I built this kit 'cuz I liked the covered loading area,but now after 4 years i still haven't figured out what a small building like this is doing shipping by rail! The best scenario i can come up with is they rebuild heavy machinery (Prime Movers? )and use the gons for scrap parts or metal shaveings. Does anyone else use this building in the modern era? Does anyone else have this problem with a building on there layout. (I know,I gotta get a better camera!)
Perhaps it could be explained better by thinking of your Vulcan plant as a small part of a larger industry which is located off the layout. For example this is a portion of a large steel plant or some other manufacturing interest. Doing this could also offer you the opportunity to have a wide range of traffic to the plant. Just a thought.
good idea,I thought of that,but the building is pretty much by itself(a cement distributor is across the street)I'll give that some thought...
You could think of it as a small rail to truck transfer site. The building could be a warehouse for coils or something that needs to be out of the elements. I've seen rail to truck transfer spurs for coils, and other types of steel, where they didn't even have any building at all. So just about anything is possible. Dave D. Los Angeles, CA -Rail Radio Online - Home of the "TrainTenna" Rail Radio Monitoring Antenna- http://eje.railfan.net/railradioonline ---------------------------------------------------------- -The Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Photo Archive & E-Mail List- http://eje.railfan.net ---------------------------------------------------------- -The Ashley, Drew & Northern Railfan Page- http://eje.railfan.net/adn ---------------------------------------------------------- -Southern California Trains- http://eje.railfan.net/socal ----------------------------------------------------------
This sounds like the perfect exercise to practice "thinking out-of-the-box! Try being creative and going beyond what's in front of you. You are correct, it's probably a manufacturing plant, and with a furnace, probably has something to do with steel or aluminum. But think of other possibilities. Many older industries are shut down, lay dormant for years, then are re-sold as space becomes a premium. Imagine a "modern" industry has purchased the building, and is now making computers or computer components, or perhaps a company that markets irrigation PVC-type pipe, that allows you to ship/receive loads of bundled pipe. Maybe this is now a maker of large, industrial-strength generators / transformers. (I have an industry like this that uses blown-up locomotove motors as flatcar loads) One idea I came up with is to grab the yellow pages, and flip through them, while keeping the building in mind. You're bound to hit on an idea for an industry! Going even further...you said the silos in the back ground were across the street. Why not across the state? On my layout, certain building are grouped together to for a "city", for general viewing, but during operating sessions, the buildings that are inches apart on the layout, and miles apart on the schedule. For example, your manufacturing plant is in City "A", and the silos behind it are in City "B", 50-miles away on the map. You do a lap, service the manufacturing plant, then do 2-laps, and service the silos, and on-and-on, until the run session is over. My layout is only about 45' in run length, but my trains run from Denver to St. Louis, and back every day! Hope this has helped! Have fun thinking out-of-the-box! Robert
Wow guys,A lot of good ideas!I like the thought of the 2 industrys being a long distance from each other(operationally).I have heard of this on small layouts,but it never crossed my mind for my layout(not exactly large,but what I would consider medium size).I am leaning towards a heavy engine rebuilder.
Dangerboy, Vulcan is loosely modelled after a turn of the century iron foundry. The real Vulcan Industries had a site in Toledo OH, and perhaps others, with buildings similar to this. One could kitbash using a couple of these kits together, throw in an Allied rail rebuilders and perhaps a Kibri factory kit and come pretty close to an early 20th century iron founder. as someone stated above, it may have changed hands and later in years become a steel or heavy equipment distributor or warehousing or simply vacant and awaiting redevelopment. Most of Walthers kits I am told are based on real industries, from areas like Milwaukee, Detroit, Chicago and the like.
Dangerboy; it looks like a vulcan bld. like we have in tulsa, at the time they where a supplyer of steel, and iron. Thay also made boilers. on one end of the building the name was simply "vulcan ind.", but on the other side of the bld. the name was "vulcan boiler works", the plant shut down many years ago. and sat m/t for many years, since then a differnt co. has gone in and makes massive heat exchangers for the oil ind., thay build componets inside and ass. the pieces out side (inside? thay have put walls up on the sides and put in two over head crains. kind of like a massive pole barn)but anyway your photo and the building down here look pretty much the same. BJPLOW01@aol.com ps thats an idea.
