New Project Gas Holder Completed

Happy New Year Alan.

 

I always look forward to your posts and seeing your great work.  Love the clean, and well-organized workshop.  You have set the bar high and that is a good thing in my opinion.

 

Art

Brings back memories, Alan. They were prolific around the country until the introduction of LNG. Maybe that's something you could look at as well for a modern era layout.

I'm sure it will be another amazing project. I am saving the picture of your work area, that is very nice as well. Lots of light too!  

Alan, your workshop looks fantastic!!  It's no surprise you do such outstanding work!

Alan nice workshop. mine looks just like that ......only after a tornado and a hurricane both went thru from opposite directions. anyway looks like another great project is starting keep us posted.

Alan,

I see that your workshop is missing only one critical tool.

Where is your Starbucks coffee mug?

 

Great photo!

 

Eliot

 

 

Another cool project. Looking forward to seeing the progress photos.

Happy NEW YEAR, Alan.  And thanks for taking the time to share your craftsmanship on the forum.

Art,

Thank you very much.

Eliot,

I only have one cup of coffee a day. On Tuesday night I am usually drinking beer in the model room.

Brian,

Modern LNG tanks have no style. They are just double -walled cylinders. The old gas holders have style. There is a lot off cool things to look at on them.

Pingman,

Happy New Year.

I'm glad you guys all liked the re-furbished model room.

 

I have attached some pictures of the outer shell and structure. The gas holder tank telescopes up and down as it is filled and emptied. The vertical beams act as a guide for wheels that are attached to the top of the gas holder tank.

The shell plate is made of a flat sheet of abs. The sheet is glued to the bottom and the vertical beams. There will be a windgirder and walkway at the top of the shell.

 

Alan Graziano

Very interesting project.  Thanks for the detailed photos and description.  

 

Good stuff!

Very cool Alan!

We had one on SI and one near the subway yard in Bklyn.

 

 

 

 

Alan,

 

Please come over and organize my work space! 

 

Dave

 

I agree with Dave. Your shop is a marvel. 

 

My dad used to climb those tanks in the 1940s as a paint inspector for the Spruance Paint Co. in Philadelphia. Most of the are gone with the advent of the high pressure storage vessels.

Here are some updated pictures of the progress on the gas holder. The outer structure is complete less paint. A compressor building has been constructed and also requires brick detail, paint and weathering. I will start to construct the gas holder tank next.

 

Lee,

Thank you.

Steve,

There are two modern lng tanks on the west side of Staten Island that were built by Texas Eastern in the 1970's. The city of New York never allowed them to put the tanks in service because of an explosion in a smaller underground lng tank located near the Gothels Bridge. Today the site is a golf driving range and the tanks are just rusting away. The last gas holders in the city were in Queens known as the Elmhurst gas tanks. They were taken down in the late 90's.

 

Alan Graziano

Really taking shape, Alan. Worked in the natural gas industry for a period, so I am very familiar with these.

Wow!

Nice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

GAS HEATS BEST, Coney Island Tank photo...

 

S.

 

 

Beautiful and very neat work! Alan, do you have stock in Plastruct? Where do you get sheets of ABS that big? Do you have the capability of handling big sheets? How did you make the upper ABS ring with the circle in the middle and the straight edges on the outside? Questions, questions...

Brian/ Steve,

Thank you.

Ray,

All these questions.

I have a stock of Plastruct materials. They sell ABS and styrene sheets as large as 12" x 24" and 12" x 36", and I keep this material on hand.

To make the bottom piece for the gas holder, I used a 12-inch wide sheet and glued an additional piece on it to get to the 15-inch diameter. I cut the circle using a box cutter after I traced out the circle with an "Accu-Arc" drafting template, that us used to draw large circles.

The mid horizontal  braces are I beams with 30 degree angle cuts on each end because there are twelve columns.

The top horizontal brace is made of Plastruct truss pieces that I also cut the 30 degree angle on.

Let me know if you are looking for particular Plastruct shapes .

 

Alan Graziano

Guys I just saw this in person, it's really amazing

 

 

Alex

Another fantastic project.

WOW that is amazing work.  That has to take some nerves and to ship this to Cali that will be interesting packing. If I built a project like this I would have a hard time selling it to someone and would want to keep it.  Great work.   Nick 

Alex

Nice!!  When I got married my wife and I rented an apartment one block south of the Elmhurst gas tanks which were between the LIRR and the Long Island Expressway.

Gas Holder, Gas-O-Meter, they certainly made an impression.  You model is a work of art and a treasure to behold.  Hats Off!

  

Very impressive. We had one of these in Scranton between the CNJ and the D&H just outside of the current Steamtown site.  As I kid it took me a while to figure out that the tank moved. So the question is will it be animated in any way?  Someone was bound to ask.

 

Earl    

I would not think the movement would be perceptible but to change levels would still be cool.

Just found the image of the Elmhurst gas tanks

Great Model Alan……...

Great model! You certainly captured the essence of those tanks. My memory of one was off the NJ turnpike in Elizabeth. Just on the other side of the cnj chemical coast line north of exit 13 Gothels Bridge(which is now being replaced)

Excellent!!!!

WOW!  Looks great Alan.  Your work is superb.

 

Thanks for sharing.

I am getting closer to completing the gas holder. Here are pictures of the construction of the tank shell and dome roof. I never constructed a dome roof from scratch before, so I did some experimenting. I first cut some braces to the calculated radius of the roof. After I glued them to the roof, they caused major distortions to the roof sheet. I tried just gluing the roof to the shell with a center post to keep the center height. My result was a nice cone-shaped roof. I removed the roof and cut a larger radius stiffener and glued it across the center of the tank, supported by a beam. This worked good enough to provide a dome shape.

Thank you all for the latest comments.

 

Alan Graziano

Wow, good work on a cool project! I had to look these up on wiki to see how they worked since I was curious about how the height of the roof changed. They must have a heck of a seal on them too. Nice modeling Alan!

Al, That's a very challenging and bold way to make the dome. The RC scale model folks would have made a dome-shaped plug and vacuum formed a sheet over it. I don't have vacuum forming equipment. You can also make a wood plug and heat the sheet in an oven and stretch it over the plug. Both of these ways would help avoid the distortion of trying to take a flat sheet and bend it over a compound curve. The sheet must stretch. Auto body guys would stretch a metal sheet by hammering it over forms. I don't like making compound curves! Your solution seems like it works in your situation.

I believe the seal was water, but I may be mistaken.

Norm, Ray,

Thank you.

I finally finished the gas holder and I may already have another one in the works. Here are the pictures of the completed gas holder.

 

Alan Graziano

VERY VERY NICE

 

Ken M

Alan,     that is a FANTASTIC model…….. 

That's a great model! Congratulations on its completion. I hope the owner appreciates it.

Love it!