Weekend Update 4/10/22

[chuck geiger]

The one time I tried static grass, years ago, it was one color of Woodland Scenics 2mm.  It looked like a lawn.  This time, I am doing a mix from 2mm to 7mm for these unmaintained areas.  I am randomly mixing a variety of lengths and colors to get the effect.  The static grass is a mixture of Woodland Scenics, Heiki and Silflor.  I apply 50/50 white glue and water, with a little 90% Iso alc., in random patterns.  When dry, I layer on a little more to get better height variations and to fill in open areas with a slightly different color mix.  I mix in some home made grass tufts that are various shapes and sizes.  There are a few "War Painter" commercial tufts that have a leafy texture mixed in, but these tend to be small, uniform round tufts.  I also sprinkle on a little dry grout (tans and browns) while everything is wet.  When dry, I hit it with a vacuum.    I'll use shorter lengths and fewer tufts in better maintained areas.  It is really nothing special, but I am trying to use a consistent color pallet, in a random way, if that makes any sense.

I have only done static grass along about an 8 foot section of foreground scenery right along the fascia so far.

(Attachment Link)

Wow WAR PAINTER, Alan Scott Montgomery makes sage with long static grass and other "materials". Martin Welberg isn't gonna like this.

[Pomperaugrr]

Always love seeing photos of the layout @Pomperaugrr and the balance you've achieved between the trains and the scene itself. Roughly how deep is the layout in this section with the warehouses?

Thanks!

Thank you.  That shelf is 32" deep, as is the one with the Speciaty Minerals scene on the opposite side of the room.  All other shelves are 24" deep.  My continuous running track and a storage/passing siding run along the backdrop, around the hole layout, behind and through some of the industries.

I also do not like having the track run right along the fascia.  I like a bit of scenery between the viewer and the trains.  It tends to break up the scenes and makes the run seem longer, and less like a typical model railroad.

[Pomperaugrr]

Wow WAR PAINTER, Alan Scott Montgomery makes sage with long static grass and other "materials". Martin Welberg isn't gonna like this.

Well, Martin Welberg was kind enough to post videos of his process, so now, I will be making my own too.  I won't make them for commercial resale, but having others out there that do, may help keep prices in check.   

[sirenwerks]

Since I don't know what was grown in the Willamette Valley in the 70s, I wouldn't be much help with the elevator traffic.  However, if I remember right, they grew a lot of grass for seed, so it could very well be grass seed.

An elevator could also be run in reverse, receiving various grains by rail, and shipping it out by truck.  In that case, it would probably, though not always, have a covered unloading area for the railcars, and a covered loading shed for the trucks.  Many feed mills looked like grain elevators for just that reason.  They'd receive bulk grain by rail, then sell it in small batches, as well as custom blending it for various livestock. 

The mechanics are the same, only the way the grain moves through the elevator is different.

Coaching appreciated.  What I do know...


With the amount of sheep in the Willamette Valley, I don't see how grass has the chance to grow to a seeding state but yes, grass seed was big and still is (from 300K acres in the 30s to 56% of the valley's acreage in the 80s).  As much as I hate lawns, grass seed is on my list of modeling possibilities.  I don't know how it was shipped in the 60s and 70s (my era is 1974-1976), possibly covered hopper but perhaps more likely 40' box of bagged seed, but I imagine an elevator could be a part of the scheme.  Barenbrug USA, the domestic source of the multi-national grass seed baron, is located just south of Albany in Tangent OR - it's a modern black glass warehouse in the middle of the valley, with no elevator.  The only historical remnant from my era that I have located so far is the Great Western Seed Company in Albany; it was an outlet for the NJ-based Loft's, a grass seed brand big then.  I've still not been able to find pictures of it back in the 70s, but there's no elevator now, it's like Barenbrug, kind of an unimpressive warehouse, small in stature, but it sits next to a gorgeous old bridge I would like to model, which has these curious concrete bulwarks situated around its columns amid the yard tracks.  [size=78%]https://goo.gl/maps/iGURbxzHqxjMkKpeA[/size]


Malting barley is another Willamette Valley crop, nothing but a big grass, but it's an option and possible my best bet for featuring an older frame elevator or two. 


