I’ve got the Cornerstone Series(R) Champion Packing Plant . The smaller of the two buildings with the cooling unit on the roof is totally empty but has huge windows. It look somehow stupid on my layout.
I assume this building is eather a powerplant or a coolingplant. However, in eather case something technical has to be in the building.
Could you tell me
1- what the building is used for
2- what should be inside
3- how the “thing” inside looks like.
I would like to put something similar into the building.
The small building extension could be a rendering facility using left-after-slaughtering end products. So the interior could contain tanks, centrifuges, and piping (I haven’t seen the workings of a rendering plant, however). Unless you will be putting your nose to the building to look inside, for the interior you could make two-dimensional cutout(s) (from thin sheet plastic or cardboard) “imagineered” to suggest there is something inside.
“Based on a prototype at Waterloo, Iowa, it’s perfect for adding action and operation to your railroad. The multi-story building has an elevated cattle chute, attached office, power plant, roof-top details, …”
Presumably the idea of the huge windows was to use as much natural light as possible rather than spend money on artificial lighting, but I see your point that they create a challenge for the modeler to do something with the interior or it looks goofy. Some simple view blocks would probably help avoid the see through look at least.
My assumption (and hope!) is that the slaughter operation would be separated from the final cutting and packing of edible meat, and since the shipping platform is on the larger structure, and the cattle chute seems to go to the second floor of the smaller structure, I have to think that the smaller end of the building with the big windows might be partly the power plant aspect on the ground floor (unless that is the office they refer to?) with the actual slaughter house operation on the upper floor.
My assumption of the special use of the smaller building is because it has a huge (cooling?) unit on the roof and a large smoke stack is standing beside it. Both require “someting” inside the building.
If it only had the cooling unit on the roof I would have said the cold storage area used for holding the quarters after butchering but the smoke stack was typical of the power house on older buildings the small building adjacent to the smoke stack may house the boiler as well. Try a Google image search on meat packing plants, what do the instructions call that part of the structure?
It could be that a building like that - especially if it’s where the “dirty work” was being done - might have windows that were frosted so that light came through but didn’t allow people to see what was going on inside. This can be simulated by spraying the back (interior side) of the window glazing with flat or gloss finish, leaving the outer side shiny and reflective like glass. However, you could also temporarily attach a sheet of wax paper to the inside of the windows with tape or something to give a similar effect, but allowing you to remove it later if you get more information and want to add a detailed interior.
However, since there is a big smokestack next to it in the picture, it would seem to me it would be a powerhouse…but as someone mentioned, then why the cooling apparatus on the roof??
If the powerhouse used a closed steam cycle (preferred, for many reasons) the cooling apparatus on the roof would be the condenser which re-liquified the exhaust steam from all the return lines.
In a modern power plant the same purpose is served by those big wasp-waisted cooling towers - but they have to handle a lot more steam.
A very effective viewblock can be made by cutting two pieces of black construction paper or poster board to fit diagonally from corner to corner. At the point where these two piece of paper intersect, cut a slit halfway through each one so they can be put together in an ‘X’ fashion. I’ve done these for a number of my see through structures and it is completely effective in hiding the empty shell look. I got the idea from a prebuilt Trainline structure that came with such a viewblock.
You’re worried about that little building? Power was often suggested but what about a boiler house guys? I’m more worried about the cars. The true rendering plant down the road from the apartment, not a meat packers like the kit, uses tank cars for the tallow and covered hoppers for who knows what. I don’t even know if they are getting filled or emptied. I thought the box cars, always two or three there, where used for hides but they weren’t marked as such. . They are parked by a warehouse type building sepperate from the main rendering building, but still on the plants premasis.