General Tire Akron - Original Plant Build

[Ed Kapuscinski]

The following weekend I attended the NKPH&TS convention in Angola, IN.  Riding behind the 765 on a crisp, clear fall day, standing in an open baggage car door.  Doesn't get much better than that.

Please tell me you voted for my (volunteer) unemployment!

[SAH]

Hah!  I voted to hold you as a NKPH&TS volunteer in perpetuity.  Good volunteers are hard to find you know. 

[SAH]

Dust removal cyclones.  I will build the design that draws air from vent hoods within the building up to the cyclone.  I'm guessing there were a number of bag dump stations in the compounding area.

I got the knife to cut through the .010" styrene on the third try.  It's a vertical adjustment to the knife blade and you just have to try some settings until it's good.  The cyclone itself is a Walthers part from Red Wing Flour Mill I think.  I was gifted several of them in a rough built up condition.


A small build plate really helps with assembly as it allows the assembly to be rotated to the position best allowing part placement.  Smear some paste on the hardboard.  The uppermost part goes down first, then work your way to the bottom of the part.


This would be natural 3D print project and Mike Skibbe's wig wag crossing signals have got me thinking.  Ugh.  Best to not think too hard.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Hah!  I voted to hold you as a NKPH&TS volunteer in perpetuity.  Good volunteers are hard to find you know. 

I'm totally down for volunteering in perpetuity, I'm just glad to no longer have any fiduciary duty.

[SAH]

The dust cyclones are (mostly) complete.  I need some square duct to raise the level of the blower discharge.  Then off to the paint shop.
This is the first time I used the cutter to make parts for a mechanical thingee.  There certainly are limitations, especially when cutting N scale sized cross-sections.  The build is pretty rough frankly, but for a background detail that's part of a bigger picture they will do.

[SAH]

Colder weather means more train time!   

The end wall sections for the part of the plant running perpendicular to the original building.  Also some parapet wall sections. 


Here they are installed.  The actual building would have been much deeper than I've built the model.  The end section and parapet walls serve as a view break.

The bricked up windows and window variations give the build a sense of time passage.   At the side by side brick-ups I plan to add the pre-fab structure you can kind of see in the proto photo.  The top part of the brick-up will peek out above the pre-fab.  Might look kind of interesting.

In one of the old postcard views there appears to be some garages next to the building and set back a bit.  A Maintenance Dept. shop perhaps?  I decided to assume the garages were torn down at some point and a brick addition for the Maintenance Dept. was built at the end of the main structure.  Cleaner brick, different windows and galvanized steel coping call it out as newer.


I've painted out the dust collection cyclones and some other roof top equipment this evening.  The end is in sight.