Hops was moving out of northern California into Oregon in the 50s and 60s and it'd be fun to model.  I've definitely been thinking about a hops field scene, since it is grown similar to grapes, but on a steroid scale, with vines strung up on wires tens of feet in the air.  I haven't researched it yet, but imagine hops need to be dried and might feature an elevator to do so, but I don't imagine hops shipped in covered hoppers back then because the crop was just starting to scale up then, bins maybe, bags more likely, but I have no argument with a reason for more box cars.


In the early 70s the growing of rapeseed and canola took off in the Valley, for industrial and food oils.  Again, elevators were probably part of that scheme but they'd be practically brand new for my layout, and part of a larger plant, since those oil crops are pressed close to the source.  These crops are feeding my desire for tank cars more than anything else. 


There are still a number of elevators standing and even a couple being preserved, so information is starting to come out.  One is part of a winery now.  But the act of preservation brings news articles and information, and occasionally a photo or two.  At the least, the buildings still exist to photograph and measure.  But most aren't that big, not on the scale of what you'll find on the Palouse or even in eastern Oregon, so I am still thinking about what to do with all of my trough roofed 4427s, 4470s and 4450s.  I would like to have a flour mill, and have been looking at the history of mills in the area.  I am so tempted to relocate the brick-and-concrete Washington Flour from my hometown of Ellicott City Maryland to here, but I am pretty sure it would be way out of place in the middle of the Willamette floodplain.  It would be more in line with downtown Portland, or better, Minneapolis or Buffalo.  Salem did have a large mill early on but I haven't found much evidence it lasted into the 60s or 70s.  I may just settle for a blending mill.

[cfritschle]

.  .  .  so I am still thinking about what to do with all of my trough roofed 4427s, 4470s and 4450s. 

With the exception of the malting barely, it is unlikely that the crops you are describing would have been shipped in covered hoppers.  In 1977 I grew about 40 acres of malting barley that I hauled to Union Seed in Nampa, ID.  Union Seed was more warehouse than elevator, and in 2007 the buildings still looked about the same as they did in the 1970s. 

Street view of Union Seed in 2007: https://www.google.com/maps/@43.5816991,-116.5619837,3a,90y,236.06h,98.15t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sFYqXd44DOKluxaF-qh4uZg!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DFYqXd44DOKluxaF-qh4uZg%26cb_client%3Dsearch.revgeo_and_fetch.gps%26w%3D96%26h%3D64%26yaw%3D254.43451%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i3328!8i1664

Also, all of the crops you are describing would have required fertilizer, which did/does ship in covered hoppers.

And if there were any feedlots or poultry farms in the area you are modeling, they would have needed corn from the midwest shipped into the area, likely to a feed mill.  Even with all of the corn now grown in the PNW, a lot is still shipped by unit train from the midwest.  Simplot built grain elevators specifically for receiving unit trains of corn (essentially galvanized grain bins with a pit, leg and a loop track) near Mountain Home, ID (https://www.google.com/maps/@43.1593253,-115.7333642,1127m/data=!3m1!1e3) and Wallula, WA (https://www.google.com/maps/@46.1317284,-118.8958044,954m/data=!3m1!1e3), but these are out of your area of interest, and were built well after the 1970s.   

[nkalanaga]

For the seed companies, they might have someone in the front office who's been there long enough to remember, or remember hearing about, how things were done "long ago".  A lot of "local" companies like that, even if they are part of good-sized corporations now, will take the time to talk about their history.

[John]

@John, you just get back today ?  My parents were on the Legend this week

No .. I got back sunday .. so they are on there now -- they should have fun