Cattle Call

DeckRoid

Member
Hello

On my line, I want to have a siding that runs to a stockyard then back onto the main line. I am unsure of a couple of things, though. Any help would be great....

I am not sure if I want my siding to split in two and go on either side of the stockyard then form up again before getting back to the main line. I have seen may pics like this in the past, but space wise, I am thinking it might not be the best way to go. I have about 4 feet in length and 2 feet in width to work with.

Another quandary I have is about the stockyard itself. I don't know which one to choose. Our club has the Cornerstone stockyard and it's ok... but it looks abit, well, overly plastic. Don't get me wrong, I have plastic items on my layout; a few houses, fencing and whatnot. Maybe it looks that way, because we haven't done anything to it but take it out of the box and set it up. No weathering or the like. For this, I would like to get a wood kit, but I have no idea which one to get. I have gone thru the Walther's Bible and seen the 6 or 7 they offer, but buying something from a 1" x 1" black and white photo without seeing it in person may not be the best use of dollars.

Any help, comments, advice would be appreciated. I know that I might have started something by my plastic comment, so let me apologize in advance. I do not mean to say that all plastic models are inferior to wood models. It is just this one case, and it may just be this one model. That is why I need some help.

Thanks again.

George
 

doctorwayne

Active Member
You could always build your own to suit the site that you have available. I used strip styrene to build the stockyards pictured below, and while mine is meant to portray a well-maintained facility, you can make styrene look like weathered wood, too. Check here for more.

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I drew out a post layout for each wall of the pens on a sheet of paper, then pinned the paper to a sheet of 1/4" balsa wood. Using the diagram, posts were pinned in place, then the crossmembers added as required. All of the parts were distressed with a razor saw before cutting to size, and the styrene allowed me to use fast-drying lacquer thinner as a cement. Making the layout drawings and preparing the strip styrene took most of the time. Assembly was as rapid as my old fingers could move. I made the corner posts (and some intermediate posts on longer sections) longer, so that they extended below the rest of the posts, then drilled holes into the plywood base to help hold the finished pens in place. Most of the finally assembly, other than the covered section, was done right on the layout.

Wayne
 

rhtastro

Member
Re: stockyard pics, very nice job Wayne, but it looks so bare. Our auction out here in NorCal, about 4 miles from my ranch, has hundreds of animals and cowboys by the dozen. It also has a cattle truck area, RR spur, pavilion, western store and restaurant. It's the largest auction on the west coast. The stock area covers several hundred acres alone. They bring cows in from 5 different states. But I still like your little setup anyway. Great job on the fencing. bob
 

DeckRoid

Member
Wow. Just... wow. That is a very nice looking stockyard. And thank you for the styrene info. This gives me an idea of how to go about building my own.

Very nice. Thank you.

George
 

doctorwayne

Active Member
.... but it looks so bare...

Yeah, you're right about that. When the photos were taken, the cows had yet to come home. :rolleyes:
I've since managed to obtain some livestock, but the selection of poses seems to be very limited, as are photographs of them on the layout. While the Lowbanks Stockyards is the area's "hub" of livestock auctions, the relatively sparse population (under 500, except in the summer tourist season) means that it's really more of a "hubcap". ;):-D

Wayne
 

DeckRoid

Member
... the selection of poses seems to be very limited...

Boy howdy, did you put your finger on the button. I have resorted to buying sets from Faller, Merten and Preiser just to get a good size herd that all didnt look the same. Having worked at a feedlot, I would be very disturbed to see cows and steers in the different pens all having the same pose.

sign1
 

doctorwayne

Active Member
.... Having worked at a feedlot, I would be very disturbed to see cows and steers in the different pens all having the same pose.

sign1

I just explain it away by telling viewers that the livestock has undergone a rigorous training program in synchronized standing. ;)
Painting them somewhat differently can help to disguise apparent cloning experiments, but paint can only hide so much. Most of the cattle that I've been able to find has been young steers, although I did find a bag of cows and bulls on the used table at the LHS for a couple of bucks. I put a couple of bulls in separate pens, and the cows are in a field, seemingly following one another to greener grass. I painted them as different breeds, even though their size, build and pose are all alike. I'd try hacking them up :eek: (how thick ya want the steaks?) in order to reassemble them as if they were grazing, but they're made from a soft plastic that no glue that I have will stick to. I wonder if those carcasses that come with the Walthers packing plant could be brought back to life with some heads and legs carved from heavy strip styrene.

Wayne
 

MasonJar

It's not rocket surgery
Wayne,

Is that delrin? The same slippery plastic that trucks/sideframes are made from? If so, maybe a mechanical fastening, like a short piece of wire, would keep things in alignment? Paint would disguise the join.

