H.J. Heinz Salting Station (AMB Dill's Pickle's)

Re: A teaser...

Yes sir! I have a fleet of VC's. All those roads and then some, even a Wabash which I'm waiting on some parts for. I have a fleet of Frisco's being built, as with a few SA&AP's.

 

Have you thought about downloading a pickle advertising sign/logo? Then reduce it to the needed size, print it/them, and then glue them to the bag(s).

 

Hey Oldguy,

Yes I have. In fact I have a picture of a 1910 Gold Medal flour bag and I did just that. It comes out great in size, but the paper is too thick, and scraping it with a No. 11 X-acto doesn't really help. I need to have it made as a decal, which I am going to try and do.

 

I was able to have the decals for the sacks and crates/barrels made. Oh happy day!

 

Over the past few days I've been researching circa 1910 feed, grain, and vegetable crate and bag labels. Very interesting stuff. I found quite a few for Texas, but when I scaled them down to feed sacks, lets just say that they were illegible and not really capable of being made in decal form. Paper was an option, but cutting and shaving wasn't really practical and the printing was the same as in the case of the decals.

Light Bulb.

Most time, representation is the mother of all invention with model trains, especially with the smaller scales. Enter simple drawing templates and Sharpie Ultra Fine Tip Permanent Markers.

I was able to reasonably resemble Gold Medal Flour sacs with an orange and navy sharpie for the period. Using the template, I drew the outer navy blue ring and filled it in with orange.

After it dried, I lightly sealed it with Dull Coat. Then with Dr. Ben's Weathered Rust I tried to make the bags look like burlap. The process works, but I see that I may have needed to get a little more of the stain off the brush than I did. Overall the sacs look good and the Sharpie is dulled down quite a bit.

Take a look and see what you think.

My AMB Pickle Kit is on the way. Construction begins when it arrives.

Thanks y'all.

Manny

 

Jim: Done!
Keith: Thanks! Done!

TBA

 

Pickle barrels, beer kegs, feed sacks, and the salting station arrived today. I'm presently reviewing the instructions on this kit and will begin shortly. I'm so tired, I can't even fall asleep.

 

Ah well,

Another sleepless night ahead of another round of thunderstorms, so I decided to break open my second pack of GC Laser skids and grab a bag of Wiseman feed sacks and go to town.

First I assembled the 36 pallets. I wish that Elmer's made a wood glue stick. I waste so much of the glue trying to keep it on the underside of the pallet rungs. Anyways, all 36 are done. They take about 30 minutes to do. Not bad. I dread though when I have to build Bar Mills Pinkham Pallets Company. Oh my, how many pallets am I going to need then!!!

Afterwards, I did three stacks of feed bags for the pallets. This is going to be a large commodity for my railroad. I intend on making enough pallets to do the docks of several facilities and also several S.A. & A.P. 34' flat cars with. Each flat car should hold 12-16 pallets. That's a lot of feed sacks.

Anyways, here are the photos of the nights work. 24 hours of drying and then I can stain and paint.

Till next time.

Thanks for looking...

Manny

 

Re: H.J. Heinz Salting Station (BIS Sassen Pickle Works)

Very neat. I was getting hungry for some pickles as I looked at them.

Just a wild idea or two (I have tried neither):

o How about a "Q-tip" to apply the Elmer's. If you get it "wet" enough, it may be able to apply enough in a controlled way to reduce waste and spill.
o If you have syringe barrels and bodies, you could make an applicator with one of those. (Clean it carefully with water and allow to dry if you want to use it again!)

Comments and feedback on the suggestions are welcome!

George

 

George, Jim, et, all,

I did the puddle thing, and I did the "Q-tip" Micro-brush thing. The Elmers sets up much faster than it used to (or at least I remember). I was told that there is a stainless steel needle applicator top that will fit the
Elmer's Wood Glue bottle. I'm waiting to hear where it can be purchased from. It will make things so much easier. I will of course, pass that information on to my fellow Frisco modelers to help make their hobby easier!

George, I get hungry every time I see this thread too. Although I must admit, it's for a nice juicy hamburger with pickles and HEINZ KETCHUP; the BEST KETCHUP on the planet! LOL...

 

Another 36 pallets down. Nine in Maple. Nine in Oak. These 18 are factory produced new. Eighteen well used. Put some skid marks (no p.u.-n) intended on the weathered ones this time. I did a rough calculation last night. For a 34' flat car, I will need 357 feed bags for a full load. That's 21 pallets with 17 feed bags on each. I'm going to have the most interesting flat car loads that folks have ever seen!

Manny

 

Manny, if you are building whole loads, is it not possible to assemble something with a core so you don't use that many sacs? Of course I'm perfectly happy running with standins and saying I'll do some detailing later.

 

Steve, et, all,

Here in San Antonio, and for the most part, Central to Southern Texas, photos of the period show that feed sacks and other commodities on flat cars and even gondolas were not covered. That being said, loads were fully visible. I'm very particular about things like this, so I don't view the added expenditure as a negative, nor the time it takes to make such things that others may deem tedious. I feel that the result is the best in realism. Just call me crazy, demented, or a sicko, but doing 360 feed sacks per car, for lets say, three cars, isn't out of the norm for me. Rather, it is the exception not to do that. Now with the M1897 Cannon in my other thread, I may cover the others creating a facade, then have one exposed. That's something I would do as an illusion.

Excellent question on your behalf. No offense taken. Just to each their own.

Thanks!

Manny