Each conductor or brakeman had their own light. They were placed on the doors so that the crew caller could find them when it was time to take a call for a train. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free
Wish I had the eyes!!! I have trouble with HO! And I can't find my #%<¥@! magnifier headset! That's a nice building Bremner.
I've seen this building around lately and have a question. What's the purpose of the bi-level loading dock?
True, that's where they came from, they say the eyes are the first to go, for the life of me I can't remember the second.....
CREOTEX wood preservation plant on my former East Texas piney woods layout consisted of one industry spur off a trunkline railroad, and a (non-operating) 2-foot gauge tramway for loading wood to be treated into pressure retorts. Shown here in two incarnations: Based on Conroe Cresoting Co., Conroe, Texas which I was graciously allowed to visit and photograph in 1982. Now closed and a cleanup site. I also got much information from a textbook, “Wood Preservation” published 1967 by McGrew-Hill. This plant preserved wood members such as utility poles, railroad ties, barn poles and fence posts with that black gooky stuff, a derivative of coal tar. Koppers was a major supplier of creosote in the 1950s period I model (may still be today but I don’t know), and had a plant at Houston and a fleet of their own tank cars. I deliver creosote to my plant in a TM class tankcar lettered for Koppers with an old Champ decal. The car comes onto my layout from west-end staging which represents “my version of Houston.” The book “Wood Preservation” says the creosote was commonly diluted with petroleum, so I also routed an oil tankcar to Creotex, usually a UTLX car not labeled for any particular brand. I believe Conroe Creosoting got its “green” (untreated) wood by truck, but I read where Santa Fe’s company tie plant at Somerville got its green ties from the Jaspar area near the Louisiana border, in special “green tie cars.” I didn’t build the special company-service cars, but I used the idea of shipment by railcar to model inbound loads of untreated poles and tie blanks to Creotex by regular revenue-service cars, usually gondolas. From east staging (“Lost River”, my version of Beaumont and Louisiana border area.) One simple but industry-specific detail: untreated ties, poles, etc. were stacked with spaces between layers to allow air circulation for seasoning, drying, before treatment. Prototype “green tie” stacks at a plant outside Texarkana, photographed from the Amtrak “Texas Eagle” in 1998. Treated materials were stacked compactly without the spacing, ready for shipment. I used waybill cards to route Creotex treated wood products to a variety of customers, even though nearly all the consignees were represented by west staging. Creotex shipped treated utility poles to several Houston Lighting and Power service yards in different localities, treated pilings to 2 different imagined port facilities west and one east, fence posts and barn poles to McDonald Farm Supply. Creotex did NOT sell ties to major railroads since Santa Fe, Southern Pacific and Missouri Pacific all had their own tie plants in east Texas. But ties went to som shortline, port and terminal roads, and to a railroad contractor who built private sidings. All of this actually to staging. I was once planning a “dream layout” that would have been a nightmare to build. All I built was the little bit shown here in green, but I identified some 100 industries and waybilled shipments between industries actually modeled at Johnston and Big Piney, and industries not modeled but planned for “someday.” Creotex is now gone with the dismantling of my East Texas layout, but it will live on, through shipments to my Island Seaport layout under construction (Karankawa and Bay Point). The port railroad will get ties from Creotex (from staging), and the port itself will get pilings for dock maintenance. Disclosure: This modeling was not actually in HO scale, but this thread is largely focused on operations and traffic, not scale-specific
I'd say come visit us anytime, your modeling is superb regardless of scale. Thanks for posting your pictures.