Filling the Cotton Factory Coal Bin

OK, so the hopper car is not in place, but the coal situation is well in hand.

First next step was to find a block of wood to use to support the conveyor from underneath the layout, hold it in place while hole in layout is sketched on the block, measure how far the conveyor sits below the layout table top (5/16"), and then drill out the area.  Here's sketch, but it's pretty close to the edge of the block.

No problem, just shift the sketch toward the middle.  Use the non-Murphied 7/8" wood bit again plus a little chiseling and voila:

It fits.  A couple of wood screws countersunk from underneath and the block is in place.

That looks good.  Next to make a coal pile.  Starting with a piece of pink foam insulation will save some "model" coal.  A little shaping with a welding brush helps to give the natural look.

We need to get rid of the pink, so a little black acrylic paint helps, followed by a brushed application of Woodland Scenics Scenic glue, and a sprinkling of model coal.  Now take to layout to apply the edges.

What next?  Fill the hole under the conveyor with appropriate material and put some loose coal on the conveyor belt and we're ready to fire up the Cotton Factory boilers.  One note is that there looked to be a shed roof on the boiler house in one of the prototype photos.  That might be a good addition to camouflage or disguise the 2D boilers a bit.  Not hard to do. . . .  And is there a coal shovel in the house?!

Coal Conveyor for Cotton Factory

OK, so probably more detail that anyone wants to hear, but here is the coal conveyor saga:

The cotton factory apparently had a trestle where the coal was unloaded from rail cars.  This is a Sandborn Insurance map:

The trestle is left of the darker blue building and the coal bin is below it.  Well, no room on the layout for an elevated track!  Also, will need to locate the coal bin a little different.  But, we'll still have a pile of coal on the ground, close to the boiler room, representative of:

The siding will have to approach from the other side of the Cotton Factory and serve the factory products as well as deliver coal hoppers.  Only problem, how to get coal from the hopper to the bin -- how 'bout a conveyor?!  Several are available in plastic, but the Hoffa Cement Company from Model Power seemed to have the conveyor needed, with maybe a few modifications.

First, let's check the location and size of the conveyor hopper that would need to be mounted under the tracks:

OK, that works and can be positioned far enough up the siding so the rail car will not need to be turned end-for-end to unload a full load of coal.  So, pull up some of the siding to cut the cork roadbed and plywood underneath:

Turns out, the width of the hole in the cork is not 3/4" nor 1" -- the size of wood bits in my drill assortment.  But, sometimes Murphy doesn't work against you and you've JUST found a loose 7/8" bit.  That worked great -- two holes plus a saber saw trim and the hopper fits, from underneath:

And there's a hole in the track where some ties were cut with a Dremel tool.

So, if that looks like it's going to work, let's construct the conveyor:

Don't think the wheels will be needed, but the axle is in place!  Just as suspected, the support pieces keep the conveyor too high compared to the track.  So, these were trimmed back, a short brace was added, and some "weathering" was attempted.  Used Testors rust and flat black paint, as well as some watered down acrylic flat black.  Tried the "dry brushing" technique.  Weathering skills need a lot more development.

In the meantime, the Hoffa Cement bin walls were adjusted from three bunkers to only one for the Cotton Factory.  And it does look like everything will go in place.

Now it's how do you support the bin from the underside and then add coal.  It's been chilly in the unheated workshop recently, but temps are supposed to get into the 60's later in the week.  That gives time to figure out an approach. . . maybe.  Oh, and the hole in the roadbed/plywood needed a little enlarging so the conveyor didn't dump coal directly into the boiler house!  No problem, saber saw to the rescue.

The Blacktop Crossing, Itself

Still working on the railroad, although it's not necessarily a New Year's Resolution!  If the layout is called "Blacktop Crossing", it certainly needs the asphalt road crossing the train tracks.

A back of the shingle approach was found on the Internet a good while back and the road was cut out.  However, it seemed to be very wide and almost dominated the whole layout.  So, let's cut the road back from around 25 feet across (over 3 inches) to around 20 feet across (about 2.75 inches).  Here is road with cut line marked along the outside edge to give more room for the businesses and industry:

The road ought to be a bit higher than ground level (for water to run off?!), so the cork sheet was used again.  Once sections of cork were cut to match the road, they were glued to the shingles and weighted down to dry.

