Horace and William Creek Sandhouse

[DACS]

Yes, I know, I still have the turntable hanging by a thread! (pun intented)    But, I will get back to it.  I just got a little burned out on it.
I was not happy with the oil bunker, so, I remanufactured it.  Now it can dispense oil from both sides.  I will put pics of it a little later in the thread I already have it on.

Here is the sandhouse I am building at the moment.  It still has a ways to go before I can call it good.  I am going to build the storage container and dispenser piping, out of brass and plastic.  The support tower will be wood.  It will be the style of the D&RG sandhouses.
Anyway, here are some pics of where I am at now:







Roof detail





Cribbing







My next step is to cut out the door and the chute hatch in the building end.

Dave  HWCRR
Seattle

[GPdemayo]

Great work Dave.....I'll be following along. 

[S&S RR]

Wow - another great build thread to follow!

[deemery]

Suggest darkening the very bottom row of boards and the posts.  Particularly when full of sand, water/moisture would tend to collect at the bottom of the structure and cause mildew, etc.  (Look at weathered barns and fences to see what I mean.)


dave

[halrey]

Nice job Dave, the weathered boards look great.


Hal

[S&S RR]

Suggest darkening the very bottom row of boards and the posts.  Particularly when full of sand, water/moisture would tend to collect at the bottom of the structure and cause mildew, etc.  (Look at weathered barns and fences to see what I mean.)


dave

I agree with Dave's comments but would suggest you do it just like you did on the walls of the building.  Looks great.

[jbolen61]

Awesome build can't wait to see it all together 

[ak-milw]

Looking great, love the decaying roof sections.

[DACS]

Gregory, John, Dave and Hal...thank you for your drop in and comments.   I have just stained the base color on the cribbing for right now.  Thank you for your suggestions.  The weathering is coming!   
I had built the housing structure several years ago, with every intent of finishing it some day.  Actually, it was originally a motor car shed for the right of way.  But, I had an epiphany for the structure as a sand house so, I dug it out of the cobwebs, dusted it off and started up again with re-assignment surgery.
The cribbing, I just built yesterday and today.
I get bored real easy.  You wouldn't belive all the partialy finished structures I possess.

Dave   HWCRR
Seattle

[DACS]

I posted while you were posting Andy, so you got missed. But here is your very own personal thank you.   The roofing is etched aluminum corrugated pieces.  Done with PCB acid.

Dave  HWCRR
Seattle

[deemery]

...
I get bored real easy.  You wouldn't belive all the partialy finished structures I possess.

Dave   HWCRR
Seattle

Unfortunately, I bet my count might well approach yours. 


One other thought, looking at the photos again.  How would the wet sand from the outside crib get to the inside to be dried out?  I'd suggest gluing a door/hatch along the wall part-way up, where your "minimum wage" laborer would stand and shovel sand into the building.


dave

[DACS]

Thank you Dave.  Yes, I still have to cut out the doorway and the hatch.  That's next on the agenda.  As a matter of fact, I already cut the door and have it framed.   Still need to place the NBW's in this side.  But, I will not do that until the last thing.  I have to glue the cribbing to the floor piece first.
Also, the siding is a bit on the thick side to have a broken out wall section showing.  If I ever do this again, I will use either thinner siding or, scrape the inside boards till they are at scale thickness. 
I also need to glue the roof down permantently and add the fascia boards.



Once finished with the door, I go after the hatch.  I plan on it being hinged at the top and then a prop rod will be used to keep it open while the sand is shoveled inside the sand house for drying.

Yes, this was a very labor intensive job, with little pay.  Sand was shoveled out of the gondola into the bin. Then shoveled through the hatch.  Then shoveled into the dryer.  Once dried, it was shoveled again into a hopper, from there is was then moved through the pipe to the receiver, by compressed air supplied by the locomotive.

Tons and tons of sand was moved through these structures in a months time!

Dave  HWCRR
Seattle

[deemery]

Looking good!  I was assembling an 1880s era coal gon (no hopper bottom) and my back hurt just thinking about shoveling 30 tons of coal out of the hopper into a bin.


dave

[DACS]

Thank you Dave.

When I got home off work today, I was so tired.  But, I decided I wanted to go ahead and weather the bin.  Here is my attempt.

First, how I did it:

I used A/I, Woodland Scenics Raw Umber, Golden Oak wood stain (water base) and weathering powders.

First I stained all the wood with the A/I and let dry.  Next I painted over the whole thing with the woodland scenics raw umber.  Once this had somewhat dried, I used the weathering powders dark gray.  Started at the front of the bin and work my way to the closed end.  As I went back, I went higher at an angle till reaching the end. Then I was covering the entire thing.  The reason being, the back end of the bin will always be more full of sand, than the front.  So, it would hold more water and darken the wood more in this area.
Once I had let all this dry, I basically followed the same pattern as the powders, with the Oak stain.  Once this had dried, I went over the entire bin sides with a single edge razor blade, scraping off the high spots and in general, hit and miss. 
Anyhow, here are a series of pics showing the different steps.











This pic is after all the liquids and powderes have been added.  Before scraping the sides down with the razor blade.



This is the finished bin. 



Dave  HWCRR
Seattle

[DACS]

Today, I added the sand to the bin.  To get the shape I wanted, as I did not want to fill the thing with dirt, er' sand;  I used a piece of brownish tan water foam I picked up at Michaels.
I first carved it to a basic shape then inserted it into the bin.  Then using a very finely ground rock (almost dust), I sprinkled it over the foam.  It is secured with soapy water and diluted white glue.
The shovel was shoved in, the support rods pushed through and voila!  This place has a lot of sand!









My next thing is to finish the access window and then build the tower.
I am working on a way to build the actualy receiver way up there.  I have tried a few different ways,  but none of them really ring my chimes.
Any ideas here?

Dave   HWCRR
Seattle