Questions, Answers & Tips - 3
interesting to see if there were C&O/B&O/Chessie cars from the
sand pits up around Muskegon, Michigan or DT&I, D&TSL cars
from the southeast Michigan/northwest Ohio area. Richmond
isn't far fromMuncie where Ball Glass was. That could have
been a semi-local source of cullet in the ‘70s. Hope you're able
to find more info about this place in the Penn Central days.”
Joe Atkinson’s Iowa Interstate prototype also serves a Johns
Manville plant (off-layout in Wilton, Iowa), and he found all
their inbound loads had a commodity classification of simply
"PLASTIC". They originated at Formosa Plastics Corp., Point
Comfort, TX (from UP) and Georgia Gulf Corp., Aberdeen, MS
(from UP and BNSF).
Ken K. referred to another factory: Covered hoppers are often
found at fiberglass manufacturing plants such as this Owens
Corning facility
in Brookville, IN. A friend
of his in Brookville said that, as the industry moves away from
materials containing formaldehyde to stick the fibers together,
they are turning to other materials. A very unspecific answer, but
a hint as to what the material is used for and that whatever it is,
it’s probably proprietary.
One interesting aspect of the Brookville facility is the storage
silos where they unload the cars. There are augers, belts, and
chutes for moving palletized or granular solids. Zoom-in on the
plant and switch to Street View for some high-resolution images
of the silos (and Pink Panther). There is lots of finished prod-
uct on pallets in the yard. Ken has seen boxcars in the yard, but
doesn’t know if they ship products by rail.
Randy Seiler added, “That Brookville plant manufactures shin-
gles. The covered hoppers carry roofing granules. I am model-
ing that plant in 1974, served by the Penn Central. Back then it
was Lloyd Frey Roofing. Here they are moving those empty cov-
ered hoppers from Brookville a couple of months ago.”
(See the area at
.)
That still leaves the question open about what a shingle or insu-
lation plant would have been shipping and receiving in the ‘70s.
Does anyone know?
What’s in those cars? –
Painting N scale rail
Q.
I am modeling my N scale yard which I am hand-laying
using jigs from Fast Tracks. I am getting close to painting the
rails and ties and looking at giving most of it a coat of a grimy
black color, as I model the transition years. I am thinking of
using household latex paint for this. I have been reading about
mixing this for airbrushing, but am getting far more "Can't be
done" articles than ones that explain how to do it. Has anyone
done this with good results?
– Allan66
A.
Eric Hall uses Behr Color Sample paint with a Badger 350,
shooting through the large tip and thinning 50% with isopro-
pyl alcohol.
He uses Espresso Beans, Broadway, and Aging Barrel, and
sometimes some Mined Coal to lighten the browns up. Shop
for colors, not names. House paint names change frequently.
His base is Espresso Beans with a brush wash with Aging Barrel.
“I like to use a minimum of three colors on anything I do. Four
and five colors are better just to fool the eye. Just a slight
change in color shade will take away that two-tone look that
we see all the time.”
He finishes with chalk dusting on the center and the outer edges
of the track, and sometimes uses black non-sanded grout. See
Eric’s Gila Springs & Mesquite layout design and progress at
MRH-Mar 2014
