Model Railroading > Modeling a construction site

I'm a long-time lurker and this is my first post.  I brought my partially built layout out of mothballs a few months ago because my grandkids were expressing great interest in getting things set up again.  Our seven and eight year old grandsons love running the trains and working on the industries.  Now they want to make a construction site as part of the lay out.  I've thought about road construction or actually adding a spur rail line that is under construction.  Does anyone have pictures or comments as to what they would suggest?

Maybe some backhoes and graders working on an area. This could be for any of the scenarios you mentioned. To me, nothing is much more synonymous with a construction site as backhoes and graders and they are immediately identifiable.


 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/21 10:17 by tehachapifan.

An industry (building or buildings?) partly under construction with building materials and machinery brought in by rail at the locaton could be modeled? Many kind of cars would service construction including hopper cars, boxcars, gondola cars and flat cars. Flat cars could be very interesting with specialized loads of equipment on board (machinery and transformers, for example).

Contractors also stockpile building materials and machinery at a location near a railroad spur and truck them in to the construction site. Stockpiles of materials with trucks and loaders loading up would be interesting. And aggregates, etc., could be loaded from a hopper car to a truck by some sort of pipe or conveyor, or scooped into a dump truck from piles on the ground with a front loader, for eample. This would require less space, however, busy, and the construction site could by imagined as off the layout somewhere.

Here is another that could also be easily replicated: On more than one occasion, I have seen utility poles stockpiled (near a RR's yard or spur). I believe they are brought in by flat cars, but assume gondolas could be used also.

Victor A. Baird
http:www.erstwhilepublications.com



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/21 11:44 by wabash2800.

Does your layout have any bridges? How about a scene where a new modern bridge is being built next to an existing bridge of older design?
JC

Posted from Android

JasonCNW Wrote:
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> Does your layout have any bridges? How about a
> scene where a new modern bridge is being built
> next to an existing bridge of older design?
> JC
>
> Posted from Android

Something like this?  One important detail is that the cranes would not be lifting while trains are moving so you'd want to model them in a stationary position.

Nathan Beauheim
Loveland, CO

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Here's a construction scene with BNSF 6281South at the Baptist Road overpass near Monument, CO, 27 October 2015.

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Why not ask your grandkids what they'd like to see under construction? Encourage their minds and imagination!

Arved Grass
Fleming Island, FL

Arved Wrote:
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> Why not ask your grandkids what they'd like to see
> under construction? Encourage their minds and
> imagination!

Next they'll be wanting the floor to be lava!
 

Don't forget a dozer or two. upkpfan

If your in the NMRA, the January 2021 Scale Rails had an excellent article about modeling a construction site (not rail served). It featured the foundation pit, 4-5 story girdering, a hammerhead crane, and explanation of terchnology used. Maybe you can ask around and get a copy.
Clarence