Menards new Morton Salt Building pics.

WOW guess you don't want to run out of Salt! Just great looking!

Mike, I think we should try to talk Kirk into building us a brewery! You certainly have the skills kirk! Amazing and very clever build!

TM Terry posted:

I'd like to have one, but it can't have yellow platforms and stairs. That is a deal breaker.

Are those parts easy to remove and paint an era appropriate color?

My workplace has all stairs and catwalks painted OSHA yellow, just like this building.

VistaDomeScott posted:

TM Terry posted:

I'd like to have one, but it can't have yellow platforms and stairs. That is a deal breaker.

Are those parts easy to remove and paint an era appropriate color?

My workplace has all stairs and catwalks painted OSHA yellow, just like this building.

It also seems appropriate for Morton Salt equipment, but certainly not period correct for the years that version of the Morton girl logo were used.

Kirk B posted:

Let me preface this with a little background...  I wanted something taller and more substantial for our layout and started working on building a low cost grain tower using some inspiration from this site.  My 4 yr old son is in love with the color blue right now and wanted me to paint the grain tower blue.  I said that wouldn't look right, but then later the same day found that Menards had just released their salt factory.  This gave me the idea that Morton probably used towers similar to the typical concrete grain storage silos.  Some internet searching did reveal that Morton does have storage silos like this (although not blue).  So an idea was hatched - buy the salt factory and couple it with some big salt storage silos.  Thus my son gets his blue silos and Dad gets to have some fun.

Now be gentle with me please.  This is my first scratch built building, I do not have local sources for things like doors and windows, and I was doing it on the cheap (total was $60).  So the silos are PVC pipe, the main tower is 5in plastic fence post, the roll up door is mostly coffee stir sticks, the office is card stock, and the doors and windows were cut out of heat vents on an old VCR that I was throwing away.  It's not done as I need to cut out more windows to finish the tower and the structure on top of the silos and I need to print some various signs, but it's mostly done.  You can see I used aluminum sheet to fashion some "spouts" for the tops of the silos in an attempt to have some fun and make them look like salt containers.  I plan to print some more Morton girl signs to go on each silo.

I also added a salt loading area in the front so my son can load "salt" into the bins, trucks, and train cars with his toy loader.  Putting the more fragile stuff towards the back and out of reach is smart, while leaving stuff he can play with towards the edge of the table.  The "salt" is pretty believable, but is really crushed plexiglass that is used to clean/purge extrusion equipment.

 

 

Kirk: May I ask what color or brand you used for the blue? It looks GREAT !! Bob

>Kirk: May I ask what color or brand you used for the blue? It looks GREAT !! Bob

The light blue is a pretty good match.  It's Rust-Oleum spray paint, Safety Blue, #7524838 available at any fine home improvement store, like MENARDS!

The darker blue on the silo is maybe a tad too dark.  It's Rust-Oleum spray paint, Satin Midnight Blue, #249854.

To finish, both were hit with a couple coats of Rust-Oleum matte clear to knock the shine down a little.

Kirk:

If you had not said anything I would not have known - this is excellent scratch building!
I used PVC pipes for a long time for silos but got tired of all the sanding required to get them into shape. Four silos ok but 36.........
I ended up using Plastruct tubing - more expensive but a lot less time consuming. A light sanding and I am good to go.

Joe

Back to the salt mine... our Morton Salt facilities continue to expand.  Why?  Because I've got a bunch of crushed plexiglass that looks like salt, so we have a lot of raw material to work with.  I want to share some of our work to maybe give others some ideas as to what to do to enhance their Mendard's Morton Salt factory.

First... with a color laser printer, some thick paper stock, and a glue stick it's easy to add signs.  I added a Morton sign to an appropriately colored Railking truck and added some signs to the silo building I made.  I still need to add more windows to that building though.

I also used the printer to develop some entrance signs for the facility (ask me if you want copies by e-mail).

Second, Amazon was a big help in acquiring some 1/50 scale die-cast construction equipment at reasonable prices.  I added a 4 wheel loader, dozer, and dump truck.  I also added an operating track for dumping salt directly into the loading area.  Now my 4 yr old son can use the equipment to load the K-line bin, load the dump truck, unload, etc.  It's a lot like sandbox play for him, but in the train room with Dad.

But wouldn't it be great to actually load the rail cars too?  That's what I thought and went on the hunt for a #97 coal loader to be put into use at our facility.  Turns out it works great for loading salt too, my son really enjoys it.  He can push salt into the bin with the dozer or dump directly there with the dump truck.  We got a brand new version of the #97 and I loved the paint, so it pained me a bit to do this, but I gave it a re-paint and some signage to match our facility.

Next... well I moved a sawmill, log loader, and Menard's power plant to make more room in this section of the layout.  I also got some 7 inch OD heavy fiber cores.  I'm thinking about putting four of the cores together with a small building at the base and piping going to to the top to add some more/larger silo storage for our salt.

The driver to making more silos is that I have all of the materials and can do it at no cost, except my time.  That's important because I'm broke now as the fella on eBay who sold me the #97 coal elevator lives relatively close by and had some big, bulky items that he didn't want to sell on-line and have to ship.  So he gave me an amazing offer and me and the kid cleaned up today.  This boy is one happy 4 yr old (who wouldn't be with NIB #213 lift bridge)!!!

Great work all the way around Kirk.  And some haul!  Wish i had a neighbor looking to sell off Lionel stuff at "reasonable" prices.

this thing is actually really sweet in person.  the pictures don't do it justice.  really nice Menards!  I love the animation too!

eric added a morton salt factory to his "carolina room" 

I'm almost dumbfounded on how much Menards is disrupting the O Gauge space, these buildings are awesome.  @cabinet Bob , @Kirk B, @franktrain your layouts look amazing!  Great job all!

Great work there Kirk! I bet you and your son have tons of fun on your layout! But then again isn't that what its all about!

Anyone remember the miniture Morton Salt containers that were used for lunch boxes? I would like to get a bunch for truck load I wonder if you can still buy them?

There are many on ebay, the popcorn small one are pretty inexpensive and look good. They do have antique originals, but for more money. Do a search...