Scrap Metal Piles at the Recycler

My plan, if I'd had one, for this week would have been to work on the MidWest Plastics plant that I wrote about in last week's post.  That went by the wayside however, as Brian gave me a couple of small bags of "busheling", metal chips, that I could use at my scrap metal recycler.  I was given separate bags of steel chips and aluminum ones, which is great, because I felt that this industry should really have separate piles for ferrous and non-ferrous metals.

So, I spent time gluing the chips to two of the base styrofoam mounds that I had carved and painted. The longest of them I had featured in this photo way back on March 2nd. By the way, in the background of this photo is that MidWest Plastics industry that I mentioned.

I attached the metal chippings to the styrofoam using white glue. Working in small sections at a time, I spread the glue on full strength, and then sprinkled on the metal chips and sort of pressed them down into the glue.

It was at about just about this time that I came to realize just down how sharp these little metal pieces can be. I took two or three slivers in my fingers as I was pushing them into the glue.  I learned fairly quickly though (for once), so after that I used a folded up piece of paper to save my fingers as I pressed onto the metal.

 As I worked on each small section, I also sprayed the chips lightly with isopropyl alcohol as a wetting agent, and then dribbled thinned white glue over them to make sure they are well glued down.  The whole process, while easy enough to do, was fairly messy as the busheling seems to tend to scatter around a fair bit.  And then to add to that, the thinned white glue is runny, which compounded the mess.

Here is an up to date photo from roughly the same viewpoint as that above, showing the pile of scrap metal with the actual scrap metal glued to it.  This stuff makes the scrap yard look waaaayyy more like what I had originally envisioned it to become.

In the foreground here (above) is the non-ferrous (aluminum) metals pile. I've also used the busheling to make removable loads for my 65 foot gondolas, with more underway for use in 50 foot gondolas.  It looks like two of these gondolas are loaded and could be picked up anytime by the GT.

These busheling pieces are glued down to pieces of .040 styrene sheet that have been cut to drop fit into my 65 foot gondola cars.

I think I'll add a couple of pieces of square styrene tube to the underside of the loads to raise them up a little closer to the top of the gondolas.

And, if you have interest in gondolas of scrap metal, and about 12 minutes to spare, Brian also forwarded me this link to an interesting video of a CF&E train. It's mostly overhead views of the train. Real good looks at a variety of loaded gondolas, which are spread throughout the length of the train.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dQsJZUk0is&feature=youtu.be