A team track idea was dismissed, as I wanted a dedicated facility. However, I might do a team track on the left side of the layout though. An old-timey tank car mounted on stilts such as this Life Like kit below was also a no-go.
Walthers/Atlas makes a nice kit (#6908) of a fuel dealer but it looked too dated for what I wanted, and it doesn't come with a lot of stuff in the box. It has two small tanks, one small shed, and one small shack. Honestly, most O scale kits are undersized and I don't fault Walthers/Atlas for this because they are also aimed at the 0-27 market. But for my true scale layout, I wanted something bigger. Besides, this sells for $80+ bucks online which is a lot for what you actually get in the box.
So I cast a larger net and came across a picture in a Boston and Maine RR Historical Society video of a Suburban Propane dealer (here, at the 26:36 mark) that was more modern and what I was thinking of. One or two large horizontal tanks, one large steel structure, and then an area for trucks to load. Now, how to fit it in my space?
My siding will hold a scale 40' tank car and clear the track to the lumberyard, but a 45' car won't fit and a 50' tank car extends onto the switch. But that is okay. It probably happened in real life too. Besides, most of the time my cars will just sit on display on the layout and not get switched anyway.
I looked at satellite pictures of the local Suburban Propane office here in Albany and I got some ideas. The old railroad spur is still there (though it is now disconnected from the mainline and covered with propane tanks). There are several modern buildings, which I likely can't model all of. And my facility won't be a perfect match for it. But it was a start.
At the onset I decided to not force too much into the scene. After building my lumberyard I realized that I can't cram everything in or it will become jumbled. There isn't a lot of room for "negative space" in O scale, so I need to factor it in at the start. Forcing stuff in was one of the biggest reasons why my previous HO layout was unsatisfying. See this great post from Marty McGuirk on the topic.
To help me visualize what I could fit into the area I made a mockup of a modern steel building using some posterboard. I also printed out the dimensions of the Plastruct horizontal propane tank kit (#O3019). It fit okay but it was a bit too large and even my wife commented that the tanks were too close to the lumberyard. So I retreated from that idea. Hmm... what should I build then? Without exactly knowing, I pressed on
To prepare the foundation for the building I glued down a layer of cork roadbed. It took forever, and also burned through my supply of used cork that a friend gave me, so in the future I will need to look into something else that is the correct thickness but a lot quicker to install. Maybe... you know... sheet cork? A coat of brown latex paint was brushed on and I had a nice, clean area to work with.
I decided the tank car siding was still too long so I trimmed off another inch from the end. Then, I took some Brennan's cinder ballast (Railyard Black) and ballasted the sidings including the track leading to the lumberyard. For the tank car siding I mostly kept it cinders because I assume the N.E.N.R. will perform at least some maintenance on any track that will be traveled by tank car carrying hazardous liquids. For the lumberyard siding I mixed more ground foam weeds and dirt in the mix. Both tracks will eventually get static grass and tufts. It looks a royal mess while it is wet, but dries okay.
Note: I discovered I didn't properly caulk one of the holes under the track from when I wired it and I had a muddy, gluey pond beneath my layout when I came back the next morning. Lots of wet paper towels got it all cleaned up up (it wouldn't have been very easy if I had used matte medium instead of white glue) but it reminded me to double-check everything before going to bed.
For the tank car track bumper, I looked at various brands but settled on an Atlas O product. Most of them had lights, or working springs, or are overbuilt to actually stop a runaway Lionel train. I wanted something that was realistic, but even the Atlas one needed some modifications. I trimmed off unnecessary plastic between the sides which snaps onto the rail, and slimmed down the center buffer part itself. (You can see the before and after below). Then it was painted, weathered and glued in place. It definitely won't stop a runaway Lionel GG1 from crashing into the lumberyard though!
Now I just need to build an actual industry for the siding. And I still don't know what it will be.
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