North Coast Railroad

[Dave Buchholz]

Correct Mark. Where you see the return loop to the top right will begin a Dual Guage staging yard HO/HOn3. It's a long way off though.

The nature of the ferry slip is more implied that a ferry boat exists.(It's on its way back from Canada)
I had never seen that posting that you linked. I appreciate your kindness in doing so.

Thank you for the compliment. I am attempting to make believable groupings  and arrangements of structures in  that things look like they belong "there".  I'm trying to be purposeful in placement, even if it's only make believe.

Fifth Dave on the Right

[Dave Buchholz]

 Along with my having grown up in Upstate New York, these two paintings by Staton Manolakas are some of the inspiration for adding a canal scene to the North Coast Railroad. The first picture is of Lockport NY where the the most western, the last locks of the system,  was a grouping of two sets of five locks to lift canal boats from the plain of Lake Ontario up the Niagara Escarpment to the level of Lake Erie via the Niagara River. In current times, when the Canal was enlarged, one set was reconfigured to be both wider and deeper, so that only two locks were needed for the climb. the other set of  five locks  still exist today, as a historical preservation.

The second painting is from Eastern NY, through The Mohawk River Valley at Little Falls NY where a side by side set of locks existed.

Check out more from the artist at  https://www.artlicensing.com/artists/stanton-manolakas/

His detail within a scene is phenomenal. Take a look!

[Bernd]

Dave,

Very interesting. That first picture looks like it's got a log float going. Didn't know there any saw mills along the canal.

Bernd

[Dave Buchholz]

I hadn't even noticed that!
When you examine his paintings closely. You find all sorts of details in them. Plenty of modeling ideas in his collection.
I encourage anyone following the thread to check them out.

[Dave Buchholz]

I actually was able to get back to some modeling today. I picked up today where I left off a few years ago on the Harbor Grain Elevator & Marine Leg complex. A Marine  Leg is what unloads great Lakes freighters full of grain into the harbor side grain elevators  I found the 50 year old Zinc castings holding the wheel sets  under the tower had disintegrated, so I had to reconfigure the assembly. The prototype  leg movement is capable of sliding down, as well as in and out, to sweep the hold of the ship being unloaded.The prototype tower also moved side to side on rails to access all the holds of the Freighter.

 The model will be stationary, although it actually can slide up and down as well as swing  in and out.
The base to hold the the entire structure was purchased today. The bare white plastic is being repurposed.

 As a reminder this is where I left off in the process.

[Larry C]

Dave I remember your grain elevator from before. Have fun continuing on; it's a very impressive looking structure.

[Jerry]

Dave just getting caught up here.
Really looking forward to the new updates that will be coming.

Jerry

[Dave Buchholz]

Thank you both
 It good to get back to what I like to do, rather than what I have to do.

[Philip]

Good deal! Great stuff Dave!

[Pennman]

Dave,

It will be a fascinating operation once you get that annimated.

Rich

[Dave Buchholz]

Although the model mimics the prototype structure, in that it is physically capable of moving along all three axes, I've already been deemed out of my f"""in mind for even modeling this thing to begin with. I will likely add a bit of lighting, but no animation is the sense of motorized movement.

It can be staged, given plenty of Preparation H handy, as it's a pain in the butt to do so. Just dealing with the one cable lift line that is installed is a lesson in frustration to tighten or loosen

But to prove it actually can move i submit the following photos.

[Dave Buchholz]

I thought I would add a few more picture of the marine tower as it progresses. The idea was developed from the prototype in the Buffalo NY Harbor with the basic  grain handling flow process in mind.

The grain actually goes to the top twice in it's travel to its final destination of the silos.

(The first photo shows the interior progress, floor by floor. The spiral staircases were a Shapeways 3D print from before the changed their  business model)

The first time, the grain moves from the ships hold, via the bucket conveyor in the leg,  to the top of the tower. It then drops through a combination of storage bins, so that it can be properly  weighed on a scale.

Then the grain gets dumped below into another collection bin as it continues to  drop to the bottom of the tower. Another fixed vertical bucket conveyor on the back side of the tower takes the grain way above the silos to the triangular funnel collectors outside the head house.

As the tower moves along the entire length of the ship, from hold to hold, a pivoting tube allows the grain to get dumped into the nearest  funnel collector and slides  via gravity inside the head house onto a flat conveyor belt. It gets slid right or left, up onto a device called a Granier to be dumped into the appropriate silo, for storage until it is processed. It happens again and again with every freighter that tires up next to it.

The last photo is from ground level of the complex and surrounding structures.

[Pennman]

Dave,

Suggested by your excellent pictures and your excellent modeling of this tower in the first place, is totally beyond my comprehension. I couldn't build what you did in a million years! So, annimated or not, so what, it's still a super looking structure and one that you can certainly be very proud of. My hat is off to you, Sir!

Rich

[Zephyrus52246]

Thanks for the explanation of how the grain gets thru this contraption in the prototype.  Excellent modeling.  

Jeff

[Dave Buchholz]

True story added.

In the Buffalo NY Harbor, at the eastern end of Lake Erie.
To this day, there is a massive General Mills plant  dominating the harbor skyline, that has produced every single box of CHEERIOS that you've ever eaten in your lifetime, anywhere in the world that you ate it. They all came from there!

Far below., when the sun sets.  lounging in the shadows of these monstrous concrete giants ,where  the smell of  billions upon billions of CHEERIOS lingers in the air, is the Buffalo Naval Museum.

 Countless packs of  cub scouts, boy and girl scouts, (ncluding my own kids decades ago), slept overnight on their adventure away from home on one of those retired Navy vessels .The next morning they gathered for breakfast. Guess what they were for served.

KELLOGG'S CORN FLAKES!

What the hell is wrong with these people!

But I digress.