Edison Power & Light

The modules have all been moved to where I believe will be their final resting spot (at least for the next 24 hours!)  I had to create one more, as I had the top done but I needed to add the legs and I decided to cut that one in half length-wise.  Now I have 2 modules that are 18" x 72".  One will act as a through point module and one is going to be Edison Power & Light a major coal fueled power plant and yard.

The base for this area is a new product I'm trying out.  It's either some sort of brain disorder or something, but everywhere I go I see things and think how could I use this on my model railroad?  Such is the case for the new base material.  I'm not necessarily eco-friendly but the product is very much so.  It's recycle rubber tires that are pressed and shaped into 6" x 4' pieces that are 1" thick.  You can even find some steel belting bits throughout it.  It is made for concrete expansion joints for driveways.  I thought it would make an excellent sub-roadbed material for this coal yard.  It should absorb sound as well as cushion the track.  The color means no painting will be needed and I glue roadbed material down on it just like with foam or cork roadbed.  I found it at a big box home improvement store, Menards and one piece is about $2.86.  I'll attach it with some form of construction adhesive.  The yard lead comes in from behind the New Rahel business district behind Schetter's Department Store. (Lunde Studios kit) 

     

On the opposite end there's the main power plant & the lighthouse for the harbor.
The power plant is a Walthers kit with some modifications.
The lighthouse is a Branchline Trains structure kit.

The placements are rough at this point and the scraps of foam provide a height perspective.  The power plant was too low compared to the lighthouse so I raised that up.  In researching coal power plants I saw I needed a structure to heat the coal cars (at least we do here in WI) so I decided to use the Walthers machine shop kit for that purpose.  I taped the kit together just to get an idea as to how it will work in the scene.

The machine shop should work out well as the facility for warming frozen coal loads and dropping the coal underneath the building.  from there it's moved up into the conveyor tower and dropped into the holding yard in piles.  From there the coal is moved on to other conveyors and also by machinery to the power plant.

I should have a good amount of storage for coal cars in the area.  In the real world, storage yards for cars as well as bulk coal piles are huge and can take up several hundred acres.  Obviously I don't have that kind of real estate but this should give who ever has to work this area something to play with.