Page 10 - March April 2009

eXTRql - third etion
In a previous section we have seen some examples of wooden grain elevators made from cardboard cut-outs, either brightly painted or plain, dull brown. They may be used to add a dramatic touch to a scene or they may fill in background space such as on a low wall under a low sloping attic roof where it is not easy to think of anything to arouse interest.
But suppose it is desired to make something a bit more ambitious, and three-dimensional. Well, Kabibonoka started life as part of an Italian layout that had to be rebuilt to allow 48-inch radius mainline curves for large brass locomotives and long heavy trains. The opportunity was taken to lay out a long straight section of baseboard with space allocated for a mgjor United Grain Growers elevator complex close to the fiont of the baseboard, and a row of low-relief elevators along the back - as already seen. But many layouts simply do not have this amount of space and a simple plastic kit is the answer,' at least as a starting point.
Walters kit No 933-3036 comes with a brown elevator having metal roofing, a low driveway with no goosewalk or skirting boards. It has a storage shed that is not suitable for the storage of loose grain but is meant for housing sacks of grain instead. This shed does not need a downpipe from the elevator and can be placed anywhere near or far from the elevator.
Walthers kit entitled "Farmers' Cooperative" is a basic design for a wooden elevator powered by a flameproof electric motor so it needs no elevated driveway and no goosewalk over the endless belt drive from a hut 20 ft away from the driveway, to avoid fire danger from a gasoline engine. This is fine for perhaps the 1925-1985 period on a branchline. But museums tend to go back to the original 1910 era and that is what has been done.
The kit had a prominent beading or ridge at the vertical edges, which the prototypes did not have as the strakes or planks were free to slide one over the other under the weight of grain in the bins inside. So that was cut off, reducing the width of each side slightly.
Also the roof eaves had a large overhang that would be reduced when painters began to suspend steel cables from the roof. Driveway ramps either had wooden trestle supports with guardrails, or they were solid earth and rock.
The horses will stop with the grain over the weigh scales where it will be weighed full, then tipped up by a lever so the grain can flow out through the open tailgate. The wagon is then weighed empty and moves off back to the farm for another load. Angled skirting boards have been added to deflect rainwater from vulnerable joints and foundations, and left unpainted so modellers can see where to put them. The side strakes are just over 10 ft long and nailed at bottom edge only, to make up the 31 ft width. This is evident from the way the repair gang have fitted scaffolding horizontal braces into fittings 10 ft apart and have brought along three 10 ft (approx) planks to make repairs.
A small hatch has been added to the cupola roof so painters can climb out and set up their steel cables from which to suspend platforms. The Parrish & Heimbecker agent at Okotoks, Alberta explained that to me in 1996, but was unable to find pictures showing exactly how it was done. Anyway, it would have cost too much to letter this elevator for the "Kabibonoka & District Farmers' Cooperative Pool Grain Elevator Company Limited Service - At Cost", so it was agreed to make it just "Farmers' Pool" to show a degree of independence.
The old wooden boxcar is on the elevator track whose nearest rail is 7 ft from the elevator while the DlOj class 4-6-0 #962 is on a passing track twice as far from the elevator track. In 1947, #962
W A Corkill
was given maroon panels and gold leaf lining and lettering for President Neal's inspection of the Okanagan Lake branch - and was allowed to stay that way until the next shopping was due. It was built by Montreal Loco Works in 1912 and scrapped in 1958.
That branchline train had a "Mount" class sleeping-parlour- observation car as well as large quantities of peaches in the fruit season.
Campbell kit #200-384, introduced in or about June 1973, was advertised as being copied from Canadian blueprints. Well, Stafford Swain in the July 1983 RMC had a few comments such as sliding driveway doors would be more typical (and easier to push open in deep snow) and cedar shingled roofing was more common in Canada than in the USA. The UGG logo must have been right for 1973 but I cannot find evidence of its being used on a small mineral red wooden elevator about that time. Maybe I am looking in the wrong places.
Now #933-3096 "Valley Growers" metal-covered elevator looks more like a typical one from North Dakota or Minnesota, as may be seen in Pat Dorin's "The Soo Line" (Superior, 1979, ISBN 0- 87564-712X) where all sorts of interesting variations crop up. My only suggestion would be to move the ribbed wooden annexe or auxiliary bin over to the same side of the track as the main elevator and fit it with a downpipe from the gerber in the main elevator, and move the office building to one side of the driveway. A goosewalk to an office 20 ft away would be needed if the drive was by gasoline engine, less for a diesel and nothing for a flameproof electric motor (assuming rural electrification from about 1920 onwards).
The weighing scales were usually in the driveway, under cover from bad weather.
In 2008 Kanamodels advertised new wooden grain elevator kits in HO and N scales. And that reminds me, I saw a kit nicely assembled (from Walthers) at Kegworth 2008; sorry I wrote that the last one I saw was in 1983!
Most experts make structure models from robust perspex sheet material as it will not warp and it acts as glass in windows etc. However, a grain elevator has some awkward shapes so cutting out of Evergreen 40 thou clapboard and backing it where necessary with thick cardboard and wood bracing is a good alternative if you have plenty of glue, but do not let it form blobs on plastic sheeting or parts.
For downpipes brass tubing may be cut to size and glued into holes in the sides of elevators or cupolas, or in roofs. Joints may be glued or soldered.
Angled skirting boards are just as necessary as with smaller and older examples, and concrete foundations may be represented by pieces of wood about 1/8th inch square. Company logos may be found on Microscale decal sheets and chosen by looking at pictures in works already mentioned. All the parts of the United Grain Growers complex are removable to give access to switch motors, terminal blocks etc which are collected together under these very convenient "dust covers", which is why they are placed where best able to assist in layout operations.
Pictures may be found which seem to prove that white elevators with blue loos or red ones with yellow roofs were found in the days when steam trains called to drop off or to collect grain boxcars, so a wide range of timescales may be adopted. Colourful cylindrical grain hopper cars may be run when strict rules are ignored for a children's show or something, although steam trains with a 2007 vintage green Saskatchewan car would be going a bit far!
10 ROUNDHOUSE