I’ve finished my Walther’s Sand House, except for weathering…
and while photographing it I got to wondering, back in ye 'ole steam days… say… in the '30’s… what machinery/heat source was in the house that dried the sand?
Now on to the bin that held the sand. So that the bin will look about half full I plan to insert a hidden false bottom in it, painted white or tan to raise the ‘sand’ level, but how do you model HO scale sand? Sugar would be about the right size but would never do… ants would see to that.
As for the sand, you could swing by the pet store and pick up some fine or extra fine sand that is used for fish tanks (the salt tanks usually use finer sand) or the sand used for reptiles. That should give you several grades and color variations for just a few bucks. It’ll be enough for the whole layout. You can do a sandhouse or two, and don’t forget little piles of sand where they fill up and where ever loco’s stop.
For the false bottom, some painted and contoured styrofoam should do the trick.
Phil’s idea is really great. I did somewhat the same thing, made a false-bottom out of styrofoam, however I got some WS fine ‘light-tan’ ballast and ran it through a blender to make it even more fine (can you say ‘Dust’, LOL?) and sprinkled it onto the foam over white glue. Either sand or the WS will work really well. And as Phil says, make sure you ‘dust’ the area around the base of your towers. That stuff was MESSY! And make sure that you lightly coat the ties on your grades with it, too. That’s where it all ended up [:-^]
VERY nice work on the sanding house, BTW. How did you do the mortar? I’ve still got to do mine, it’s been sitting on the layout for a year looking all new (wow, ANOTHER project!).
Looks great! Highball Products make some pretty fine ballast/sand/dirt products. You might find one you like. http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/SearchResults.asp?Search=highball
A block of florist foam (NOT the styrtofoam stuff) can be sanded and shaped really EZ. A light coat of some tan paint on it and you wouldn’t even have glue any dirt/sand to it. I did one in black and looked like super fine coal.
I found floral decor sand at Michael’s for ~$2 that is superfine - i.e. much finer than regular sand. I chose the white and light brown to mimic the dry and “green” sand found around the sanding tower and storage bin next to the drying house.
Beautiful job on the mortaring, Jarrell. [:)][tup]
Your welcome, Jarrell. Make sure you check both the floral section AND the craft section. I think the sand in the craft section was like half the price. (Different manufacturer but the same product.)
Sand houses were popular places in wintertime in the US: ever hear the term “sand-house gossip?” “Green” sand was unloaded into outside bins or even into the sand house itself. The Burlington Route had at least one with a large bin as the second story to a brick house. The green sand was dried over a coal stove or a radiator using steam from the engine facility’s boiler, screened to remove the too-large stuff, then usually blown to an elevated bin by compressed air (possibly carried in buckets in the olden days). Since sand was processed all year round, sand houses were popular places in the winter, so a lot of the workers ate lunch/supper inside its warm confines, perfect for “shootin’ the breeze.”
Let me ditto the compliments on the mortaring job. I’ve never been able to do mortar joints that are that crisp. I’ll have to give that product a try.
I have the same sandhouse on my layout. I used WS Fine ballast in buff to simulate my sand. I know it is too big for scale sand but since the structure is not near the front edge of the layout, it passes for sand, at least to my eye.
I hadn’t thought of the false bottom for the sand bin but that is an excellent idea. I have a serious mouse problem on my layout and when I’m away from the layout for extended periods, they run amok. I just took a look at the sand bin and it seems like they have been using it as a litter box. Fortunately the bars which hold the sides of the bin together have just been displaced, not broken, so that is an easy fix. They have managed dump a lot of my sand out on both sides of the bin so I have quite a cleanup to do. I’ve put D-Con traps all around the layout but that seems to just attract more mice. I’m sure it is doing in the mice in just a few days but in that time they do quite a bit of mischief on the layout. I’d consider getting a cat or two but my dog loves cats. He thinks they are delicious.
I had a can of Weldwood Powdered glue that had reacted with moisture over the years and become “scale sand”—at least, it was the same color as the “sugar sand” in my back yard on County Hwy K west of Rhinelander, WI. I loaded a wood gondola with it and filled the green sand bin of my sand house with it. Looked good—but I don’t know where you’d find something that same texture and color…
When I built my S&G plant for my module I took home some pond washing/ silt, Fine mason sand and #16 sieved stone from work for the products from the plant. Fine mason sand would scale to around 1 1/2 inch stone in HO. The silt is like a talcum powder when dry but when wet it will take diluted glue easily for my HO scale sand. The #16 sieved stone scales to a 4 inch stone in HO if you wanted to ask. For the loaded hoppers I cut a piece of styrene and painted it sand color and glued some of the finnished product to them and set in the hoppers about 2 feet from the top edge. Sand and stone is a little heavier than coal so they carried the load lower and never heaped.
If you have access to a local Sand and Gravel producer just ask for a sample or a cup of pond washings/silt. I’m sure they will give you all you will ever need. My company considers it a by product that only fills up our retention ponds.
Pete
P.S. Here is a link to you tube about the Brockton train show that has some decent footage of my South Shore Aggregates module.
I tried several methods before finding this stuff. You reaaalllly don’t want to see those earlier mortar joints! When I first tried the EZ mortar I made the mistake of letting it dry too much (even though the instructions plainly tell you Don’t Do It). Now, as soon as I get a small area done with the application I start taking it off while it’s still pretty wet. Much better…, much, much better.
A wooden sand house for a modest locomotive facility should be easy to scratchbuild. I’m looking at an official SP drawing of one, circa 1900. The plan is in volume 3 of SouthernPacific Lines Common Standard Plans, no longer published.
The designed capacity is one car load. It is a closed, rectangular structure, with no heating. I presume dry sand was delivered by box car. (Obviously, the car was considered full of sand long before the total volume of the box car was occupied.) The dimensions of the building (not including exterior framing – there is no interior framing except for the roof)) is about 9 feet tall (side walls), 15 feet long, and 7 feet wide. The roof has a 1-to-4 angle of slope. Exterior vertical bracing is every 2 feet 7 inches on all sides (except for the door and wall opposite where it is 3 feet 4 inches) made up of 4x6s except for 6x6 corner sills . These are connected to the 3x8 floor joists that extend beyond the side walls. Floor joists are connected to each side vertical bracing as well as placed halfway between them. The floor sills rest on two 6x8 sills which are under the wall sills along the side (not end) walls. There are no windows, and there is a simple wooden door at the end of a one side wall. The walls and floors appear to be made 2x12s. If empty, it appears the structure could be easily moved by dragging it on its two bottom sills because no permanent foundation is shown.
The structure reminds me of a sand house located at the small engine terminal in Port Costa, CA until the terminal was removed in 1960. This also reminds me of something else. When is Bill Banta going to release the Port Costa locomotive facility structures, which includes the sand house, that he’s been promising for so lon
You might try some of the textured paints available to represent the sand. There are several colors if you check out the different brands and find one that matches the sand in the area you are modeling. I have one, Sand Stone, from the American Accents division of Rustoleum. One thing to remember is that some of the paints can “eat” foam, so give your foam a coat of a latex paint first to protect it. I’ve done this and had no foam damage.
