# "John Allen Style" Reefer Icing Platform



## Dwight Ennis (Oct 8, 2013)

This started out as a FSM Kit I scored on eBay based upon John Allen's scratchbuilt Icing Platform. But as I got into it, I realized that, while John Allen was an amazing artist in Model Railroading, an engineer he wasn't. So I redesigned the "platform"section using more conventional civil engineering standards. I also doubled it's length. These photos represent the result - entirely scratchbuilt, with 304 Grandt Line #98 NBW castings (little line above the dime)...










The finished platform...



















A view down the middle from one end...


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

WOW !!! Amazing platform. Great job !!! The bolts are a nice touch.
I don't know how an icing platform works, will there be walk boards
on top? You are an artist.


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

Another work of art, Dwight.

That is some fine craftsmanship.

Don


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## dave2744 (Dec 18, 2014)

Dwight, Terrific work. Terrific picture. Picture no. 4, with the bright "sunshine", the background behind the platform, and your angle of shot, I actually could "feel like I am there". Nice job! Dave


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## Dwight Ennis (Oct 8, 2013)

Thank you for the kind words Gents! I do tend to get carried away with details like the NBW castings, but to my mind, that's what sets a model apart.

Mopac - yes, there will be decking boards on top which connect to the ice storage house on the end, and tracks on one, or both, sides. Usually, ice was brought in in "cakes" just small enough to fit through the hatches on the top of the refrigerator cars. This ice was generally either manufactured offsite or, if available, taken from frozen lakes, and brought in via refrigerator car. The ice was unloaded and stacked in the ice storage house, which contained an elevator to take it up to the platform deck when needed.

Refrigerator cars needing ice would be spotted beside the platform, the ice brought up on deck, and workman would maneuver the cakes into the open ice hatches in the roofs of the refrigerator cars. Labor intensive, but labor was cheap in those days. 

I've started building the ice storage house. As my platform is taller, I'll have to scratchbuild the ice house as well. Gonna end up using very little from the actual kit - the general design and some castings is about it.


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## Dwight Ennis (Oct 8, 2013)

The Ice Storage House is slowly coming along...


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## Dwight Ennis (Oct 8, 2013)

Well, like I said last time, progress is coming along slooooowly (work has been getting in the way, among other things).

With the exception of the doors and louver supports from the FSM kit, the ice house, like the platform, is entirely scratch built.



















Got the roof shingled and painted about a week ago. I bought some HO Scale pidgeons and crows that will sit on the roof peak.










The Ice house proper and platform are just sitting together when I took these photos.



















A shot of the eaves detail...










And another shot showing the eaves roof/fascia supports from the underside.










Yesterday, I joined the ice house and platform together and started adding the scale 2x10 decking boards.


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## norgale (Apr 4, 2011)

Dwight since your building ice houses I thought you might like these photos. They aren't all that clear but then they are from 1925 or so. It's my grandfathers ice business and this is where the ice came from originally. The two houses were 100' long by 75' wide each,divided up into 50 x 25 foot rooms. Insulation was sawdust in all the walls and on the ice itself. The first houses burned down from spontaneous combustion and so did the second set pictured here. The third ice house was smaller because refrigerators were then making their way into the average home so the business was history after 1935 or so. Much later on in about 1945 the last ice house was torn down and by that time I was there to see it. My father used the lumber to build a cottage on Cape Cod and it's still there today.

This "dock" was actually in the lake. The ice was cut into blocks and pulled to this lift by the horses that pulled the ice wagons. Didn't sell much ice in the winter.


The lift took the ice up to what ever level the men were working at.


The houses were about three stories high.The ice was stacked from the ground up having been slid into place through chutes inside the building.


There were platforms every so many feet where the men could pull the ice off the lift and shove it through an opening onto chutes inside until the level of ice made them move higher. The little house at the top was where the motors were to run the lift. A steam engine at first and then later electric motors.


1927 and the switch to trucks from horses has been made. The newest and last ice house in the background. Pappa John Rioux standing next to the truck on the left, his son Howard two trucks to the right. The rest are all my cousins or uncles.




This is the gas powered saw used to cut the ice. One long cut and another cup going the opposit way. The horse would pull the long piece of ice up out of the water and then the man with the saw would cut it into 100 pound blocks. This guy is cousin "Kivie" Kivilin


Maye this will give you some ides as to where the ice came from before it got to the railroad. Pete


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## Dwight Ennis (Oct 8, 2013)

Those are some very cool photos Pete!! Thanks for sharing them, and the story behind them. I knew that ice was cut from lakes in some cases, and rivers, etc. in others. Never saw photos of it though.


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## Magic (Jan 28, 2014)

Great photo story, thanks for posting. 

@ Dwight Looking great as well, nice work.


Magic


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## norgale (Apr 4, 2011)

Thanks guys. I'm very lucky to have these photos even though I never saw the operation either. It was all gone by the time I was born in 1942. I do recall going to grand dad's home where the horses were kept along with the wagons. He had a whole line of stalls in a barn for the horses and there were twelve horses all together. Of course the horses were all gone by that time but the barn was still there so I did see that. Papa kept his Hudson Terraplane in the barn by then. An interesting time to have lived. Pete


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

Dwight

The pics of your ice house taken outdoors makes them even
more real. The shadows of the eaves and rafter ends on the
walls is picturesque. Fantastic work.

I only wish i could equal it with the Ice loading platform I
am starting. (see thread in the STRUCTURES forum) I decided to go mechanical
based on a picture in a group I had posted that showed a
'trolley' supporting a duct that blew crushed ice into the
car roof top hoppers. It will not have the detail you have
put in your building.

