Has anyone kit-bashed the Duke Power Plant structure from the Heljan # 678 Brewery and Malt House kit in N scale? This was done for the MR N scale Clinchfield RR. The description of the structures for this project RR appeared in the June, 1979 issue of MR. Since the Heljan Brewery Kit is no longer available, I’m considering kit-bashing it from the Heljan # 681 Slaughterhouse kit which appears to share some of its major wall components with the Brewery kit. There were no specific instructions or diagrams for the kit-bash described in the original article. I sent an E-mail to MR two months ago asking if they had any unpublished diagrams or instructions for this kit-bash. They never responded. Since this will be my first kit-bashing project, I’d appreciate any information that you might have on this project. Failing that, do you know of any available N scale kits that represent an older style large power plant or any kit-bashing or scratch-building projects that produced this type of structure in N scale?
I apologize that you didn’t get a response to your e-mail inquiry, but the fact is that we don’t have any unpublished diagrams or instructions relating to Clinchfield projects. We also don’t have Gordon Odegard to tell us what he would have done with today’s kits and materials.
It might seem obvious, but I’d suggest that you consider modifying the Walthers 933-3214 N scale powerhouse kit as a replacement for the Clinchfield’s Duke Power. You can see this building on the Walthers Web site at ww.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3214. It might be an even better choice than the Heljan brewery.
Thanks for your reply. I did think that was the reason that I didn’t receive a reply, that you didn’t have any information on an article that was 30 years old. I just thought I’d give it a try.
I checked the suggestion you made on the Northern Light and Power Powerhouse in the Wathers catalog. Unfortunately, it appears that they have retired this kit which means that they will not be getting it back in stock. Unless I get some other suggestions, I think I’ll try my hand kit-bashing the Heljan Slaughter House kit. The main part of the building looks the same as that of the Brewery so maybe I can get enough parts from the rest of the kit to construct something that looks similar to the Duke Power Plant. I’ll scratch build the Moss Coal Mine that was also described in the Clinchfield article so I’ll have the other end of the loads in - empties out arrangement.
It’s not kitbashing, but Fetters’ book on the Piedmont & Northern has several pictures of Duke power plants and rail layouts. Not the one you need, but good info. Also, Duke has a good website with all their plants listed with pictures, if I can get this link right. I don’t recall which one was intended to be represented on the Clinchfield layout, but you should find it here.
Thanks for the website for the Duke power plants. I checked it out, and several of the plants constructed of brick, especially the Buck Steam Station built in 1926, look like they could be built from the N scale Walthers Modular Wall System. I’ll have to check into this as a possibility. I’m not trying to model a specific Duke power plant. I’m just trying to get something comparable in size to the power plant in the Clinchfield article that would justify some larger coal trains, i.e. something more than just 3 or 4 coal hoppers.
Thanks again for the information, it is very useful.