The long awaited Ford Stamping Plant is now operational. Borrowing on an idea from watching PCRalph videos on youtube I was able to add this industry into a shelf corner portion of the layout. At this point it is nothing fancy and a far cry from the excellent workmanship on PCRalph's Kings Port & Western RR. Just some thin plywood with paint and some signs but it is fun to switch.
Ford Stamping Plant mock up. The mountain backdrop was painted by my mother in law.
Rail traffic into plant suggests a long string of cars could be inside
Shipping and Receiving truck bays can handle two 45' trailers
Oil tanks or paint tanks or both? These are a bit tall for their location and kind of got in the way of throwing the track switch on the left..
The Ford Stamping Plant has been painted and is pretty much in service. Note the tall tanks have been moved to the backdrop. Also note the tank cars are sitting on roadbed due to a lack of Atlas rail joiners at my local hobby shop.
Plant traffic can handle four 60' or three 86' Auto Boxcars and four coil steel cars, two per track. The plant is still in need of finer details such as doors and a blue stripe around the top. A roadway and some ground details need to be added as well.
As this is a brand new facility I opted for the clean and fresh look.
Two tanker cars can be accommodated on the rear track
View from the end of the line. Passenger station will have two platforms, the one to the left and one in the center. Room enough for two passenger cars and a locomotive or an RDC or two. Crossover allows for locomotive to uncouple and run around train to perform shove moves into the Ford Stamping Plant
Nice to see where those steel coils are going! Those Ford logo signs really make it! Auto plants seem to be pretty utilitarian structures from the outside so I think you've conveyed the idea well with the reinforced white walls. I remember seeing a very good looking large auto plant on a club layout featured in Model Railroader or RMC back in the early 70s. It was pretty much a bunch of tall walls with a little detail, lots of stacks on the roof, and the occasional door. Looked very convincing.
ReplyDeleteI have one 86 foot NYC car parts boxcar like the one in your second photo. I like it but don't really have room for a facility for it . Sometimes I like to run it with a switcher as a single car move out of Williams Yard at Kings Port to staging. Supposedly there is a plant similar to the Tarrytown facility somewhere on my line.
Funny you should mention rail joiners..I was looking around for just TWO to extend an engine house spur and could not find one in any of my parts boxes. Maddening!!!
Looking forward to updates as always!
Hi Ralph, Thanks for the compliment. FORD Stamping Plant Inspired by Kings Port Steel among other KP&W industries. The covered entrance into the building gives illusion of much more activity. I want to add a FORD blue strip around the top of the building and maybe some windows just under that. Truck bay doors are also on the list but right now it is operational!
DeleteI went to Grady HS in Brooklyn and part of our Shop class took a trip to the Tarrytown GM plant. They were building Citations there at the time. Had a great veal cutlet sandwich for lunch in their cafeteria!
Those 86 footers are gigantic and the BB cars were a bit of a challenge to get to work reliably. I have a few 86' cars and quite a few 60' cars so this industry is great for me to get those cars on the layout.
Ridiculous isn't it. My Kingdom for some rail joiners!
Its cool that you toured the GM plant! I'm only aware of it because of a Pentrex DVD of Amtrak along the Hudson line that includes scenes of trains passing by the Tarrytown plant. I'm from farther up the river north of Kingston.
Delete