Question, what type of industry is this and what type of rail cars would it get?
Could it be used for something else?
Its whatever you want it to be, as long as it would fit inside the building. They could be making pinball machines in there or bespoke coffee tables or mechanical pencils.
Walthers has offered a number of kits and built-ups with somewhat the same features over the years, such as:
Dayton Machine
Allied Rail Rebuilders
Union Crane and Shovel
Vulcan Mfg. might be a little larger and includes the crane and a smokestack.
Custom Builder Rick Fortin combined one of the previous kits with a similar or identical crane kit to create a terrific Metal Fabricators industry on an HO layout I designed for his client.
Here is a photo from the completed layout – Rick’s a real craftsman!
It could receive gondolas, flatcars, and boxcars for inbound materials and to ship finished products.
Byron
Thanks Byron, that’s a good idea. Maybe even a machine shop of some type to build, repair heavy equipment.
I built mine using both long walls facing the aisle, and combined it with a kitbashed version of LifeLike’s “Bottling Plant”, along with some parts from MDC’s “Three-in-One” kits, and some scratchbuilt stuff. Mine is named for a real, local industry, but bears no ressemblance to its prototype. BERTRAM’s is a machine tool manufacturer - lathes, milling machines, drill presses, etc.
Wayne
I like the bespoke coffee table idea.
If you’re more in the modern era, you could model all the crane work as abandoned, in a field overgrown with tall grass, and make the building into almost anything.
If it’s still a functioning ironworks, it would also need fuel (oil or coal) in addition to gondolas with scrap iron, flats with metal ingots, gons with interesting finished loads and perhaps coil cars.
I built the Walthers tannery kit. In doing some research, I found that tanneries use salt and acid, in addition to hides in specially-marked “Hide Service Only” cars. This gave me the opportunity to add a chemical tanker, a covered hopper for the salt and a couple of old boxcars to my fleet. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if your plant could use some tankers of nasty stuff as well.
Some good ideas. I like what you did with your building wayne. I was even thinking of adding the walthers machine shop too it.
The layout itself will be set in the mid to late 70s era.
Since Vulcan was the ancient god of fire, I always assumed this was meant to be an industry that would use fire, like a small ironworks or something. It does have a smokestack, could have some type of a forge inside it. But it is generic enough it could represent a lot of different factory or industry types.
Wayne, I really like what you have done here, creating a building that is visually pleasing as well as fitting into the space sandwiched between the tracks.
I think I’ve seen photos of th buildings in the back ground before but would really appreciate a link to some more photos of your models.
Cheers
Mike
ps the name Vulcan reminds me of the large loco building plant (now sadly closed and flattened) and the workers village of the same name just up the road in Lancashire.
Since Vulcan is a Star Trek thing you could put a sign in front that says Vulcan Industries mfg. of Spock Engineering Products and leave it to the imagination.
I appreciate your kind words, Mike. [:D]
This link is probably the best place to start, even though it’s an overview of the entire layout.
Once you’re at that site, I think that the “Search” function works pretty well to at least find more of my postings, although I don’t usually include keywords to assist specific searches.
If a structure is named, as is Bertram’s, including that in your search should yield other results, and if the name of the town where a particular structure is located is known, that might help, too.
Wayne
Many thanks for the link Wayne… your railroad is aweinspiring. the method of representing mortar looks great but not quite sure what dry wall compound is yet so will have to do some product searching to see if something similar is readily available locally. Cheers Mike
Thanks for your very kind and generous comments, Mike.
Drywall compound, also known as joint compound, or drywall mud, is the stuff used to finish what seems to be called plasterboard in Britain. The stuff I use comes premixed in a plastic tub. The size of the tub varies so that you can suit the amount to the job at hand. For my HO scale structures, I’m using a two litre tub of it, mainly because I’m also doing some repairs around the house. If used only on scale models, two litres-worth will do a lot of brick structures, but you should be able to find it in a smaller container.
Just today, I watched a British-based home reno show, and the owner was installing plasterboard, so the compound should also be available at a home improvement store in your area.
Wayne
So I guess it makes Spock plugs.
jim
I always thought that Vulcan Manf had something to do with rubber or tires, since vulcanization is part of the rubber making process.
Walthers offers a good selection of industrial structures, and the pictures on the boxes and in their catalogues show them to good advantage. However, don’t let the name of the industry printed on the box limit your imagination as to what it could be.
F’rinstance, “George Roberts Printing” (two of 'em, actually) became Wilkinson-Kompass, a supplier of industrial hardware and materials, on my layout:
Walthers “Stamping plant”, one of the few Walthers kits on my layout that was built pretty-much “stock”, is now Coffield Washer, cranking out washing machines:
A couple more “Stamping Plants” were used to create Mercury Mills, a cotton knitting mill specialising in “High Grade Hosiery For Men & Women and Underwear for Men, Women & Children”
Their “Front Street Warehouse” (again, most of the parts from two kits) was used for P&M Languay Pump and Compressor Ltd.:
…and the leftovers from Languays were used for the Evell Casket Company, below at left:
Flux-lined pants. [+o(] [:O] [:P]
Aka, plumber’s nightmare. [(-D]
Here’s what it says for Vulcan Manufacturing in the 2016 Walthers catalogue:
Product Information**Found in many cities, steel fabricators generate lots of business for the local railroads. Raw materials arrive from the steel mills, and some finished pieces are also delivered by rail. Others are shipped by a fleet of trucks. The kit includes the detailed main building, with its realistic brickwork and tall smoke stack. Out in the yard, detailed trusses and a canopy roof are provided to model an overhead crane. Decals for the big sign out front are also included.
https://www.walthers.com/vulcan-manufacturing-co-kit-5-5-8-x-5-11-16-quot-14-x-14-2cm
I’ll bet yours looks better than the prototype. Those rooflines are awesome.