Road to Rail Frac Sand Transfer Facility


Trucklover

BNSF SD70MAC's
Ive got some extra room on the end of my Tire Facility im building and have been looking for something to fill the hole without taking too much attention away from the main focus of the larger Tire Facility. After searching the Cornerstone Series kits, I came across the newer Road-To-Rail Aggregate Transfer Facility which features a pit for hoppers to unload to and a conveyor w/two storage silos that trucks can drive through for loading.

Also came across the American Limited Trinity 3281 Cu.Ft. Hoppers that are currently on sale @ Walthers. Bought several of the CSX cars that will be perfect for the facility. Also will be purchasing some bulk trailers from Shapeways. One is a 3-Bay Trailer and the other is a doubles pair of single shorty trailers with dolly. Lead Pup and Tag Pup w/Dolly

I also found some pictures of Frac Sand Transfer Facilities on Google which ill be using to loosely base my facility on. Im really like the Halliburton's Windsor Frac Sand Terminal in Colorado
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One could really go all out on a facility like this depending on available layout space. A facility like this one would take up some serious space but would be pretty awesome if youve got the room and are looking for a large industry to base a layout around! Looks to be 10 tracks for staging and unloading/loading as well as large storage silos for truck loading like the ones in the Walthers kit plus a couple large outside storage piles! If I had the room, I would do something like it!
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But since I dont have all the room for a massive facility like that and im only trying to fill a small space in the corner of my Tire Facility, I figured 2-3 of the Walthers kits would do. Ill kitbash them together and make a larger Silo Cluster like the Halliburton's facility in Colorado. Extra conveyors and piping to connect all the Silos and the addition of possibly even a small outside storage pile and this facility should fill my empty space quite nicely.

Ill be posting more on this facility when the kits arrive and I start building them. In the meantime, has anyone built one of these Road-To-Rail Transfer kits from Walthers? Would love to see some pictures if anyone has got any!
 
I am surprised they had such a big facility in Colorado. I worked for Halliburton in Williston, and here is an aerial shot of their unloading facility:

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Josh

This isn't the Walthers RoadToRail kit, but something I threw together from scratch. It's suppose to be a Portland cement distributing facility. The silos were made from PVC pipe that I got at HomeDepot, the details were made from various leftover bits of Plastruct and Evergreen scrap. The semi trailers were also scratchbuilt; the Mack tractor is Athearn and the other two are Herpa models.

The layout is still under construction so you'll have to pardon the mess...

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Josh that's a huge facility, very cool!
Ken, awesome job looks great!
There's an old sand plant not far from here that used to unload barges from up the lake, now it's a cement distributor and it still has some of the old equipment. I have pictures somewhere....
 
Thanks for the kind words Rick!

I guess Josh must be out on the road, he hasn't posted any replies since he started this thread...?
 
I am surprised they had such a big facility in Colorado. I worked for Halliburton in Williston, and here is an aerial shot of their unloading facility:

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Thanks for the pic! Ill have to look that facility up and see if I can get some good photos. Still in the planning stages for mine and trying to figure out what exactly I want to do lol. Would you happen to have any photos from when you used to work there?
 
Josh

This isn't the Walthers RoadToRail kit, but something I threw together from scratch. It's suppose to be a Portland cement distributing facility. The silos were made from PVC pipe that I got at HomeDepot, the details were made from various leftover bits of Plastruct and Evergreen scrap. The semi trailers were also scratchbuilt; the Mack tractor is Athearn and the other two are Herpa models.

Ken, that is a sweet looking model! Not bad for something you scrapped and bashed together from spare parts lol. Those bulk trailers look fantastic! Im hoping the ones I get from Shapeways will actually come out looking presentable lol Thanks for sharing!
 
Josh that's a huge facility, very cool!
Ken, awesome job looks great!
There's an old sand plant not far from here that used to unload barges from up the lake, now it's a cement distributor and it still has some of the old equipment. I have pictures somewhere....

Rick, Id love to see some pics if you've got them! :D
 
Ive been doing some thinking and trying to find some kits that I could use to make my facility look more like the one at Halliburton's Windsor Frac Sand Terminal in Colorado. While the Walthers kit is a good start, there is alot more detail that can be added to the tops of the silos and bucket conveyors.