Andrew
 

doctorwayne

Active Member
No, I don't think that it's Delrin, Andrew. It's similar to the stuff that they used to use for those army figures kids used to play with - not G.I. Joe, just the small ones that they used to sell in a plastic bag - 100 for a couple of bucks or so. I painted the livestock with Floquil paint, but if I handle them too much, the paint flakes off - perhaps this beef is very high in cholesterol. :rolleyes: The wire trick would probably work to hold them together, but I doubt that any filler (to hide the scars)would stick to their slippery hides. :-D

Wayne
 

sumpter250

multiscale modelbuilder
If you really want wood, Walthers 2008, page 540, item#292-15211.
Yes, it is pricey, but you have the space for it, and it is an excellent wood kit.
Then again, if you choose to scratchbuild, or kitbash, item #292-1225 stock loading ramps would help to dress up your facility.

And, yes, I am shamelessly plugging the product, it is one of our earlier kits.
 

doctorwayne

Active Member
Nice looking ramps, Pete, and that auction house is really impressive.:thumb:

I finally caught some photos of a few critters (other than the railroad employees) ;)
Here are the small steers, with hogs in the adjoining pen:
Layout_views_etc_002.jpg


And, barely visible, a couple of bulls (I'm pretty sure that these are really just bigger steers, as no "detail parts" have been added) :p
Layout_views_etc_003.jpg


These, at a different yard, are the same castings as the "bulls", but represent big steers:
Layout_views_etc_005.jpg


These cows, from the same lot, are all identical, but I painted them as different breeds. I just placed them in this field as if they had just been let out to graze as the paint doesn't stand-up to storing them in a parts drawer. When I get more fields, they'll go to various places around the layout. To prevent them from straying past the fenceless posts, the grass is all the same shade of green. ;)
Layout_views_etc_007.jpg


Horses are available in several poses, and in a few different types. All are from Jordan:
Layout_views_etc_013.jpg


Layout_views_etc_011.jpg


Layout_views_etc_010.jpg

(In the last photo, the dray is obviously equipped with power steering, as no reins are in sight.):rolleyes::-D

And finally, in a livestock-related vein, some crates for transporting live fowl:
Layout_views_etc_014.jpg


Construction is from styrene strip, with .010" brass wire bars. The Model T is from Jordan.

Wayne
 

TrainNut

Ditat Deus
Those are some awful clean pens Dr. Wayne.:mrgreen: Having grown up around cattle, I can only say that those ramps from the pens up to the loading platform must have just received a fresh coat of paint not too awful long ago. In this case, I think you need to severely weather the higher traffic areas and pardon the pun but make sure you do a "crappy" job.:mrgreen: Nice job with the styrene by the way. I wanted to do something similar in N scale but I don't think it's going to happen.
 

doctorwayne

Active Member
Those are some awful clean pens Dr. Wayne.:mrgreen: Having grown up around cattle, I can only say that those ramps from the pens up to the loading platform must have just received a fresh coat of paint not too awful long ago. In this case, I think you need to severely weather the higher traffic areas and pardon the pun but make sure you do a "crappy" job.:mrgreen:

Other than the trains themselves, not much at all on the layout has been weathered beyond the weathering which was included in the original paint job. I intend to weather the livestock, too, as they generally wore as much of the muck as they left lying about. And with a fair number of wagons still plying the streets of my towns, I'll need to add a few remnants of their passing when I add that weathering. :eek: The stockyards could probably generate a carload of manure once in a while, too, which might make for an interesting gondola load. For now, though, they just dump it in the river.

Wayne
 

DeckRoid

Member
I thought the wagon pic was of a guy coming to get the 'leavings' for his field. High in nutrients and nitrogen for the soil, ya know...
 

cn nutbar

Member
hi george---welcome to the gauge and thanks for starting this interesting thread---i found another shot from Doctor Waynes---hope you enjoy---nutbar

dieselsontheege044-1.jpg
 

doctorwayne

Active Member
Thanks, guys. Lots left to do on my layout, but if you check around the Gauge, there are lots of other very nicely done layouts, and lots of people willing to answer your questions as you work towards your own dream layout.

Wayne
 

rlundy90

New Member
Campbell Scale Models M.E. Nelson Livestock Company is a really nice wood kit. It sells for around $70.00. You can also get cattle loading pens and stockpens with double shutes. I have built some campbell kits and the quality is excellent. I haven't built the stockpens but have seen it built and it looks great. Here is a sample of one of their kits I just finished building. Ron
 

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