Hi everyone!
I currently have a walthers Northern Light & Power structure on my layout. The thing is, I’m looking for a better, larger structure to represent a more modern era plant. Unfortunately, I can’t find any in kit form, so I guess I’m scratchbuilding. The thing is I can’t find any clear photos of modern coal power plants. If anyone has any ideas, that’d be great. Thanks!
Here’s a site with some photos:
In NE pennsylvania take a look at the former MEt-Ed plant in Portland, Pa.
Wow, those are some big suckers. I would need lots of compression to model those. Anybody have a list of essential parts that I would need to model, like coal unloading, conveyor, etc.?
Where are you in NE PA? You may want to take a drive down Route 11 to Danville/Washingtonville and look at PPL’s plant off of Rte 54. And then conitnue down Route 11 to Shamokin Dam. The Shamkin Dam facilty would give you some kitbash idea’s for the Walther’s structure.
I suggest you trying a find some photos of power plants or aerial photos of power plants (Google maps or Terraserver) and see the relationship.
Probably the biggest question is is it a rotary dump or bottom dump, loop or cut?
A modern plant has a coal handling area and the plant itself and conveyors connect the two. that means that you can model the coal unolading facilities and then put the power plant itself as a flat against the backdrop or even “in the aisle” and not modeled. The conveyor just comes to the edge of the layout, suggesting that the plant is there.
Many modern plans use metal siding, so you can use PikeStuff wall panels or parts from a Walthers Rolling Mill, or gobs of Evergreen siding to make a big box. No windows required. Then put a modern Pikestuff or other modern style 1 or 2 story office building near or adjoining the plant.
Dave H.
Actually I drove past the Danville plant last weekend on a school trip, and that was the inspiration for this thread. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera with me, and a return trip is doubtful, it is about 2 hours away from my house.
I like that idea. The way I have the unloading facility already laid is a three track yard. One for loads, one for empties, and another for unloading (bottom drop hoppers). A 44 tonner takes two hoppers at a time from the load track, unloads them, and then parks them on the empty track. The yard can handle about 10 cars at a time without a major problem, and I can always add more.
The unloading facility would be at the far end of the layout, and the conveyors would lead off the edge of the benchwork. The biggest problem would be that it would only be 6"-8" wide at most. Does anyone have any photos of the unloading part of a power plant?
Thanks!
Here is a 3 shot panorama of the coal fired power plant in Fremont, NE. They unload conventional bottom dump hopper cars.
Dave Husman
Madison Gas + Electric runs a smaller plant. They get bottom dump cars. A few years back the city made them put up a wall around the place. There are two doors big enough to run cars through. Satellite view They can recieve 17 cars at a time, and usually unload 5-10 a day.
The UW also has a coal-fired plant. UW Heater The big coal pile is where the cars are unloaded by bottom dumping. They bash the cars around with a front-end loader. The plant fits 4 cars, and two more fit between the main line and Dayton Street. Sharp curves and hills abound here.
The PPL plant outside of Danville has some other modelling possiblities. With the addition of a new scrubber unit, U S Gypsum opened up a gypsum plant. They use the waste from the scubber, mix with limestone and create gypsum board. You could model the the conveyor system like dehusman mentioned but add another conveyor to the gypsum plant. Limestone and coal in, gypsum board out.
If you have a particular power plant in mind, try Google Earth and “fly” over it. I’m using it to help me model the Elizabeth Power Plant in PA.
Best practics might be combining stuff from several sources.
I looked at the University of Wisconsin Heater on http://maps.google.com/ (link to location: http://tinyurl.com/6qjf6o) and used the street level view to look at building facades etc.
Then I looked at the same location in http://maps.live.com/ and entered the street address “1162 West Dayton Street, Madison, Wisconsin”, and then clicked on “birds eye view” to see the power plant and surroundings from an oblique view from above.
I won’t post the pictures obtained from the web sites above, since they are copyrighted, but go look - it is a very cool and very modelgenic little powerplant!
I sketched out one (of many possible) track plan for the north end of the power station (with some elements from the south end - like the coal pile and coal conveyor - modelled on the north side of the building instead):
Thank you to the poster who posted the links to the google maps of this power plant (and the other one - the Madison Gas one) !
Smile,
Stein