While browsing models on Shapeways, I came across some details for grain elevators that I think will work quite well for my Frac Sand Facility. New Bucket Conveyors and a stairwell tower that surrounds the each of the conveyors will provide roof access from ground level. Ontop of the 2 Walthers kits Ive already purchased, i am thinking that I will need at least one more of them . My plans are to do a facility similar in size to this one
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Since space is somewhat of an issue for me, my model will be only 6 silos instead of the 12 in the photo above. Halliburton's Windsor Facility has the ability to unload 2 railcars at once, and has 2 Bucket Conveyors. While they have alot more silos then my model will have, I am also going to do 2 bucket conveyors. The Bucket Conveyors will empty into conveyors which will dump into a large distribution bin. From there a series of pipes will distribute to each of the silos. Similar to the facility in the above picture.

Halliburton's Windsor facility has a pair of truck platforms on either side of each silos row. I suspect this is so the driver can open the hatches on the roof of the trailer before he drives into the silos. The other platform being used to close the hatches after the trailers been loaded. Its a cool detail and I think that they would help add some good detail to the scene.

If anyone has any additional photos of Halliburton's Windsor facility in CO, or any other Frac Sand facilities that they would be willing to share, I would love to see them! Ive been looking online and have not been able to find very many photos other then the few ive already posted.
 
Does anyone live in the Bakersfield, CA area? The facility I pictured above is of the Baker-Hughes Terminal in Shafter CA. Wondering if anyone has any photos or could possibly get any photos from visiting the facility. Cant seem to find too many pictures online
 
Little update on this, finally got the first 2 Walthers Road-To-Rail Kits in and started putting them together! I decided that I am going to make this a little bigger then I had originally planned, ill have to do some re-arranging but it will be worth it to have a larger more realistic looking facility. Ill have 8 silos total, 4 rows of 2. Ill need 2 more of these kits so I ordered them yesterday along with a few more of the American Limited CSX Sand Hoppers, ill have 9 of those now for the facility for unloading.

Here are a few pics of the start of the building/kitbashing process. The truck in the pics isnt what will be used at this facility, just the first thing I could find without having to dig through truck boxes LOL. The only trucks at this facility will be enclosed Bulk Trailers.

I found that assembling the silos is much easier going piece by piece rather then gluing a complete ring together as per the instructions and then adding the completed ring to the silos. It can be pretty tricky to line up each piece perfectly. I followed the instructions for only one ring and then started doing it my own way piece by piece. I found that if you assemble a ring like the instructions tell you too, you get a small gap between the rings when stacking, and its because it is difficult to line each segment up perfectly when making the ring. Doing it piece by piece eliminates the gap and allows you to sit the segments down flush ontop of the ones below it. Will take a little more time to do it this way, but its the only way I see to completely eliminate a potential gap between the rings.

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I cut off the pit foundation from the rest of the foundation on both kits, ill re-attach them at a later time when I figure out the positioning and what not and when I can set it on the layout and figure out where they need to be glued back to the rest of the foundation once where two rail cars can be unloaded at once.

Walthers has these silos spaced apart from each other on the foundation with an opening between the two. This is how the Silos at the Halliburton's Windsor Frac Sand Terminal in Colorado are as well, however I may close them off with a piece of styrene or sheet metal. Have not decided for sure yet.

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Thats it for now, will update when more has been completed!
 
Hi Ken,

I just ran into this post and I wanted to know if you have any links to those trailers and how you made them or can share with me some details. I love them. I really want to make those myself if I can. See, that was the truck my father drove and I would love to see that on my layout one day.

Thanks my friend,
Dave


Josh

This isn't the Walthers RoadToRail kit, but something I threw together from scratch. It's suppose to be a Portland cement distributing facility. The silos were made from PVC pipe that I got at HomeDepot, the details were made from various leftover bits of Plastruct and Evergreen scrap. The semi trailers were also scratchbuilt; the Mack tractor is Athearn and the other two are Herpa models.

The layout is still under construction so you'll have to pardon the mess...

SummitConcrete_sm.jpg
 



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