Construction Update #23 - Westmoreland, TN Part 3 - CEMEX, the Team Track & Tunnel 2

 

CEMEX Westmoreland

 

Parts for the CEMEX redi-mix plant at Westmoreland have been sitting around on the layout for months.  Since the plant is right around the corner from the small commercial and residential district, I thought I would get started on it.  The first thing I did was paint the track, and put down some basic ground cover and ballast in the areas that would be behind the plant and hard to reach in the future.  There are two spurs that run into the plant.  Aggregate will be unloaded on the rear track and transferred to the storage bins via the conveyor.  Bulk concrete will be unloaded from covered hoppers on the spur in front of the plant.

 

Once the ground cover was in place, I sat the plant in place.  It was assembled on my work desk in the house on a reinforced .0080" black styrene base.  The bins, on the right came out of my "parts" box.  I think they were originally part of an old Con-Cor kit.  The blending plant, on the left, came from the Walthers "Blue Star Redi Mix" kit.  Other parts were scrounged from other kits or the "parts" box.  The sign came off the internet.  I sized it and added "Westmoreland, TN" below "CEMEX" with Photoshop.

The concrete unloading shed was scratch built from Pikestuff components.  The corrugated office/warehouse in the left foreground came from the Walthers Clayton Valley Lumber kit.  The Ortner aggregate cars are from Walthers, the covered hopper is a recent release from Athearn.  I steel need to add some ground cover, figures, vehicles, and other details.

The Westmoreland Team Track

 

At one time, most towns had a team track and freight house.  Freight houses, for the most part are long gone as is the LCL (Less than Carload) business that once moved by rail.  While the prevalence of team tracks has also diminished, you can still find them along the right of way.  The lots surrounding them are generally full of potholes, overgrown with weeds, and littered with old dunnage.  But, they are still used... occasionally.  During the mid to late 1980's, when I model, team tracks they were more prevalent, in better repair, and used a lot more often. 

The Westmoreland team track dock was built from a Pikestuff modular loading dock kit.  I assembled the dock per the instructions and then filled in some of the gaps with Tamiya white putty. Then, using a rattle can, I sprayed the the dock a concrete color followed by a thin wash of alcohol and black Lincoln shoe die.  Scale strip wood, stained with Builders-In-Scale "Silver Wood", was added along the upper edges to protect the dock from trucks backing into it.

 

While the dock lined up nicely with a freight car, it was about a scale foot to high for a truck backed up to it.  I used two sheets of .0080" styrene sandwiched together to raise the area around the dock.  Screened paving sand was then used to surface the lot.

 

 Tunnel 2 (The Helix)

 

Leaving Westmoreland eastbound, the mainline uses a helix to reach the second level of the layout.  I thought about using a overpass and a lot of trees to disguise the entrance to the helix but ultimately decided upon a tunnel portal.  The back ground was extended using another six feet of  backdrop from Trackside Scenery and the concrete portal, wing wall, and tunnel liner came from CC Crow.  The portal parts were assembled, stained and weathered using the same methods I used on the State Line Tunnel (Construction Update #19).

The hill behind the portal was built up with pink foam and covered with plaster cloth

 

 

The area around the tunnel portal was covered with paving sand, some ground foam and dead-fall, and super trees.  Some additional foliage materials are needed but overall, it looks pretty good.  Eventually, if Atlas ever delivers the ex BLMA signals I have on back order, there will be a dispatcher controlled absolute signal leading into the tunel (helix)

An Unexpected Surprise

 

Every once in a while, you run across something built by someone else that may be just what you needed.  I ran across these little gems at my local hobby shop, The Electric Train Shop, in Burien, WA.  Scott, the owner, makes a habit of picking up old collections and selling them off in his store.  I rarely did this in my own store, The Inside Gateway, but in hindsight it was probably a mistake.

 

I wasn't looking for either of these structures when I went by the store.  But, the small storage building instantly caught my eye.  I didn't know where or when I might use it but just about any layout has a spot for one of these little inconspicuous jewels.  It was sitting right next to the tower that I hardly noticed the first time around.  Around ten minutes later, I found myself staring at the tower and wondering how it would look in Bowling Green where the Madisonville Sub crosses the old L&N line through town.  I bought the tower to use as a temporary "stand-in" until I got around to building something better.  

 

To tell the truth, they are both nicely built, painted and weathered and I didn't know they were built from inexpensive plastic kits until I turned them over.  Now, after they have been sitting on the layout for a few days, replacing them is way down, I mean way down, my list of priorities.