Quanah, Acme and Pacific (QA&P) - West Texas - Fictitious Model Railroad Layout Agriculture Industry

Discussion in 'Freelance' started by skyraider, Oct 13, 2019.

  1. patrick flory

    patrick flory Member

    That’s the Life Like “supply house,” an odd name for what looks like I don’t know how many feed mills I’ve seen. It’s discontinued but it’s all over eBay all the time.
     
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  2. gjslsffan

    gjslsffan Staff Member Staff Member

    Looks like an interesting project Paul. They used to say cotton was king down that way. Another couple cotton related industries, would be a cotton oil mill, pics attached. Another would be a cotton compress, which as you know is where the gin bales are compressed, this is usually, a big warehouse type affair, and also may be a bit less complicated too. The Panhandle compress in Quanah was used , I dont know if it is still in service though.
    Anyways just food for thought.

    Quanah cotton oil co.
    QA&P Yd from SW.jpg
    QA&P Yd from SW.jpg
    Quanah Cotton Oil Mill-2.jpg

    Quanah Cotton Oil Mill.jpg
     

    Attached Files:

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  3. skyraider

    skyraider Member

    Thanks, Tom. The folks at the Rule Gin said that they gin the cotton, compress it into bales, and sort out the seeds to be used for oil. They don't make the oil there, but they do save the seeds for the making of oil.

    How old are the photos you uploaded? 70's or 80's--something like that? Was that on the NE side of town--just north of the wye interchange with the FW&D?

    Thanks,

    Paul Moore
     
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  4. gjslsffan

    gjslsffan Staff Member Staff Member

    Yes to all Paul. A compress, compresses the gin bales into much smaller, high density bales, steam was usually used to power the presses. You can't hardly put enough bales on a RR car to overload it, maybe an 86' car. A mill would take in the fuzzy seeds, via boxcars, press the oil out, ship via tank cars or barrels and such in boxcars, another byproduct would be the "meal" spoils from pressing, this is/was sold in several forms too, like dry loose material, some were extruded thru cylindrical forms and made what we used to call "cake", which was a supplement for livestock. My grandpa would buy a 100lb sack and drive into a pasture start honking his horn, and boy watch the cattle come a runnin. They would run each other over to get to that cake. That would be outbounded in covered hoppers (later era) and boxcars. Maybe outbound seed for planting too.

    Gin bale nominal sizes
    Gin Universal Density Bale*
    Approximate Values
    Units
    Length 54-55 inches 1.37-1.40 m
    Width 20-21 inches 0.51-.53 m
    Average Bulge Thickness 33 inches (or less) 0.84 m (or less)
    500 lbs

    I did a quick search for the high density bales, honestly I am too tired to look. Been up for 35+ hours.
     
    Last edited: Sep 24, 2020
  5. skyraider

    skyraider Member

    Thanks for the info, Tom. Get some sleep.
     
  6. skyraider

    skyraider Member

    Currently I'm working my way around to the previously discussed industry. The industry is still scheduled to be a cotton gin or a fairly large
    grain storage facility. Both are prevalent in this part of the world and both would work well on the layout. By way of getting to the industry, some more scenery had to be made to ensure what the area will be that will house the industry. Attached are a few photos of the roughed in scenery and the general topography being modeled on this portion of the layout.

    The area of Texas we live in is literally called the Big Country. It's primarily farmland and ranchland, with the western reaches becoming rougher as it begins climbing to the caprock (Many square miles surrounding Dallas / Ft Worth are at 550'; my house is 1700'; Lubbock is at 3300' up on the caprock).

    On the northwest corner of the Big Country is the area that Tom Holley hails from--the beginnings of the Caprock Canyon area. That area, including the headwaters of the Pease River and the Prairie Dog Fork of the Red River, are the basis for this section of the layout. There are red sandstone rock outcroppings and lots of elevation changes--small ups and downs. One of the few railroad tunnels in Texas--the Clarity Tunnel--is here on the old FW&D line. NOTE: the FW&D attempted to purchase the QA&P after a partial collapse of the Clarity Tunnel, but the AT&SF didn't play well with the FW&D and wouldn't grant them trackage rights at Floydada.

    The reason the tunnel isn't scenicked (sp?) is that I'm debating on the staging yard in the adjacent 8' X 15' closet. Part of me doesn't want to add to the layout workload and another part of me doesn't even want to make a hole in the wall!! It will probably eventually happen, but not until I think about it a little more.

    Paul Moore
    IMG_3964.JPG IMG_3961.JPG IMG_3963.JPG IMG_3960.JPG Clarity with F unit.jpg 100_7605.jpg tp_caprock_9.jpg
     
    Last edited: Oct 12, 2020
  7. klrwhizkid

    klrwhizkid Administrator Staff Member Administrator Frisco.org Supporter

    Paul, holes in sheet rock walls are easy to patch...
     
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  8. skyraider

    skyraider Member

    Thanks, Keith. I'm a chicken on stuff like that. But I haven't ruled it out.
     
