I just had a ?unique? idea I thought I would share for people looking for small yet interesting countryside scenes that use a train, and are simple to build.
My idea is this: Model a lime kiln.
Lime kilns often sat on hillsides, were basically giant chimney’s in the ground filled with coal and limestone. At the bottom was a horizontal shaft, where workers removed ash and lime. (See http://images.google.com/images?q=lime+kiln&hl=en ) These shafts were very close to a line spur for loading and unloading.
In car loads would be: Limestone hoppers, and Coal hoppers
Out car loads would be: Lime, ?and possibly ash?
If you wanted to get fancy, you could put the kilns in various stages of operation. Maybe even add some amber lights burried deep inside the works to show glowing embers. ?Maybe even fiber optics with an animation color wheel to cycle the color? (That should give an interesting glow if run at night.)
My personal experience with lime kilns is quite different. A 300’ long by 12’ diameter steel tube, sloping 20’ to 35’ above the ground, with tanks and buildings and a stack at the tall end, and a firing hood, crusher, and control room at the ‘short’ end.
P.S. - Dimensions are approximate for the nit-pickers.
??
Austin White Lime- 18” 5-6 cars quicklime is the cheapest akaki, reacts strongly with water. needs to be enclosed for shipping. Quicklime was shipped from McNeil in wooden barrels in 1890s. In 1950, I presume was shipped bagged or in 55-gallon drums in boxcars, for large bulk customers, in 2-bay covered hoppers. MP #2032 a 2-bay 70 ton covered hopper blt 1941 by Mt.Vernon Car Co. is shown in Train Shed Cyclopedia #75. p.347. That car was listed in the 1954 “Equipment Register”. N scale models of this early 2-bay covered hopper have been offered by Arnold Rapido, V-Line, and most recently, Deluxe Innovations. Here are pictures of some similar early 1950-era 2-bay covered hoppers I painted for Santa Fe from old 1990-something Rapido N-scale models:
http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/afw.jpg
Me 1958 World Book Encyclopedia said that modern lime kilns are natural gas fired, but Austin White Lime looks like a much older facility from the pictures. I wonder if it was coal fired. It would be a suitable destination for coal hoppers. I think of everything in Texas as being powered by petroleum or natural gas, but railroads moved 64 thousand carloads of coal in Texas in 1949 (Texas Railroad Commission.) Hardly any of that was mined in Texas, or from any place along the Missouri Pacific. It might have been more likely to have been shipped in a Pennsylvania Railroad, Norfolk and Western or other eastern RR hopper than an MP car.
McNeil- web site about Austin White Lime (w historic pix) and McNeil depot (w pix)
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/library/ahc/outside/north.htm
Austin White Lime, recent pix, link to satellite pix, maps
http://www.austinexplorer.com/History/SiteDetails.asp?SiteID=42