All sorts of manufacturers built enormous specialized structures in the early post-war years. I'll try to represent as many
as possible with annotated projects and accompanying scale structures while striving to tell the story of my land and its
people.
Atop Pool 6 Elevator's Ruins
Port Arthur
Grain Elevators
Sask Wheat Pool Elevators
Port Arthur
Grain Elevators Railroads are vital to the grain industry, and you'll find elevators like this wherever grain is
grown, shipped or stored. This structure is patterned after modern concrete elevators, and I think you'll agree, this American-style
building deftly captures the massive look and feel of the prototypes. On my layout this will be part of a larger elevator
complex. This particular elevator will include an additional 8 "concrete" silos to bring the total to 16, an extended headhouse,
several dustbins, and the obligatory unloading sheds for trucks and rail cars.
Pool Six Elevator Explosion
Port Arthur
Flour Mill Explosion Demo
Minneapolis
Grain
Truck & Train Meet AT A Crossing
Historic
Row Of Grain Elevators
Manitoba
Milling Elevators
Flour Mill Complex
Prairie Star Milling and Prairie Star Elevator
To feed its growing population in the late 19th century, America's flour milling industry evolved from small local mills to
giant industrial operations. Railroads brought in grain from growing regions then moved flour to markets all across the country.
These Prairie Star Milling monoliths are typical of early 20th century mill designs. With their authentic styling and trim
and smokestack looming large. To keep pace with production, grain was stored on-site in large capacity wooden facilities like
the Prairie Star Elevator. Combined these two historic timepieces model a complete flourmill.
Winnipeg's Ogilvie Flour Mill
Final Moments
North American Lumber
Fort William
Mountain Lumber Co.
Mountain Lumber Co. Majestically set in the days when Shays and Heislers ruled the forests, the Mountain Lumber
Company is the centerpiece of my little logging operation. Absolutely everything is included; from the Log Conveyor to the
Burner. The Mill Building is enclosed with board and batten siding and covered with a corrugated metal roof. This style is
typical of permanent operations or those that ran in areas where the weather could turn cold as it so often has done here
for thousands of years. At the back is a canopied area, where fresh-cut boards are sorted. To keep the machinery running,
there's a nicely detailed Powerhouse with twin smokestacks. And for the final touch, I got a Sawdust Burner, used to dispose
of scrap lumber and sawdust from the cutting operations.
Lumber Company
Walton & Son's Lumber Yard This Walton & Sons Lumber is a lumber yard typical of those in small towns and cities
throughout North America. Walton & Sons was a great way to start studying the inter-relationship between Trees & Trains. Partly
what makes this so fun, is the awareness that the lumber yard is one of the few places where consumers can buy goods right
off a freight car! Here lumber is unloaded and stored in large sheds for local distribution and retail sale. Designed as a
destination for waffle box cars and center beam lumber flats, this easy-to-build HO kit has two components: a long main building
and a single story office, both with drop siding. Thankfully the covered unloading area is large enough for a track to run
through the center, the main building also features multiple wooden roof trusses and lumber bins which has proven perfect
for adding interior details. The office building features large front windows and a drop-sided false front, this makes a great
little storefront/showroom and is also perfect as this lumber yard's office to keep all the papers and workers in order.
Sawmill Outbuildings
Sawmill Outbuildings
This set of specialized structures includes a Wood Chipper, a Wood Chip Truck Loader, a Wood Chip Gondola Loader, and a Log
Debarker. These buildings do the nitty-gritty work at the sawmill. The debarker strips the logs of their bark as they travel
up the conveyor from the pond to the sawmill. The wood chipper chops up wood scraps and cutoffs from the sawmill for easy
transportation to paper mills. Once condensed, the chips are piped to the hopper of the wood chip truck loader or directly
into wood chip gondolas through the wood chip gondola loader. The Walthers Wood Chipper features a concrete foundation, angled
steel conveyor, and housing with board and batten construction. Most sawmills have several truck and rail loaders. Some planing
mills have their own wood chippers.
Planing Mill
Planing Mill A planing mill, is an essential part of any sawmill operation. This kit includes three components:
a Planing Mill, a drying Shed, and a large, free-standing Dust Collector with associated piping. At the planing mill, rough-cut
lumber becomes finished, dimensional lumber. As edges are planed to proper size and finish, the wood is transformed into the
familiar lumber of building and home repair. After it is properly planed, the wood is moved to the metal open-air shed for
air drying, before being loaded to center beam flat cars. The planing mill generates lots of traffic. First, rough cut lumber
must be brought into the mill to be finished; then finished lumber needs to be transported to market.
Lumber Mill Fire
Nipigon
Minnesota Logging
Deforestation Along The Mississippi
Mining
Pioneer Mine
Ely, Minnesota
Climactic Effects Of Industry
In Thunder Bay
Red Lake Hillside Mine
Ore Processing Plant
Textiles
River Cities Textiles This impressive offering is based on large early-1900's curtain-wall factories and since it's
less than 3 inches deep, (though over a foot tall), I've found it fits best between the rearmost track and the background
to add some depth to this massive industrial scene.