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  9. skyraider

    skyraider Member

    Finally made some progress on the fictitious layout. The old layout from Colorado is finally complete and up and (somewhat) running. The scenery needs to be repaired, trees put back on, etc.

    The skirts around the layout to hide the junk underneath are coming along. Thanks to my wife for the fabric skirts.

    The Caprock Canyon style scenery with an artistic licentious version of Clarity Tunnel is finally underway. Last week Karl Brand gave me a bunch of great information regarding sandstone beds, strata, etc. Some I was able to incorporate. Some I didn't just due to lack of modeling skill. It would be fun to have realistic looking scenery, but we do the best we can with what we have. In my case, in addition to not being the most artistic person on the planet, I also have seriously defective color vision. My wife has to come in several times during a modeling session to help me correct something I screwed up do to color vision.

    Anyway, it's fun. The Texas part represents where we now live and the Colorado portion is a depiction of where we use to live.

    Paul Moore

    1.jpg 2.jpg 4.jpg 5.jpg 6.jpg 8.JPG IMG_4069.JPG 9.jpg
     
    Last edited: Nov 9, 2020
  10. 4C022DFB-2462-4342-977F-53F539681DCF.jpeg I think it looks great Paul, fun layout.

    For drywall holes we call them a hot patch, doesn’t even require tape this way. The paper on the face becomes the tape over the joint. Three thin coats of mud and sand it. Viola’
     
  11. skyraider

    skyraider Member

    Thanks, Steve. I'll keep that in mind.
     
  12. Paul keep in mind I am not encouraging to cut up your house! Lol
     
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  13. skyraider

    skyraider Member

    Steve,

    The railroad room is an enclosed carport. If you saw the construction quality, you would not only encourage me to cut it up but probably tear it down!! It's great for a railroad room...because it's not great for much of anything else.

    Since it was a carport, the floor is on a concrete slab. As a carport it was supposed to shed water. It's not level. When cutting legs to support the benchwork, I had to mark each leg to ensure they were in the proper place, because there's a 1/4" slope per foot. The benchwork is five inches higher off the floor on one side of the room than the other!!

    Paul
     
  14. gjslsffan

    gjslsffan Staff Member Staff Member

    I really like what you have done with the new scenery Paul. I like the colors your using, great job of blending it all together.
     
  15. Joe Lovett

    Joe Lovett Member

    Your layout looks fantastic Paul!!! Like what Tom said the colors really blend great.

    Joe
     
  16. skyraider

    skyraider Member

    Thanks, Tom. I'll tell Joyce!!! Saturday she was in the railroad room mixing pigments to come up with something after looking at photos of the Caprock area.
     
  17. skyraider

    skyraider Member

    Thanks, Joe. I'll tell my wife!!
     
  18. skyraider

    skyraider Member

    Winter finally hit about a week ago; Thanksgiving was great; the Christmas lights are mostly up; and there's been some progress on the West Central TX layout.

    Fascia boards had to be made for one side of the old layout now that it is up. In Colorado, the backside of original layout was nearly against a wall--just barely enough room to move sideways between the layout and the wall to work on it. As a result, that side was unfinished. Now that it's in the middle of the room, it needs finishing. Also had to redo some of the scenery since you can now see it up close, not from six feet away across the layout.

    Dug the pit for the turntable; laid the MOW / caboose track that curves around behind the roundhouse. The small town near the yard and the machine shop are about done. The machinists ride Harleys to work because there isn't enough room in the parking lot for cars. So I had to build and paint some motorcycles.

    Quite a bit of the scenery is done where the sandstone rock formations are. There will be lots of finishing touches, but it's getting there. The abandoned rusty silverish tower was a last minute addition. I forgot to take a photo of the underside. It's nothing but a cardboard tube cut to length with a top and ladder added. Petroleum industry? Agriculture? Don't know--just thought it needed something in that area.

    Once the turntable and roundhouse are in there will have to be lots of junk added behind the roundhouse. After looking all over the internet for ideas and not finding much, what would you put behind the roundhouse?

    Have a great Christmas,

    Paul Moore

    IMG_4111.JPG IMG_4121 copy.jpg IMG_4124 copy.jpg IMG_4129 copy 2.JPG IMG_4114.JPG IMG_4115.JPG
     
  19. Joe Lovett

    Joe Lovett Member

    Paul, I really like what your doing with your layout, looks great.

    The stuff behind roundhouse could be trucks, wheels, oil drums, steam locomotives parts, crates and pallets just to name a few and a lot of weeds.

    Joe
     
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  20. skyraider

    skyraider Member

    Good ideas on the "stuff"--thanks, Joe. Could there be a short wheel track or would the wheel track, if it existed, be off of the turntable? Once some of the stuff is placed, I'll go heavy on the weeds.

    The layout needs lots more Mesquite trees. There might be some small ones behind the roundhouse with the weeds. Mesquite trees are like weeds here in west central TX.
     
    Last edited: Dec 2, 2020
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