Kit for corrugated iron factory or warehouse?

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

Is anyone making a kit these days for a older corrugated iron sided factory or warehouse? I can find modern ones but there seems to be a real paucity of older factory kits, craftsman or otherwise. Plenty of brick factories but no corrugated ones. I know Campbell and Suydam made them many years ago. I could kitbash a Walthers coal mine but I was wondering if there was anything else out there. Thoughts? - Nevin

2

Grandt Line makes a nice corrugated plastic craftsman model of a building that stands in Placerville, CA. It can be kit-bashed into a pretty decent smaller warehouse. I use mine as an office in my locomotive facility. It’s the building to the far right of the photo.

Tom

3

The Suydam kits are still made by Alpine Division Scale Models. Prices are a bit higher than the old Suydam kits but then a lot of things were cheaper in the past. Here’s a link to their site:

http://www.alpinemodels.com/page/page/2762608.htm

John

4

Walthers New River Mining Company (933-3017) readily kitbashes into factories. MR had an article about 20 years ago converting two of them into a chemical plant complex. The principal change is to cut it down to ground level. Playing with the walls is a further option. Add tanks, piping, stack, etc., and suddenly you have a unique structure! I did a similar kitbash to simulate a non-metallic mineral processing industry, but I’m too lazy today to photo and post same.

Most warehouses are pretty simple, so a corrugated warehouse is easy to scratchbuild with the use of pre-made corrugated sheet sections laid over foam board or such.

Mark

5

I sometimes find old Suydam metal kits at a good price at small train shows. It seems that since people think you must solder these kits they stay away from them. I use the thick gap-filling super glue with extra wood for bracing. They make ok background buildings with some additional detailing. Here is one I am working on.

This building will be Prestage Tool & Gear. I stretched the building and made the rear roof out of foam board painted to match the front.

6

Thanks to everyone for their replies. That Suydam metal kit turned out pretty nice. I have the Grant kit and it is a very nice small warehouse. I’ll probably build mine using foam core and laminated corrugated plastic. I kitbashed a glass factory from a Walther’s coal mine a while back and it turned out very nice as a foreground building, so I know it can be done. However, I am going to build a 19th century borax roaster based on the one at the Lila C mine and I don’t think the shapes are going to work. Looking though Walther’s catalog there are an amazing number of brick buildings, modular brick systems, craftsman brick factories but practically nothing made from corrugated iron. I think this reflects an Eastern US railroad bias. I loved it when I was modeling Morgantown WV. I could kitbash glass factories from many of the available kits. However many industrial buildings in the West were made from corrugated iron. I think a manufacturer would do well with a good medium sized 2-3 stories, square, 1.5-2 foot corrugated structure that could be used as a factory or warehouse. - Nevin

7

Kevin,

I’d sure like to know what a (primitive?) borax roaster looks like. Send pictures?

Edit - found some http://www.ttrr.org/img_dbf/dvr_2_02.html

Mark

8

Mark:

That is the one I am going to model. It was at the end of the line of the Lila C branch (I think). It was dismantled and moved to Death Valley Junction after the DVRR was build. It is simple enough that I will probably go ahead and scratch build it. I still think that a good corrugated fairly large building in state-of-the-art plastic with good windows and doors would be a seller for some company. Not all buildings are brick! - Nevin

9

Nevin, I can’t agree with you more. And hope you have enough space to do that facility justice, particularly in length. A semi-flat reproduction would still be effective.

Mark

10

Walthers still lists a lot of Campbell kits in their catalog. Three of the corrugated structures look pretty good to me: Seebold and Sons Manufacturing, the Oil Warehouse, and Ayres Chairs.

I’ve built a couple of these. Here’s a cut-down version of Seebold:

And here’s the oil warehouse:

I find that these kits go together pretty easily. They are card stock structures covered with corrugated metal. I cut the corrugated material into 4’ wide strips and spray the back side with 3m 777 adhesive. I apply weldwood contact cement to the building cardstock and then overlap the corrugated panels as I put them in place (just like the prototype practice). Once I press them down, they are in place to stay,

I find that cutting the window openings prior to assembling the card is a good practice, but I wait until after the sheeting is in place to cut holes in the metal - using a very sharp x-acto blade. Epoxy works well for installing the windows.

Weathering corrugated panels is a real challenge for me. I’m not happy with my Seebold building weathering at all, and the other one is just too crisp and new.

Good luck.