Well I hated the look of my old Maxwell House plant so I am in the process of scratch building a new one from plaint sheet styrene and styrene strips. The pictures show the unpainted building which I just completed last night along with adding the roof. The walls are a sand color and the roof is brown. I will send some additional pics of that. Now to add mega roof details as the real plant has all sorts of stuff on the roof.
Nice job so far!
I’m always interested in industries that people have on their model RRs. From the loco in the foreground, I assume you model more-or-less the modern era. What kind of inbound/outbound cars and loads serve the factory? Does the factory include the tanks in the foreground, or is that a different industry?
Right now the loads in are coffee beans, metal and plastic cans. All in boxcars. Loads out is, what else, coffee! The tanks are for another industry in front of this one. I also have to print and mount the Maxwell House log on the front somewhere. Complete with coffee cup dripping one last drop.
looking Great John.
Keep the photos coming as you finish each step
Derek
Oh my goodness! Curse you Dave! [:D] I did not need to see that. Guess I better save a few more pennies.
Hey John!
There is always Santa Claus!
Also, there is an animated kit available from the same company for about half the price which would allow you to animate part of a scratch built sign:
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/502-2502
Dave
Now all you have to do is put a shelf under the plant for a coffee machine. Look, Ma, prototypical smells…
Chuck (Maxwell House drinker modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Hello again John:
There is a Maxwell House animated sign available on eBay right now. The asking price is about $41.00 plus shipping. Here is the listing (This is the Canadian version):
If you scroll down the listing you can see the animation working. Quite frankly I am somewhat disappointed because there really isn’t a whole lot happening on the sign. If you ignore the “Good to the last drop” which appears to flash brighter and then dimmer, all you have is three drops going from brown to yellow sequentially. I am not an electronic genious (far from it!) but I suspect that you could mimmick the three drops with some yellow LEDs behind clear brown plastic and a simple flasher circuit. The rest of the sign would not be difficult to make up, that is depending on your artistic skills. Perhaps you could scan an older Maxwell House label to get the cup part. On the new labels the cup is reversed and lacks the red and blue accents. Check out Tomkat-13’s sign thread - he might have what you need.
Perhaps some of our electronic wizzards can make some suggestions.
Dave
Me again!
Did a little research and found this:
http://www.bakatronics.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=338
The flash sequence is not exactly what you want because it has two lights on at a time, but heck - that will just look like your coffee is dripping faster.
You could send them a note to ask if they can provide yellow LEDs (if yellow LEDs will work with the circuit - can’t see why they wouldn’t).
Dave
At Dave’s suggestion, and a good one, I am re-posting the updated Maxwell House plant to this thread rather than creating a new one. For those that have not seen it yet,
There is an animated sign out there that has the coffee dripping but I think I am going to try and make my own. Not sure if it will flash but hopefully I can at least get it lit up.
Maxwell House (now under a different name) had a big plant in Houston, Texas one block from from the Houston Belt & Terminal Milby Street engine facility. I have shot several pix over the years as it changed. (Was originally an AUTO assembly plant in the 1920s!) I’ll have to hunt up some of these and scan em to post here.
(shameless admission. I make this post hinting I may have something substantial to add later, so I can go to “my discussions” and find this in a hurry when I DO track down the pictures.)
Hi John,
On the sign, just realize with the Miller signs, that they do have a selectable animation pattern. Some if not all can up to 40 different patterns. All the signs connect to a control/power module where there is a button to select the pattern. I had the advantage of buying mine at a show so I was able to get a demo of all the flash patterns available. Not sure of all the animation looks on the Maxwell House sign.
Progress update on Maxwell House. 12/22/2012. The sign is temporary until I make my own.
I grew up about a mile and a half from the Maxwell House plant in the east end of Houston, Texas on Harrisburg Boulevard. Houston Belt and Terminal’s Milby Street enginehouse was only one block west. Both the coffee plant and the enginehouse are still there, although the corporate ownerships have changed.
This is how Maxwell House looked from next to the enginehouse (a 1994 view taken as close as I could get w/o trespassing)
The plant was bought by Maximus Coffee Group in 2006 and the animated sign with the dripping last drop came down in 2007 according to wikipedia. Wikipedia says that building was 16 stories tall. Coffee roasting plants tend to be tall with a lot of vertical elements because of a process that roasts “green” coffee beans in a heated air current up a vertical cylinder, where the beans are continually blown upward while being cooked.
I often saw the plant from the east side while riding the bus to attend Rice University in the 1960s. This is another 1994 view from a couple blocks east on Harrisburg.
Lots of vertical machinery and “stuff”. Most of the higher stuff was fairly industrial and utilitarian, except for the band of red-brown brick near the top of the highest structural tower. Foreground left is Stewart and Stevenson, distribution and sales of heavy trucking equipment. Railroad service to Maxwell House was on Galveston, Houston and Henderson tracks on side 1 1/2 blocks south from Harrisburg. I was especially interested in the variations of building style on the side facing Harrisbug, the “public face” of the pla
Anyone have any Maxwell House pics near Milby Street from the 1980s? Planning to model Milby Street Roundhouse as it would have looked in 1983.
That’s pretty cool. I never thought a Coffee plant would look like a Chemical Plant…
Interesting about using coffee cans for a layout. Nothing wrong with that! I stumbled upon other household items that can get used on a layout:
https://www.modelrailroadacademy.com/article/common-household-items-can-use-model-railroad-scenery/