Does anyone have this kit on their layout and have any feedback ? I am only questioning it due to its size. It says it is 13.5" tall, which is going to make it look pretty large. I also have a double track siding I was planning to place it on but the loading area is a single track entrance. I can move it to a single track siding but then I’ll need to find a replacement industry, which brings me to my second question. I am looking for a kit for an intermodal terminal. Preferably which can support a double track. I looked on Walthers website but couldn’t find much. I did find this, which appears to be new:
I don’t have the grain elevator kit, but I have seen real grain elevators with two-track sidings. They were on the same side of the building. Cars on the second track were loaded through the car on the track closest to the building. Often, the car closest to the building was an inbound car that was used as a “bridge” until the railroad switched it over to the second track.
For an inter-modal facility, the one you referenced looks good. Walthers also had a truck terminal kit that might work for you.
Grain elevators were referred to as “prairie skyscrapers.” Now you know why.
There’s no reason that you can’t put it alongside a double track siding, as long as there’s clearance between the tracks for the outer wall of the shed over the unloading pit/loading area.
Modern intermodal terminals use either bridge cranes or gadgets that look like fork lifts on steroids, with frames that fit over the top of a container and lift it at all four corners. The entire area is paved, except for the narrow strip occupied by rails, ties and ballast. Movement is almost always from rail to truck (skeleton frames designed to carry containers) or from truck to rail. The only time there would be a transfer from one rail car to another is if a container is stuffed with time sensitive lading and the car it was on had gone seriously bad order.
When I scratch built my elevator, I modeled it after on in Frederick, Okla. The prototype is 240’ tall which would have been a little over 30’’ in HO scale.That would have been entirely to tall, so I just made it about 12’‘. It seems to fit in better than if it were 30’'. Here is a pic.
Thanks. I did some playing around with the kit I have and it doesn’t look like it will be too big. I’ll know more once I get it all together. I did go ahead and order the City Classics freight terminal kit from Internet Model Trains. They had it on sale for $10.18 down from its regular price of $45. For that price I’ll throw it away if I don’t like it. I also backordered a couple of container cranes from Walthers:
Jeff,
This is the ADM elevator and if you look at the shed over the hopper, on the left side of the building, that shed can be extended over another track. This can be accomplished as you assemble the building.
A little kitbashing goes a long way with this building.
Hope this helps.
Neal
After givign this much thought I have decided to move the “prairie skyscrapers” to the other side of the layout so as not to detract from the coal mining operations. I bought the New River Mining kit and will add it to the existing mining operation to have two separate sidings for coal mining. The space is perfect for it. There was a another lengthy thread on building this kit but I’ll be darned if I can find it via the searh tool this morning. Anyway, a question I have is what structures are folks using to be consumers of the coal, if any ? The Cornerstone Series has a rotary dumper and a power plant. I am not sure about either of these. Also the coal doesn’t have to stay on the layout, it can be destinedd for other parts. Also does anyone know of good metal die cast coal trucks ? I’ve seen some half metal and half plastic ones that didn’t look too bad.
Actually that is my criticism of the kit. It is way too small, about half the height, it should be and looks N-scale to me. Of course I come from Kansas so if an elevator isn’t at least a city block long it is just someones personal thing. I use 3" and 4" PVC pipe to make the silos for grain elevators. They look much better even if they are only cut 15" tall or so. Any square box can be used for the elevator part…
I’ve built that one and converted it into a cement plant. The tanks are a time consuming to get glued properly but it is a good kit and adds a degree of massiveness to an industrial area. It is no taller than many of the other offerings today.
