Hey after seeing the thread on steel mill modelers , does any one have model or 1:1 photos of a plastic pellet plant of piping place that would use it.
I’d like to have covered hopper and flat car loading areas if possible .
Thanks for any tips.
My grain elevator I found a BNSF site that listed and had photos of lots of elevators which helped me design it.
But I have not found one on pellets.
Marty
These aren’t mine, but I had grabbed them a long time ago, they reminded me of the Flour Tanks and Gluten Tanks at a company I had worked at. Not really a plastic pellet plant but I know it was a plant that took cov hoppers of pellets and stored them here:
Hope that helps
I don’t have any photos, but in Wyoming, MI, there is a dairy processor that I worked at that has plastic pellets (for milk jugs) delivered by covered hopper car. The great thing is the siding was actually a quarter mile from the plant. The siding was in a field with a single silo to store the pellets. The pellets were then trucked the short distance to the plant. This is a “big” industry that can be modeled in a small place. It always seems there are around four cars in the siding.
Also, in Grand Rapids, MI, I’ve seen a similar set up in Hugart Yard (formerly Conrail, now NS) were cars were simply parked on a siding in the yard and the pellet load transfered to truck. There was no silo there.
The photos that Dthurman showed are similar to a vinyl siding plant that I was somewhat familiar with. Similar silos to ones shown stored the vinyl resin and other ingredients in dry granular form. The materials were blown through the pipes with air pressure. You can see the pneumatic or hose connections on the bottom of the lower hoppers on the cars (the 3 or 4 inch diameter round object).
Marty, I’m not quite clear - did you mean a plant that makes the pellets or a plant that uses the pellets?
KG1960
Where in Central Illinois are you? I am in the Peoria area.
I’m open for ideas. i have the vertical tubs made. There is a plant or a place that uses them in a Kambach book on idustries that i borrowed from a good friend . But he moved away and I don’t remember the book name.
I was hoping fpor something bigger.
but the photos David has is really close.
keep in mind I can’t have to much detail because it has to with stand the weather.
My scrap iron place I’m looking for a toy crain that can be bashed into a crane that looks believable for use on my RR. And conveyers.
See you HO guys have lots of kits that you can buy. we have to make all our stuff , but thats the fun of it to. Because no one else has it.
Thanks
Hello Marty. I don’t have any photos, but I may have a little information that might help. I have a plastic pellet plant near where I live, and all you can see from the outside is about three tan metal buildings of various sizes with a large hopper attatched to the largest of the three. Fork lifts constantly run from one building to the next carrying large plastic boxes. I don’t recall the name of the place, but you could call it what ever you liked that sounded good. There’s no spur because they haul everything in and out by truck, but you could always add one off to one side with a shed where the cars might fill up or unload. Just a thought.
Tracklayer
Marty
I sent an email to your yahoo account.
Hi neighbor!
Germantown Hills, to be exact .
Wayne
[#offtopic][#dots]
Wayne
Good to know, never know we may bump into each other at Mike’s over on Sterling or the shows out at ICC, though I missed this Sunday’s show [:(] , I went to an NMRA meet in Spring Valley, got to see some other layouts, the impressive one was over in Hopewell Estates, a complete basement filled with N scale replicating the P&PU of the 70’s WOW! I actually worked at a couple of the industries he has modeled.
Dave
What kind of plant do plastic pellets grow on?
Marty, I used to work in a plant that produced plastic bottles. We had plastic pellets shipped in covered hoppers and loaded into a silo. It also operated with high pressure air to unload the car and move the pellets to the molding machines. The silo was similar to those in dthurman’s photos except it had a tapered bottom to make sure all the pellets went into the airflow system. It was a small plant with just one silo but if you wanted more operation you could simply make a larger plant with at least three silos, one for each basic type of plastic pellet - polyethelene, polypropelene, and PVC. The building itself was just a modern metal industrial building.
I believe that there was a whole article on building a plastic pellet plant in kalmbach’s ‘Lineside Industries that you can model’
Trainboy
Thanks Trainboy, I have that book. If you want Marty, email me and we can see what we can do. [;)]
Marty,
You also might want to get a photocopy of this article cited at the Index of Magazines:
Rail Operations in the Plastic Pellet Industry Railmodel Journal, November 2001, page 51 ( “CHATFIELD, SCOTT”, INDUSTRY, PELLET, PLASTIC, RMJ )
Bob
NMRA Life 0543
Marty,
I can tell you that the pictures already posted are pretty good as a guide. The plant
that I am familer with makes AND uses “plastic” resin compounds. When it is shipped
out (as pellets) it usually goes out in trucks or Very large boxes. It is stored in silos ,
like those psctured or in metal bins approx 7’tall and 48" square.
The plant has recently started recieving pellets from outside sources on/in
covered hoppers, like grain hoppers. Some of the raw materials come in those super-
long four truck tank cars and other RM’s could come in heavly insulated and steam
traced tankers. The outbound “by-product” goes out in regular tankcars some
bottom valves and some without.
The production buildings are large 4-5 stories with large “garage type” rollup doors
on oposing ends. The pellets are moved by nitrogen to prevent FIRES!!! You would need a boilerhouse and several water cooling towers.
Sorry I can’t be more exact but good luck!
GW
Walthers makes a pellet transfer model. That would be a good starting point. Model #933-3081 at $34.98.
Send Avanti’s bread, ASAP! [:p] (Bradley U. alum)
Bergie
Well that explains it. Bergie, we live about 5 blocks from the University, I will wave one for you [;)] and think of you next time I get a gondola.
I dont have any photos but we use plastic pellets at my work, we also recycle plastic and make pellets out of it and then use them in our process to make lumber. The pellets are unloaded from tank cars by bulk truck and hauled across town then blown into our silos. Most of the lines on the trucks and tank cars are 4". The lines we use when we are filling our silos from our process are also 4" and the blower we use is a positive displacement or “roots " type blower. The electric motor on this is 50 horsepower. These blowers use low pressure high volume airflow to move material at a high speed. The pressure rarely exceeds 5 or 6 PSI but the cubic feet per minute is 2,700 through a 4” line that creates quite a flow. Using this equipment a tanker would be unloaded in roughly 2 hours maybe less. We also have some larger blowers using 10" lines that are capable of moving 35,000 pounds of plastic pellets in less than an hour. If i can be of any help just let me know. Our silos are 14’ in diameter and around 90’ tall. There is a filter house on top of them to filter the material from the air stream. Jim