Gravel loading facility for railroad hopper wagons - set 733 inspired real world MOC

[Murdoch17]

This model was inspired from this set-733 like MOC by @AFOL7777.  I turned it into a railroad-served industrial track ballast loading facility to have the crane load dark bluish gray 1 x 1 round bricks into the crane's bucket. Then you can drop them into train hopper's when they arrive with the pull of a sliding plate.

You may have noticed I had to extend the height of the model 1 brick, to allow for Diesel 10 to fit underneath, as he is the primary engine to work the ballast facility. (His claw made him too tall, but it's okay now.)

The tan tile parts under the crane are the pull pins to make the coal fall into the hopper cars.

Inside of the crane with "controls" for the bucket motors and the crane itself, which travels along some narrow-gauge tracks and can swing from side to side.

In reality, the "hand of god" method is used to make the crane move, with a rope extending to the roof of the crane cabin which I can wind and unwind to load and unload the ballast into the train cars.

The office of the owner of the ballast operations.

The reason for the odd footprint is the factory MOC I made earlier this year resulted in a base-plate piece (dimensions 16 x 48 studs) that I was looking to use somewhere.... enter into the picture this model, and now I've nearly solved that little issue.

This 6 wide BR "Warship"class with hydraulic claw (AKA Diesel 10) model has been heavily modified by me from a old Class 37 file by LazarusBricks to have new removable roof sections for the cabs with seats for figures and cab controls. As you can see, I chose to leave off the face to keep the engine more in line with the rest of my locomotives. Diesel 10 works the ballast facility most of the time, so I included him here.

I'm going to have my Diesel 10 model pull 6 of these coal cars plus a brake van inspired by the 1980's 12v era red/ yellow sets to my gravel facility. The 12v era model and Diesel 10 are already built, and the plank wagons are on order as of 1/11/2020.

NOTE:
All credit for the six dark grey wagon models seen in the picture above goes to @Pdaitabird, who designed them. See here on Flickr for the awesome tutorial by him for the construction of the BR plank wagon.

 

BUILDERS NOTES: The ballast facility is now done, but the trucks to be filled with the crushed rocks are not (yet). More pictures to come soon!

Edited January 12, 2020 by Murdoch17

[Man with a hat]

Nice. The 7777 inspiration is clear. But nicely modernised

[XG BC]

nice moc/mod! i like the retro feel it has!

XG BC

[Murdoch17]

On 7/1/2019 at 4:16 AM, Man with a hat said:

Nice. The 7777 inspiration is clear. But nicely modernised

 

On 7/1/2019 at 10:43 AM, XG BC said:

nice moc/mod! i like the retro feel it has!

XG BC

Thank you @Man with a hat @XG BC, I really like to do retro + modern mash-ups, it makes it challenging to the old style using modern parts.

I just added a few new revised touches and a new train (seen above), so I hope everybody doesn't mind the small bump...

[Murdoch17]

Real life pictures added to the first post!

Edited October 23, 2019 by Murdoch17

[Paperinik77pk]

Great work!  This loading facility looks very nice - It should be awesome when put into a diorama or a bigger tran-related scenario!

Diesel 10 has a very mean look!

 

Edited October 24, 2019 by Paperinik77pk

[Murdoch17]

On 10/20/2019 at 12:20 PM, Paperinik77pk said:

Great work!  This loading facility looks very nice - It should be aawesome when put into a diorama or a bigger tran-related scenario!

Diesel 10 has a very mean look!

 

Thanks @Paperinik77pk! I will hopefully find a place for this at the next train show I attend in early February with Gateway LUG, and yes, Diesel 10 is a very mean diesel. Some would even call him evil!

Edited October 23, 2019 by Murdoch17

[Murdoch17]

I know it’s a little down to the wire, but hopefully the just ordered-parts will come in time for my UK coal cars to be done so I can bring them to Great Train Show on February 1st & 2nd with my ballast loader.

I'm going to have my Diesel 10 pull 6 of these BR plank wagons plus a brake van inspired by the 1980's 12v era red/ yellow sets to my gravel facility. The 12v era model and Diesel 10 are already built, and the wagons are on order as of 1/11/2020. (I just hope they get here in time!)

NOTE:
All credit for the six dark grey wagon models seen in the picture above goes to @Pdaitabird, who designed them. See here on Flickr for the awesome tutorial by him for the construction of the BR plank wagon.

Edited January 12, 2020 by Murdoch17