Model Railroading > Having Your Cake and Flat Car Load Too

In planning for an N scale layout representing Southern Saskatchewan in 1997 I wanted to have plenty of 'other' business for variety. Natural gas and oil wells were literally popping up overnight during that time and of course there were pipe loads coming in to pump the stuff out. I acquired over two dozen BLMA pipe flats and am really impressed with how great they look, especially for the price. The BLMA pipe loads are another matter and decided to find a cheaper alternative. I came up with this coffee stirs for pipes, these I got Staples and they scale out to 65.6' feet in N scale. I bound the pipe loads together using cheap (think everything is a dollar or near that store) hair bands. The hair bands may be slightly larger than scale but if you use the cheap ones they still look passable. I also used flat toothpicks for the timber risers and separation of the bottom and second level of pipe. I am in an informal N scale group where we go to each other's houses and either operate or help work on each other's layouts. The Wednesday Night N scale group came over and helped paint my layout room. Although I am not obligated I like to cook for everyone when they come to my place and decided to make a cake using a mix that was on sale and peppermint icing that was on closeout after Christmas. What worked out great was using the toothpicks to test to see if the cake was baked enough. Instead of throwing them away, I cut the ends off and used them with the flatcar load.

Jim

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That's a good recipe for a pipe load.

The pipe has the color of red velvet.

That it is cheap is just icing on the cake.  

The load looks very good, the cake looks even better, send me a slice.

Regards, Bobby

Could ya move that thing with the things on it out of the way so I can get to my cake, by the way, what kind of cake is it?

Ed

SPED Wrote:
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> Could ya move that thing with the things on it out
> of the way so I can get to my cake, by the way,
> what kind of cake is it?
>
> Ed

The kind that is not on your diet!