I realized that the parking lot was too small. So, I pulled out my Gatorfoam and cut another couple of pieces to expand it in the back. This was suitably painted, weathered, and finally glued down. It doesn't match the other stuff perfectly and I may try and address that in the future, but from normal viewing angles it is pretty close.
The tank car unloading building still bothered me so I repainted it again flat white and weathered it even less. The hoses were painted black to simulate rubber and silver for the stainless steel hardware. It was originally designed as a tanker truck loading facility but I didn't have a lot of room (even with the concrete lot expansion) to model much of that.
As for unloading the tank cars, some places just hook up pipes to the bottom of the tanks and turn a valve. That is what I wanted for my model. Simple. And I didn't know how that building would fit into the grand scheme of things.
I kept staring at the building and moving it around but it didn't work for me. The color was still wrong, and when it faced the track it had too many pipes to be a simple tank car unloading facility. So I dug around in my parts bin and found an HO scale air conditioner unit that was part of a Walther's structure roof detail kit. I painted it white and planned to glue it to the building. But then I turned the building around so that the truck unloading area actually faced the road (like it was supposed to!) and it started to make more sense.
I removed the base I had previously glued on, as well as the ramp, and then I painted the building green to match the warehouse. I liked that better. True, it might look clean and nice for a humble tank car unloading support structure but it visually tied together better. The A/C unit was glued onto the back and some light weathering was applied to everything.
For the actual unloading apparatus, I drove to the nearby Surplus Chemicals facility and took some pictures. Though much was behind fencing, it was easy to see through and over. I noticed that underneath the cars located off-spot (waiting to be moved into position later) there were grates and what looked like large pieces of paper or foam or cardboard underneath. Likely to catch any drips or spills.
One of the areas was a bit torn up.
For the cars in place to unload, they had more grates but none of that paper. And I saw nothing set up to unload the tank cars from above or below. Perhaps the grates underneat are lifted up and pipes and valves and such are hidden underneath? There weren't any friendly employees standing around to ask either.
To inset my unloading station into the track, I had to remove part of the middle rail. If this were mainline track that would be a bad thing to do as all the center-rail rollers on the bottoms of engines would hit the gaps in the rail and lose electrical contact and damage the rollers. But here, no engine will be traveling to the end of the track so I was comfortable with it.
What I didn't count on was the exact spot of rail I had chosen to remove was the place where the middle rail feeder wire was. Grrrr. Thankfully, the switch leading up to it was power-routing switch that I had added jumpers to, and in fact the feeder wire I had cut wasn't necessary as power was still getting there anyway. After testing it to confirm that I was okay, I pulled the feeder out and plugged the hole underneath with caulk.
I built a simple frame from 1/8" styrene angle and painted it brown. I decided to model the facility for above-ground unloading with a pipe, so I installed a piece of white paper suitably weathered to replicate the prototype pictures I had seen. The tubing is a piece of solder painted black with brass "flanges" made from guitar string ball ends on each end. I may come back at some point and replace it with some molded piping and flanges that Plastruct sells, but for right now it looks okay to me.
If I'm being honest, I had to go back and rebuild it again as I didn't account for oversize tinplate flanges and my tank cars could get past the first chemical drip pan I built. Oops.
Every commercial structure needs garbage dumpsters, so I asked online what they looked like in the 1970s and was given some helpful information. I considered scratchbuilding them which would have been fun, but I have been pretty busy lately so I bought some 3D prints on Ebay from "StarMerchantLLC".
Their covers looked a little too modern for the 1970s-1980s so I repainted them dark green and switched out the corrugated plastic lids for older plain flat steel panel lids that I made from styrene. I also added wheels from more guitar string ends that I painted black. Then, random bits of junk were stuck inside. Since it till be difficult to see inside I didn't waste any expensive castings. It appears naked without the name of the company on the side, but pictures from that time period showed they were usually blank.
I also had a horizontal propane tank left over from my N scale days and decided to reuse it here. It had an old decal on the side so I lightly sanded that off. Then, the entire thing was painted gloss white and a safety warning placard and a Suburban Propane company sign were printed off online and glued on. Some light weathering with powders was next, and finally I glued it on. A few crash posts made from brass tubing and yellow paint finished it off.
After extending the parking lot out it was time to surround it with greenery. I started with my trusted ground goop mixture and then finished with lots of various colors and sizes of ground foam.
A healthy dose of water and white glue was applied and everything was left to dry overnight.
Some concrete barriers from Ebay (Robson's3Dprints) looked like they would fit in the scene nicely so I purchased a couple. I painted them gray and weathered them, and now they prevent cars and/or delivery trucks from backing off the property (and through the eventual fence).
There are some details I may still add in the future like a metal screen security fence and an access road. But, the road will cross the benchwork section and lead into the next scene on the left which will be an Agway. I haven't figured that out yet and I don't want to hamstring myself by building a road in the wrong place. So that will wait. I do think a picnic table for the staff to eat in if it is nice outdoors might make a good addition.
It is so hard to find era appropriate 1:48 vehicles but I did snag an old kit off of Ebay for a delivery truck of sorts. I started to work on it but it isn't at all what I was hoping for, so that will wait for the future.
Without the backline of trees or brush, the back scenery joint looks very abrupt and sterile. I hope to change that. And of course, there is the static grass and weeds and fallen dead leaves that really set the fall scene. I plan to work on them soon.
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