ISO Very Tall Industrial Smokestacks

George,  Would PVC pipe work?  Pick your diameter and length, primer followed by a finishing coat of gray, silver or tan?  John

Bill Bramlage, did an article in OGR magazine about using replacement parts form a vacuum cleaner wand.

I found this at think vacuums web site - $7.95 1-1/4" in diameter and 19" tall.  Could stack multiples.  May also find them at a hardware store.  Bill painted his , and added a plastruct ladder and some lights.  Looks very good.

There are many sizes to choose from and you can get pretty imaginative of how you paint it.

John's thoughts on PVC pipe are very good.  I have a steel mill on my layout with 36 inch tall PVC pipes painted black and weathered.

I have a friend who used old shop vac black hard plastic attachments, and was able to weather them leaving black as the base, and going from there, he had two different sizes.  

Edit, oops, I see others already mentioned this in the posts just above… duh….

Thanks all!  Much food for thought here.

George

George, consider, a chimney is more than just a straight cylinder.  There is usually a taper commensurate to height, a foundation of sorts and in early 1900's some fancy brick work.  Plus they emit smoke.

Well, I got this from Harry Hieki that is all the above and quite reasonable.  856 625 5506

The track is on an incline, the pictures are straight

It is 20" tall which IMO is a realistic height and will not over power the layout.

It has a smoke unit which fires up nicely

Harry's chimney is neat. Smokestacks are a visual reminder of the industrial-steam age and yet there's so few available in O-gauge. From my earlier thread, Melgar recommended Altoona Model Works, where I ended up buying the 16" kits. Very nice and heavy models, superb brick detail, good instructions. Maybe he can make taller units, or you could put the 16" behind a building to elevate even higher. For example, this one is sitting level with my industrial buildings, but you could customize a lower portion ~ 12" and wider diameter and install the 16" version one on top (anchor or glue down), to give requisite 28" tall.

Some here.

I've been looking for tall round tapered chimneys.  The vacuum cleaner parts sound like just the thing. 

@Tom Tee posted:

George, consider, a chimney is more than just a straight cylinder.  There is usually a taper commensurate to height, a foundation of sorts and in early 1900's some fancy brick work.  Plus they emit smoke.

Well, I got this from Harry Hieki that is all the above and quite reasonable.  856 625 5506

The track is on an incline, the pictures are straight

It is 20" tall which IMO is a realistic height and will not over power the layout.

It has a smoke unit which fires up nicely

Tom,

I appreciate your post, but I am replicating this situation (below).  This is the Weirton Steel Open Hearth.  It had 14 ovens and all stacks were metal and straight (as far as I can tell).

I am aware of Hieke's work and it is gorgeous.  However, it's not what I'm looking for.  And the last time I saw one of his stacks at York it was $400.  Ouch.  I think it was very heavily weathered.

Anyway, I appreciate your effort.

George

In addition to PVC pipe, you could also consider regular copper plumbing pipe, especially if you are looking for a metallic appearance.

Harry's smoke stacks are $225.

That $400 stack may have been from one of those Menard's mark'em up resellers.

Harry is one of the group sitting out this York.  He is too busy to attend.

Run the numbers, 10 tables, several nights in a hotel/motel, food on the run, truck rental & fuel...gotta sell a lot of stock just to break even.

I have Plastruct tubing that can be scribed to look like steel welded pipes. I have them from 1/2 inches up to 4 inches. They are 30 inches long. Those stacks at Weirton were probably four to six feet in diameter (1 to 1-1/2 inches in diameter)

Yeah George. I don't remember any taper on them.  They would have been brick lined on the inside. Very similar to the 4 remaining stacks (the 4 old slab pusher furnaces) on the Strip Steel Hot Mill.  You can still see em standing next to the 2 newer silver stacks circa 1990.

Tom

Shot gun barrels George. Ahhh, maybe too heavy.  No, you can't have mine to experiment with.  Looks like pvc may be the way to go.  Something will reveal itself.

Tom

2-piece

                      Another void in O Scale. A common item but only found in H.O.

For my compressed trackside warehouse I bought a Walthers H.O. stack. Raised it up as I did with H.O streetlights. Today we finally have 1:50 and O scale 60's street lights! I could not duplicate the bricks at that time so I used it.

Now I use printed paper for buildings and detailed items. Actually looks read compared to O scale oversized plastic buildings.

For Sunshine Biscuits, I cut up a wooden CHAIR LEG from Lowes and spackled it.

Hardware stores sell wood poplar dowels in thick sizes.  

Great ideas on this thread !!!

Thanks to all responders !!!

What about using the tube from a large roll of wrapping paper.  Make a slit down the length of one side and reduce the circumference at one end to create the taper.  Cover it with a layer of printed brick/stone patterned paper to hide the seams.