Monday, May 26, 2014

A Sugar Beet Loader - A Custom Model

     Pictured below is a sugar beet loading station done in 1/4" scale for a recent customer. The design follows one presented in Railroad Model Craftsman of numerous years ago. It follows the prototype in San Ardo, California on the Southern Pacific's Coast Division.

     The entire model is scratch built from styrene and mounted on a plywood base. There is also a separate scale house for measuring the weights of the trucks and contents. The model was free-lanced a bit so it wasn't exactly like the drawings. The conveyor needed to be shortened quite a lot because of limited space requirements of the benchwork. The model was delivered less dirt detail so the owner could match what he is using in adjacent spaces.

     The three trucks were also bashed from 1/43 scale models. The dump truck has a resin body and new frame along with larger wheels as per the prototype. The other two larger trucks were built from trailer units with the trailers removed and scratch built boxes added to the rears. The green cab truck actually dumps. The other, orange unit, is to be placed over the scales. All trucks were aged to represent actual use.









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