Here is an overall view of the industrial side of the HO-scale Nimrod layout.
There are some things I like about this side, and some things I don’t like.
What I like:
The branch line and passing track
The cement distributor (at the far end; it’s on the work bench while I add lights)
The Ceretana Feeds grain silos
and, even the failed attempt to add a V1 Gas distributor
What I don’t like:
The frontage road is way too close to the scene divider
The switchback into the big warehouse in the middle
Not enough room for a complete LPG gas distributor.
The idea for this side came from a few childhood memories combined with later discoveries, and some imagineering.
For a few years as a youth, I lived three blocks from a Ceretana feed mill. It was on the Bitterroot branch, but I added a grain silo of this size in the most improbable place of Nimrod. However, there was a Ceretana silo just off the Missoula Northern Pacific yard on one side of the Bitterroot branch wye. That’s good enough for me. Yes, I know the feed mill received grain in 40-foot box cars with grain doors in 1969. You may use whatever cars you choose, and I won’t complain.
My father was a house-builder. We poured a great many yards of concrete into footings, foundation walls, basement floors, and driveways. (Have you ever tarred the outside of a basement wall? Yuck!) I knew where the concrete came from, but where did the “ready-mix” concrete companies get their bulk cement? I didn’t give it a thought. Many years later, I finally noticed the cement distributor near the Missoula airport. Thus was born the Treasure State Cement distributor.
The V1 Gas distributor was another place off the Bitterroot branch. It was just one great big tank next to a tiny mini-mart with a few gas pumps on Reserve Street, but I wanted it to be a business to serve the many homes and ranches in the Clark Fork river valley circa 1969. I grew frustrated trying to fit in various plastic kit buildings and LPG tanks to represent a full-service propane company, and there it sits.
Okay, having gotten that far, I had this big space in the middle. What am I going to do with this? I finally decided to add what was then known as “Amfac,” a wholesale building products distributor. It was a huge building that had a rail spur going into one end. Yes, this building was on the Bitterroot branch as well. The only way to get into my modeled representation was by the un-prototypical switchback.
I think if I can ever let go of memories, and build a lesser propane distributor, I might be able to progress a bit further.
I should mention this view shows the only two Atlas Snap-Switches® I used. It has been a while, but I think one Snap-Switch goes to the grain silos, and one goes into the warehouse. I needed that 18-inch radius to to get where I neeeded to go. The rest are Atlas #4s.
Ahh, yes… the water tank. This idea came from the Walthers® Built-Up line. The only water tank like this I ever saw in Montana was along the Bitterroot River on the Fort Missoula property. I thought it looked really neat, and figured out how to add a water supply on a hillside for the town of Nimrod. I like the model, but when I pulled it out of the box, the plastic cross-brace rods tinkled to the floor like needles from Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree. I think I eventually found all of them, but for a while I had to use some styrene rod as temporary substitutes. Someday, I want to figure out how to put a flashing red beacon on the top.
Operationally, this side can be switched with a GP9, six cars, and a caboose. It is a bit challenging, but it can be done. It requires two “2970” hoppers for the cement distributor, two “4650” hoppers for the grain silos, one LPG tank car, and one 40-foot boxcar.
I would love to hear suggestions about how to put in a propane distributor a’ la 1969 that will fit that corner.