But the blacktop needs a "crossing", right?  The crossing timbers had been procured a while back, but needed some weathering.  India ink and alcohol has been recommended for weathering, but that didn't seem to work too well.  The left end of the bottom timbers were treated with the "wash" to no avail even though the fluid in the bottle is pretty dark.

As luck would have it, some stain was left from my daughter's Adirondack chairs I made for her.  She asked for grey or dark stain.  How 'bout ebony?

Now we'er getting somewhere.

Hmm, how to get the blacktop up to the level of the crossing?  More cork sheet, perhaps?  Let's cogitate on that while the glue and stain dry overnight.

Final (?) Details for Woodyard

So, maybe this is the last work on the woodyard, at least for a while:

Added a few loose sticks of pulpwood and larger debris nearer the rail spur, painted some of the light tan ballast the same color as the goop, wetted (alcohol/water spray) the debris and glued with 50/50, tried "weathering" the crane, used bark brown and raw sienna acrylic paint in a few places to simulate mud or wet ruts (maybe), glued the bumper to the braces, and put a little extra hold hairspray on the weeds at the far end.  Oops, one more thing to do:  trim up the broom straw -- right now it's "as high as an elephant's eye" as they would say about the corn in Oklahoma, the play.

Here's a close look at some details at the shed.  Granddaughter #2 actually added some of the tools (peavey, cant hook, and double bit ax).  She even put a little ground goop on the tool box to add to the realism.  The footpath from the doorway is a easier to see in this photo, too.

Weathering skills still need developing.  Tried the dry brush technique with the bark brown acrylic.  Probably would have worked had the brush been a bit drier.

The right side looks a bit better than the left.  And the cables have all been straightened out.  In handling the suspended load of pulpwood, the chain was broken so needed repair (just glued back to pulpwood with 50/50) without tension on the "cable".  Working fine now; see first picture, above.

More Woodyard Scenicking

So, I couldn't let the granddaughters outdo me with work on the railroad, so I took a few moments to add scenicking touches to the pulpwood yard.  Seems most of my scenicking material comes from Woodland Scenics, and it seems I use a lot of different materials -- I'm sure WS is happy.

I jumped right on putting grass around the woodyard shed.  50/50 white glue and water was brushed around the shed and the "special blend" of turf used on one of the mill village yards was sprinkled on the glue.  Some earth fine turf was sprinkled from the doorway of the shed toward the yard -- supposedly, suggesting a footpath that had been worn in the grass.

Then I attacked the ballast, although according to the prototype photos that we established as our goal, much of the ballast will be covered with pulpwood debris.  Cody Grivno, Model Railroader, is my hero for ballasting, and I followed his approach, somewhat.  First, some fine buff ballast (from WS, of course) was sprinkled along the spur line.  Then some isopropyl alcohol/water was dribbled from a squeeze bottle onto the ballast.  Finally, a 50/50 mix of white glue and water was dribbled over the ballast.  Not exactly a Grivno job, but close.

In no particular order (because I cannot remember for sure), the following efforts were attempted:

• 50/50 brushed on area toward the far end of the yard with green polyfiber stretched over the glue.  Then some medium green coarse turf followed by a little earth blend blended turf for "highlights".  The highlights were "fixed" with Tresemme Extra Firm hairspray!  Later, some short sprigs of dried caspia were added with WS's accent glue.  Also, a few medium green bushes were dipped in 50/50 and placed on the polyfiber.
• 50/50 was brushed and dribbled over much of the remaining area, especially near the crane; then a little isopropyl/water was sprayed in hopes of breaking some of the surface tension of the 50/50 -- it worked, a little.  Following that, some well chopped floral "moss" was sprinkled to resemble wood debris.  The same was added along the spur, just about covering the ties and ballast over much of the line.
• The caspia seemed to work well for weeds, so some light green field grass from WS was tried in hopes of representing broom straw.  The accent glue was dabbed on the bottom of a "tuft" of field grass, but then the field grass seemed more interested in sticking to fingers than to the ground goop?  We'll see what the final results look like when the glue dries before maybe trying some more.
• I do remember that the last effort was to put a few little weeds growing up inside the track.  This was a little more medium green coarse turf with 50/50 to hold it in place.  I had purchased a set of tweezers at some point and one pair had broadened, flat jaws.  That seemed to work well for small pinches of turf.

Debris and broomstraw

Caspia and other weeds

Better focus on whole yard

View of loading pulpwood rack

We still need a bit more work -- more weeds, more broomstraw (maybe), and a mud puddle or two.  Maybe the granddaughters will come back up and help. . . .,