Graining on It

While trying to find a permanent home for the fertilizer plant I recently have been working on, it became clear that a person needs to work from the back of the layout to the front if you want to keep from destroying any detail items toward the front edge of the layout. In other words, do the backdrop and any scenery work that is close before turning your attention to the nearer items.

And so, after getting a backdrop in place and blue, scenery and structures behind the track in this corner were the next order of business. I turned my attention to a first attempt at a road on Saturday. (One shoulder has now been installed, but no photos exist at this time.)


It gave me a chance to break out the static grass applicator and again it impressed with its performance. It's obvious I need some more variety in grass than 2 mm though, not many road ditches and highway right of ways are so well manicured. But, the machine is doing its part, now its up to the modeler to use it properly.

The two tracks visible in the photo are the main and the siding for a grain elevator. This is a curved siding, with a radius greater than 30", but it's the place where a grain elevator will fit. Over the last few weeks I've fooled with a building and this weekend worked up the enthusiasm to paint the main structure. Here's a look at what I came up with, so far.


Pay no attention to the PVC pipe next to the elevator, hopefully someday it will be the first of a number of silos that will serve as additional storage for West Central Minnesota Grain.

I did have one problem, though. How did the grain get delivered from the farm, and where did the office staff sit while they counted the kernels, wrote the checks, and bitched to the railroad about the availability of grain cars? Hopefully the latest addition provides a plausible answer to all these questions. Today I shoddily painted the unloading shed and office, built a foundation, and placed it all on the layout for an in-progress photo.


The more that gets done, the more there is to do, it seems. Next up are driveways and parking areas, painting the foundation a more realistic concrete color, installing the really cool HO steps I made for the office, building and finding a place for a grain dryer, and some type of spout from the elevator for loading covered hoppers. Oh, and the extra silos and associated conveyers and augers.

All this just to get to the point where I can install a spur for the fertilizer plant. This modeling is a never ending task!