For a little added authenticity, there's a rooftop water tank, elevator headhouse and the loading dock that provides plenty
of opportunities for realistic freight operations and helps to paint a vivid picture of the riverfront textile industries
that helped fuel the astonishing economic boom that was witnessed, one century past.
Wyoming Coal Mine
Coal, On The Move
Thomas On Coal
Coal
Coal Dumper
Coal
Coal Yard Bring back warm memories of the days when everyone had a coal furnace. The local coal yard was an important
business in every town and city, receiving hoppers of coal and delivering it in trucks to residential and industrial customers.
Within the coal yard is the brick office, elevated trestle for hopper unloading, fencing and a utility shed.
McGraw Oil
McGraw Oil McGraw Oil Company sells heating oil, diesel fuel and gasoline to consumers and dealers. This
stylized little industry has several storage tanks, a rack and piping for unloading tank cars and pumphouses for loading local
delivery trucks.
Plumbing Supply
Machine Shops
Machine Shops In many industrial districts, buildings like this Machine Co. line city streets and branch lines.
Typical of small brick factories constructed near the turn of the 20th Century, buildings like these are still viable for
business in many locations. This detailed, model features intricate brickwork and a box car-height door, making a natural
addition along any spur.
Iron Works - Welding Shop
Canning
Cannery Railroads plays a big part in putting food on the tables of Americans each and every day. Canned and frozen
foods move in bulk from regional operations like the Golden Valley Canning Company to cities around the country, where they
are transported to local stores for sale. Canneries can be found in small towns and larger cities, producing everything from
fruit and vegetables to meats, jellies and sauces. Besides the main canning building, boiler house, smokestack, and a roof-top
water tank.
Mill City SlideBy's
Minneapolis
Red Wing Flour Mill
Red Wing Flour Mill Flour mils have changed dramatically since the water-powered mills of the 1800s. Today's mills
produce enormous quantities of flour and other milled grains. This modern concrete mill features truck and rail loading facilities,
blowers, and vents.
Food Production
Food Processing Plant Food processing plants are common sights in agricultural regions. Based on a typical early-1900s
structure, Imperial Food Products is a nice compliment to the Cannery above.
Union Ice Company
Asphalt Plant
Asphalt
Black Gold Asphalt Businesses like Black Gold Asphalt supply hot-mix asphalt to roadbuilders and pavers. Located
along railroad spurs in industrial districts or near quarries, hot-mix plants are a constant source of traffic for trains
and trucks. Rolling stock typically found serving asphalt plants includes aggregate hopper cars for gravel and tank cars for
asphalt. Gravel is stockpiled on the grounds in piles and asphalt is stored in tanks. At the plant, wheel loaders feed gravel
into a rotary kiln where it is mixed with hot asphalt and recycled ground asphalt. Elevator piping moves the hot-mix into
a loading silo where it is transferred into dump trucks for the trip to the construction site.
Cement Works
Silver Bay, Minnesota
Fulton Street Fish Market
Fulton Street Fish Market During much of its 188-year tenure at the original site, the Fulton Fish Market was the
most important wholesale East Coast fish market in the United States of America. Opening in 1822, it was the destination of
fishing boats from across the Atlantic Ocean. By the 1950s, most of the Market's fish were trucked in rather than offloaded
from the docks. The wholesalers at the Market then sold it to restaurateurs and retailers who purchased fresh fish of every
imaginable variety. It was possible for fish to be rushed from fishing ports in New England to wholesale buyers at the Fulton
Fish Market, who might then resell it to retail markets and restaurants in the very same towns where the catch originated.
In its original location, it was the last, and most significant, of the great wholesale food markets of New York.
16mm Of NY's Historic Fulton Street Fish Market
Breweries
Milwaukee Breweries
Breweries Many breweries started out as small local operations and some, especially in Milwaukee, grew into huge
businesses thanks to the railroads. Breweries have always made great modeling subjects and after my many trips to Milwaukee,
I just couldn't resist. They ship in box cars and hoppers full of grain and malt to process into beer. They also need plenty
of empty barrels, empty bottles bottle caps, and cans. Depending on which era you model, hoppers might haul in coal and ore
or tank cars would carry in oil or natural gas. Tank cars also arrive with corn syrup and depart with (what else) beer in
bulk. Insulated box cars and reefers can bring in hops and haul finished products to market. Spent grain leaves in box cars;
crushed cans depart in gondolas. Occasionally, hoppers carry out tons of broken glass or cullet. The area around the brewery
can be detailed with smaller buildings to help in these operations, and maybe even a car shop. Frequently team tracks are
needed next to the plant to aid in switching operations.
Manufacturing Plant
Plant No. 4 Plant No. 4 is based on a typical early-1900s brick factory building, The type you’d see everywhere,
but weren’t always sure what exactly was being processed or manufactured inside, and sometimes even a closer inspection
wouldn’t tell you. But you sure knew it was dirty whatever it was.
