Grain Conditioning Plant Question

[spookshow]

Okay, you two. Get a room. 

Or at least your own thread 

Cheers,
-Mark

[Kisatchie]

Or at least your own thread 

Hmm... Peteski and I
have resolved our
differences. Thanks
for the bananas...

[spookshow]

On a slightly different topic - what do you suppose that gray metal contraption on the other side might be used for? Since I gotta build it, it'd be nice to know what to call it 



Thanks,
-Mark

[nkalanaga]

Beats me.  It doesn't look like it CAN do anything, just sits there, even the parts don't look moveable.  My first thoughts were:

Hoist bracket, like on some old buildings, for moving things from wagons to the upper floors.  But there's no pulley, no door to allow the load into the building, and not even a grate for dumping trucks.

Ladder support, but I've never seen one that complicated, and there's a much better, permanent ladder right next to it.

Anchor for utility lines, but again, it's too complicated, there are no insulators, and it would be easier to anchor the lines directly to the building.

Mount for lights, but once again, why not bolt them directly to the building?

Maybe they had a bunch of leftover pieces, and made a "curiosity", to keep visitors busy so they won't be looking at the stuff they don't want them to notice?

Seriously, I have no idea.

[spookshow]

The buildings and equipment are constantly changing at this place, so it could just be something leftover from a previous setup that they didn't bother to get rid of. Based on the top, it looks like it might've provided support for a chute or something?



It's actually kind of frustrating. I have a couple dozen different pictures of the various sides of the building (taken over the course of three different visits), and as I've gotten into the detailing I'm finding all sorts of variations. Like, "hey, where did that giant wall vent come from?" or "hey, where did that window go??" 

Cheers,
-Mark

[basementcalling]

How are you planning to model the legs and bracing on some of those elevated bins?

[spookshow]

I'm thinking that should be pretty straightforward - basically just various flavors of Evergreen styrene "strip". However, what I haven't figured out yet is how I'm going to do all the curvy ductwork... 



Cheers,
-Mark

[nkalanaga]

Mark:  That's exactly what it is, a leftover chute support.  The pipe probably came from that elevator behind the new dryer tank, on the far left, and was removed to make room for the dryer tank.  It's hard to tell in closeup photos, but the slope seems about right, and it seems to be pointing in the right direction.

[BobS]

curvy ductwork

flexible soda straw?

[spookshow]

flexible soda straw?

I've considered that. My concern is that they do tend to wind up looking a bit accordion-y.

Thanks,
-Mark

[basementcalling]

Straw works. Check old sprues from kits. The curved corners can be good ones. I am always surprised that someone hasn't made a kit of various sized industrial piping and such for N scale.

I feel your pain, by the way.

[160pennsy]

I am always surprised that someone hasn't made a kit of various sized industrial piping and such for N scale.

Like this stuff from Model Tech Studios:

    

Or similar items available from N-Scale Architect:

 

[Kisatchie]

Like this stuff from Model Tech Studios:

    

Or similar items available from N-Scale Architect:

 

Thanks for the references. They'll come in handy!


Hmm... I need N scale
banana plantation
equipment...

[BruceStikkers]

If you look close there is a leg (elevates the grain up to be dumped in a bin) behind the tank left of the bracket. A distributor sits on the top of legs to send the grain down tubes to various bins in a complex like this. I think that bracket held one of the grain tubes off that leg and the tank was added later and the tube had to be moved because it was in the way. The tank and blower look like they were added later than the leg. The closeup pictures were very helpful in figuring it out.  Probably wasn't worth the effort to take the bracket down and have to plug up bolt holes, etc. on the side of the building. The small bracket on the end of the big one is rounded to hold one of the tubes. It probably ended just past the building to provide an alternate truck loadout.  The angles all look good for this explanation. This has been driving me crazy ever since the first pictures went up.

Bruce Stikkers
St. Joseph, IL

[spookshow]

Yeah. If you look at that leg, there's a chute coming off of it, snaking through the dryer hardware and then going off the left side of the picture. I'm guessing that's the chute that replaced the one that used to rest on the now unused support.

Cheers,
-Mark