To create the old foundation next to the new hoist house (oppo- site), styrene shapes (above left) were used to form a core for the stone walls and supports for the hoist house and flooring. The
weathered foundation (above right) can be seen after the stone walls, concrete cap and wood sills are added. Next, cinders, weeds and floor joists (below) are were added to the foundation.
the second hoist house is the foundation, floor joists, junk, and the hoist by Rio Grande Models, all in a deteriorating state. As an explanation, the structure for the original hoist was knocked down to prevent interference to the cables for the new hoist house. The rest was left to rot or rust. The result is a model where its inside is outside.
Start with a solid foundation The foundation floor was cut from
.080″ sheet styrene and measured 25 feet square. For the walls, I glued to- gether .125″×.125″ and .125″×.250″ styrene strips. Two pieces, 25 feet in length, were cut and glued to the top of the floor on opposite sides. For the re- maining walls, I cut and sanded them to fit in between. On the inside perime- ter of the walls, I glued in two courses of .060″×.060″ styrene strips to serve as concrete supports for the wood sills to be installed, later.
completed, I still felt that the model was undersized for my mining operation. To seal the deal, an anthracite mod- eling friend of mine, Gerry Dombroski, pointed out that it was rare for mines to have more than two sheaves serving the mine shaft. So, I decided to scrap the idea of using the Rio Grande Mod- els kits for the hoist house and look for something else. Shortly after making that decision, I discovered a hoist kit offered by Western Scale Models. When I received their kit, I realized this was the model for my finished hoist house. As I stated in the beginning, I did not intend for this to happen. At this point, I had three hoist machines for one mine. Since I had no intention of using the Rio Grande Models kits, what was I going to do with them? The one I built is a very nice model, so I thought I would just use it as industri-
RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
al waste around the mine. As for the second kit, I gave it to my friend, Gerry Leone, for use as a load or as scrap on his Bona Vista Railroad. While researching hoist houses,
I
stumbled across photos and site plans for Silver King Mining Company in Summit, Utah. The site plan shows the location of a hoist that was installed in 1893. Then, in 1937, this hoist was re- placed by newer equipment. The new equipment was installed directly be- hind the older version, keeping the hoisting cables in the same alignment as the original hoist. I also found photos of an abandoned hoist house, the Sloss Red Mine in Jefferson, Alabama, where the structure and remains of the hoist equipment have badly deteriorated. This gave me an idea to build a second hoist house in front of the one I built, previously. However, all that remains of
The footings for the hoist machinery came next. I glued together .125″× .250″ and .250″×.250″ styrene strips, creating a .375″ wide footer under the hoist’s steam cylinders. Two sections were cut in ten foot lengths, one for each cylinder. The .250″×.250″ styrene strip was cut to a length of five feet, and was used to support the drive shaft of the hoist. The .125″×.250″ styrene strip was also cut to a length of five feet and was placed on the opposite side of the footing from the drive shaft. This was positioned so that the footing is only .125″ high on this side, allowing for the rods that originally controlled the speed and brakes of the hoist to connect to the operator’s platform. The platform was not modeled, however.
Before gluing all of the sections to-
gether, I gently sanded the top edges and outside corners of the footer pieces.
67
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100