I need a HO scale dairy farm kit so I can haul milk from a dairy farm to my Sterling Consolidated Dairy. Anyone know where I can get one? I have the Consolidated dairy already.
What you may need first is a better understanding of how and where railroads transported milk.
Here: http://www.kinglyheirs.com/NewYorkStateRailroads/MilkTrain1.html#market
Smile,
Stein
As far as I care they transport it from a dairy farm, what I’m looking for, to the Sterling Consolidated Dairy kit which I now have. So again if anyone knows where I can get a quality kit please let me know. Maybe nobody make one I really don’t know but would like to find out.
The following image demonstrates the cheapest, most space-saving, and realistic way of modeling the dairy industry on a model railroad:
Mark
For a small dairy farm, all you need is some sort of large barn and the rest of your basement for the grazing land. Check the Walthers catalog for barns and you’ll probably come up with something useful. Here’s a link to a small 70 cow dairy farm, http://www.dairyrealty.com/59000/Show-Place-70-Cows-Modern-Dairy-Located-40-Minutes-From-World-Dairy-Expo. If you click on the following link, http://www.dairyrealty.com/, you’ll at least see what other structures you might need for a larger facility.
Nice photos and thanks for posting them. I may have to do some kit bashing or somthing. Those photos would make a great reference for scratch building.
I have this particular set on my layout: http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/152-178
Not that you’re not free to scratchbuild / kitbash if you want, I built this one unmodified, and really like it. However, it’s just there for decoration / background scenery. No trains call there.
I made my own from a standard barn, a small house, and part of what I think used to be a grain mill. That last building I use as a storage building and dock. I wanted my production level to be a car load. A bit larger than the 20 can platform, but smaller than the $500,000 modern farm for sale today.
Believe it or not, the hardest thing was finding enough scale cattle that looked like dairy cows as opposed to beef cows. I have sets from four different manufacturers, two of which I’ve never heard of before. Both plasic and metal. I could still use more, but the effect is better now than it was.
The farm occupies about a 12"x 36" outside corner area on my “mid size” 15’x19’ shelf layout.
I also have a stock pen, a tractor, wagon, and about 2 dozen milk cans.
I’m careful not to use meat refers, but do use FGE. I also use IGA and refers that have dairy company slogans. I’m sure a particular farm would be associated with a specific dairy, and use those cars, or what ever cars the dairy and railroad had an agreement to use. I model 1948, and my railroad was part owner of FGE, your mileage may vary.
Occasionally, a stock car gets sent to the dairy, as I imagine they receive new cows, and or sell and breed.
Additionally, I have an ice dock at my yard. the outbound refers get spotted there rather than a regular classification track, before being sent to staging on the next fast freight out.
I’m no expert on cows, but I find the Model Power, Mertens, or Faller cows to be satisfactory. Woodland Scenics aren’t bad, but they include 2 piles of manure, which strikes me as a little tacky.
Here in New England, farms tend to be members of a co-op, which pools resources to supply one dairy. Unfortunately, most of them ship by truck. I’m sure that the OP could create a convincing scenario by having his dairy farm be the last stop en route to the dairy, rather than it’s sole supplier.
One thing needed for a dairy farm is the milk barn. The ones I’m familiar with in the south were rectangular, low buildings, not the typical “barn” so it may not be correct for your location. Pens at one end with a chute to get the cows into the barn and then out the side into a feed lot. The milk tank was at the other end. The combination of tractor shed, hay barn and milk barn made a “U” with the feed lot in the middle. Now this was for your basic family size operation of 40-70 head. What was amazing to watch is those cows knew when it was milking time and would start to gather at the entrance and make their way into the barn.
Also, typically the farms around there would have only one type of cow, so when you’re painting cows, they should all be in the same general coloration.
Seems like the OP is perhaps less interested in modeling milk handling on the railroad in a realistic manner than he is in putting a farm on his layout. So I guess the OP might not be all that interested in this google books preview of part of the chapter on modeling milk and dairy traffic from Kalmbachs “Model Railroader’s Guide to Industries Along The Tracks 2”, then. Oh well.
As for “does anyone make a nice looking dairy barn in H0 scale”, the answer is yes. CTValley has already pointed out American Model Builder’s “Midwest farm combo” (http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/152-178)
The barn can be bought separately for about $70; http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/152-119
Northeastern Scale Models has a Dairy Barn in their Trackside structures series: http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/520-40009
Last one is on sale for less than $20 from Walthers.
Of course, I have no idea whatsoever if those dairy barns would looks sensible in the area and t
Thanks for the links. Yeah I’m not that interested in realism. I just want to transport milk from the dairy farm to the Consolidated dairy. &
Here’s another link to a dairy barn about 3 miles from my house. http://www.bing.com/maps/#JmNwPTQwLjA2NzYxMTc0NjQ4OTk5NX4tNzUuNjc1ODg0MzczNDg2MDQmbHZsPTE1JnN0eT1oJnJ0cD1wb3MuNDAuMDYzNzE3Njg0NDcwMTFfLTc1LjY2OTE5MjU5MjA3MjY1X25lYXIlMjBEb3duaW5ndG93biUyMEludGVyY2hhbmdlJTJDJTIwRXh0b24lMkMlMjBQZW5uc3lsdmFuaWElMjAxOTM0MSUyQyUyMFVuaXRlZCUyMFN0YXRlc19fX2FffmFkci4mcnRvcD0wfjB+MH4=
You will need to keep the “A” centered on your screen as you zoom in. And select the aerial birdseye view. As you can see, no farmhouse in site. To see that, you’ll need to pan over to the right in the southeast direction. The view is pretty current.
It is a pretty compact little place. It was called the Happy Days Farm on the mailbox. I know there were cows there up to a couple years ago, but certainly not a large herd. (Heard of what? Herd of cows. Yes, I’ve heard of cows. No, no, a cow herd. I’m not nosy, I don’t care what a cow heard!) But I digress. There was a fatality there a couple years ago, where one of the workers was found dead in the barn. Last I heard, they think he lost an argument to a cow hoof (not kidding about this).
The property was sold to Vangard, the fund people, and they were supposed to build a couple buildings there until the economy went south.
As far as era goes, that structure has been there 32 years that I know of, and was probably there a long time before that. The only thing that would change would be the vehicles and farm equipment around the structure.
One of the best looking Barn kits I’ve seen is from Creative Laser Design. Their Long Barn HO Scale Kit#CLD-HO-011 is just a great looking structure and appropriate, especially for Northern New England. Price is also a very fair $58. This is a big structure.
All I saw was a green flag.
Yes, that is the place. There is a minus/plus scroll bar on the left side of the screen. If you start to scroll up to the plus end, the “A” in the green flag will start to move.
If it moves, you can grab it with your mouse and re-center it. You need to keep it centered or it will walk off the screen.
I believe that it will come up as a road view. When you get it magnified all the way, put the mouse on the word aerial at the top of the map and you should see a choice of aerial or bird’s eye views.