Cornerstone Icehouse

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I’m the proud new owner of an Cornerstone H0 Icehouse. It’s a nice model but I have got some questions about how the prototype worked. That is necessary to know to set it up correctly.

-.The icing platform has a chain running in a channel. I guess that chain has been used for ice block transportation. However, at the model the chain simply end without anything. At least a pully should be at the end of the plattform. How about some kind of a motor? At what time was what kind of “engine” installed? How did it look?

  • The house has two door at the level of the platform but no connection is supplied. I guess I have to construct some kind of a wooden bridge to connect the platform and the house.

  • The house has a very tall door at both sides. I assume they where used to load the ice into the house. As the doors are running up the roof no escalators, lifts etc. might be in the house. How was loading done?

I would be glad to understood how the facility was operated to do a “usefull” installation on my layout.

2

only ice house i ever saw had an endless chain that returned back under the floor. like an escalator.

grizlump

3

I never worked in one with a chain. They all had wood pallets laid out on the floor. The ice blocks were pushed along while they were sliding on the pallets. Most of the blocks weighed 300 pounds.

4

Can’t help you either, all of my ice comes from the door of the refrigerator. [:D]

5

We had one at a family business when I was a kid where we used to play around the old building it hadn’t been used for a long time even when I was young but I can’t say I remember a chain or a conveyor. The ice house was above track level and the blocks were just pushed down a wood ramp so to speak into the cars via the roof hatches. I did a Google image sear for Railroad Ice House and Icing platforms and here are a few links to some picks. I guess your just going to have to do a little research and improvise a bit I had no luck in finding any detailed pics maybe you’ll have a better shot.

http://www.wsrhs.org/hphotos.htm

http://www.noel.forge-d.com/indoorCurrent.html

6

Your question regarding the chain has been answered, so on to the “tall door” questions. From what I’ve read, most ice houses were equipped with “stages”, which were basically scaffolds which could be raised or lowered, either manually or mechanically. These would be located inside of those tall doors. Incoming ice would be loaded onto a stage, then raised to the current level of the stack of stored ice, and manually pushed off the stage and into place on the pile. As you assumed, those tall end doors generally served this purpose, although they could also be used for shipping ice, via truck or wagon, to local customers - in that scenario, the stages would be used to bring ice down to a suitable level for loading.

I’m not sure of the reason for the tall doors on the track side of that icehouse, but perhaps they’re required for operation of the stages. If you use the optional roof with the icing platform, though, the door will be blocked. [:-^] Normally, the platform will sit along the track side of the icehouse, and abut to it. If you’re going to add a second track, you’ll need some sort of an access ramp or bridge.

I added a couple of platforms, beneath the icing platform, and at rail car door-level, for the purpose of re-stocking the icehouse. This allows me to run ice-service re

7

A resource I might suggest is the book on Pacific Fruit Express by Johnson, Church and Jones. Here is a link:

http://www.signaturepress.com/pfe2.html

There were many different types of Icing platforms and methods of delivering ice. While it only covers PFE, this book does a decent job of detailing these aspects as well as showing tons of photos of facilities, refrigerator cars etc…There were several methods of mechanical conveyance for the ice on the platform depending on the platform size, era, etc… Some platforms were attached to Ice storage houses (Walthers Model) while others were attached to ice manufacturing plants.

I fabricated a conveyor belt for my Walthers model from the Ice house to the platform and left the chain motor to the imagination of the viewer…

On my current layout I will be scratch building a PFE style Ice platform connected to a Union Ice plant.

BTW: I put lights hidden in the roof of the Walthers platform, made a neat effect.

Nice platform Dr Wayne [tup]

My two cents,