Plastics Factory

This is a little project I was working on last fall. It is an 'N' scale...........

'N'scale? When the heck did this happen? 'N'scale? Are you kidding me? 'N'scale?

..........Plastics Factory. Uh, yeah, 'N'scale. For years we lived in small condos, and I collected a fair amount of  structures, motive power, track, and rolling stock. It wasn't until we moved into our house in 2000 that my interest moved to 'HO'. Even with the room for a larger scale, I still was planning an 'N'scale layout (probably based on Lionel Strang's Appalachian Central). The 'HO' was going to be set in the late '60s, with shorter engines and rolling stock, while the 'N' was going to be modern, with lots of big GE units. So let's continue.

Yes, a Plastics Factory that receives pellets in large covered hoppers. It is based loosely on a project in Kalmbach's HO Lineside Industries You Can Build  book. It was mostly scratch built from PikeStuff  modular walls, while I decided to utilize a Walthers' Superior Paper Company that I assembled several years ago. The kit came with two buildings, the Main Building, and the Kraft Mill. I was using the Mill as a Power Company, so the Plastics Factory is made from the Main. It was a little larger than I wanted, so I broke apart all the joints so I could down size it. (The second picture is the box cover, and you can see how much it shrunk, in both length and depth.)  Also, this model would be against a backdrop, so I could 'salvage' the complete rear wall. Normally, I am gifted in deconstructing assembled kits, but this one proved problematic. Besides being very thin, the plastic had become extremely brittle over the years, and I suffered more than few ragged edges.

 

 The box art. The original model had four windows across the front, and six along the length.

 

This is how large the full size back originally was. You can see the ragged edges. This one was the worst.

  

The yellow receiving silos are from the HO scale IHC Concrete Plant. The trough between the two yellow rails will contain the unloading track. The rails are pneumatic tubes, and the wires (solder) couple to the bottom hatches of the hoppers. The track that goes into the building has strips of styrene glued to it to simulate a concrete floor. I also added the loading dock. The little square room on the lower roof is there mainly to hide a very bad seam,

 

 Here the unloading track is in place.

 

 

 

The white tanks came with the kit. I scratch built the little pump house.

 

 

 

  

This is where it stands now, though the windows have all been painted. Maybe I can find the time to throw on some brick color and install them before I pack this up.   Don