Beginning My Scrap Yard Upgrade

Started in on a bit of an improvement at the Ferrous Processing scrap metal yard on the layout recently.  I could spot in at most three gondolas alongside the scrap piles, but two gondolas spotted always seemed to look better.  Along the main line on the left side in this picture we can also see most of my collection of gondolas.  I've been wanting to be able to get another of those gondolas, maybe two, spotted into the scrap yard.  That would be between two and five at a time in there so I've started in on expansion.  This first picture shows the scrap metals recycler as it has been up 'til now.

And so I've just begun a project to expand, or actually extend this industry and the spur that runs inside of it.

The perimeter of the scrap yard is now lengthened by about 6 inches, but the rail spur inside will be about 19 inches longer.  That works out to somewhere around 135 feet or so of added length to the spur, which means that if I want to, I'll able to very nicely spot in two more gondolas than I could until now.

Here's some pictures to show what's happened so far:My first step was to re-set the fencing so that I'd know just how much area I really had to work with.  Following that, the longer spur track is in place as well.  To re-position the fence, I tore up a bit of that roadway which really didn't lead to anywhere before anyway.

A piece of 2 inch pink foam insulation is rough trimmed to the approximate shape to make a new pile of scrap metal.

Here's that same pink foam after I've painted it with brown craft paint and set in place at the scrap yard.  A pair of gondolas are set in place just to get a rough idea of how things are shaping up.

Took the carved foam back over to the bench, and have started adding metal busheling that I have been given by Brian Smith to create the scrap pile.  White glue (and plenty of it) will hold the bits of metal to the painted foam.

With more to come, that's as far along as I've gotten with this project so far.

Changing gears now, here's a single look at a covered plastics pellet hopper that was I saw when down at the Sarnia train station earlier this week.

NCLX 4219 caught my eye because of the light rust streaking and a couple of painted patches.  But no graffiti is visible...at least on this side of the freight car.

That's it for now. Have a nice week.