discharge from a single line from the rear of the trailer. The “hot” line (input air pressure) will be connected at the front of the trailer. This is to reduce the number of bends in piping and hoses, which causes plugging, which is no fun at all! Products like flour and cement discharge rather nicely. 30 mesh is nice too, the coarser the product, like 16 mesh, the more you have to pay attention, you cannot just open the discharge valves wide open and take a nap! I occasionally pull a pneumatic trailer hauling 16 or 30 mesh bentonite from Colony, WY.
Hi everyone and thanks for your help!
PC101 yes it is the Medusa Cement Company in N scale.
Thanks for your great explanation and the photos. I was also thinking of cutting through the yellow and green lines but I’m not so sure anymore. I would like to put this structure on my future background.
Brava to the OP and follow-on discussion about the cement plant. This industry is quite interesting since I have the Walthers Cement Plant (the larger one with multiple buildings).
Thanks also for the pics of those trucks. I had no idea what they carried on the roads. Interesting stuff and clarifying the difference between cement and concrete!
I have checked on Walthers site for the Vally Cement Company (the largest one) but they don’t produce it in N scale. I was thinking maybe that could be my first scratchbuilding project? Or maybe it’s too complicated for a newbie like me?
Mine needed to fit in a space half the depth of the kit. So I simply sliced it in half along the crease in the the sides (the green line in the above pic) , then butted the two halves together along the backdrop. Had to make a little mod to the circular roof to fit nicely, but I’m very happy with the results.
Yes, it looks larger. Frankly, maybe too big. It looks more like a grain elevator now.
I may simply use one half of it.
I cut it for depth purposes.
Post a few photos to show what your layout looks like.