Don


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## Dwight Ennis (Oct 8, 2013)

The Icing Platform is coming along nicely. All the deck boards are in...










including nail holes - three per board every 24".










The front loading dock, stairway and railing are also in...










as are the rain gutters and downspouts.


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## norgale (Apr 4, 2011)

Really nice Dwight. That's a lot of work but will look great on the layout. Got to see it with a line of reefers next to it and a bunch of guys pushing ice blocks to the open car hatches.


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## Mr. SP (Jan 7, 2015)

*Ice Dock*

Fantastic work Dwight. Remember to put the rails the ice was slid along on there too.


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## Dwight Ennis (Oct 8, 2013)

Construction of the Ice Block conveyor - Pt 1

First a few prototype photos...




























1/8" channel embedded in the ice deck...










Making the ice transport cleats (not sure what these are really called)...

1/16" channel and 0.010 x 0.100 styrene cut a scale 18" long (approx. 7/32")...










Assembled ice cleats ready for painting...










Painted (though not rusted) and ready for the next step...


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## Dwight Ennis (Oct 8, 2013)

Construction of the Ice Block conveyor - Pt 2

In hindsight, I realized that the "ice transport cleats" (for lack of a better name) I had made were far too large - around 1-1/2 scale feet long. They would have to be able to go around the end pulley along with the chain, and the pulley itself was only around 2 scale feet in diameter.

Rather than throw them away, I cut off the rear 1/16 of an inch and used that, discarding the rest. Still a bit too large perhaps, but I'm taking modeler's license on this one. LOL!

So here's the chain lying in its channel with the cleats attached...



















The end pulley I turned out of 1/4" brass round...










Some 2 x 10 x 24' boards were added along each side of the channel to bring things up to the proper level, and then some "sheet metal" slides, both for the ice to ride on and to minimize the gap to the sides of the "cleats." Then I added some cakes of ice (made from 1/4" square solid acrylic rod)...














































I plan to add a few more ice cakes along each side of the conveyor, some being broken up into "crushed ice" (clumps about the size of a scale fist) and some salt bags. Since this ice platform will serve both regular reefers and meat reefers, the latter need "brine" - a combination of crushed ice and salt. And of course, there will be workers.


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## norgale (Apr 4, 2011)

Your gonna need a bigger house.


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## Dwight Ennis (Oct 8, 2013)

Nah... it's just for ice storage, not creation. You could fit a lot of ice cakes in that sucker. LOL!! And delivering fresh loads of ice is just one more traffic generator.


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## mikek (Dec 29, 2013)

Really nice work. It took me a bit to understand it, but the photos really helped.


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## Magic (Jan 28, 2014)

That came out super nice,  I had to go put a sweater on. :laugh:

Magic


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

I'm working on an ice loading platform also. But there's no
way it will turn out to be anywhere near as good as yours.
That is beautiful.

Mine is different in that it will use a trolley on rails
on the platform. That houses an ice crusher and blower to
to load the ice into car tops via a swinging duct work.

Don


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## cole226 (Feb 8, 2013)

super nice job:smilie_daumenpos:


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## Dwight Ennis (Oct 8, 2013)

Installed the last pieces of the ice block conveyor... guide timbers on each side of the conveyor.


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## Dwight Ennis (Oct 8, 2013)

Making Lamp Posts...

I needed some lamp posts for the icing platform, but couldn't find anything commercially available that I liked and which looked suitable (they were all either too modern or too "street-lamp-ish"), so I decided to make my own.

I started with the bases, using my lathe to turn down the outside and drill a hole in the center for the 3/32" brass tube I intended to use for the post. I then chucked that piece in my milling machine and drilled four 0.025" holes in a square pattern for the NBW castings that prototypically bold the lamp post to the decking.










With that done, it was back to the lathe to part off several 0.030" thick lamp bases.

I then cut several 16 scale foot long posts from the 3/32" brass tubing using a cutoff saw. Placing these in the lathe, I cleaned up the ends, and using a center drill, flared the top slightly. That finished the piece parts.










I put the posts back in the milling machine and silver soldered the bases to the posts. I did this in the milling machine to ensure squareness.










For lights, I used Miniatronics 72-105-05 12V Lamp Shades with Bulbs. After filing a notch in the flare atop the assembled lamp posts, I twisted the wires tightly together for the first 1/2" and bent them into "brackets." I then fed the wires through the post and affixed the "brackets into the notches with thick CA. Finally, I affixed a BB into the flare at the top of the post with thick CA.










After painting Coach Green and installing the NBW castings, this is how they turned out...










Ready to install on the icing platform.


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## wvgca (Jan 21, 2013)

very nice, I especially like the 'ice blocks'...


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## norgale (Apr 4, 2011)

Nice looking Dwight. Ought to light things up very well.


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## cole226 (Feb 8, 2013)

very nice work dwight:thumbsup:


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## Dwight Ennis (Oct 8, 2013)

Yesterday I made some dry transfers for the "billboard signs" on the back and end of the building. I chose a process which best simulates old, faded, worn signs.

On the back of the building I chose a pack of "Lucky Strikes" smokes in their pre-1942 green packaging...










And for the end, I opted for Rosie the Riveter, "We Can Do It."










Getting close to wrapping this thing up - mostly only castings and people left to do.


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## Dwight Ennis (Oct 8, 2013)

Since my Icing Platform will generally serve the meat industry, I needed large quantities of salt as well as ice (refigerator cars designed for meat hauling used brine - crushed ice mixed with salt - instead of just plain ice.

I found this logo on the web...










I picked up some HO scale sacks (60 of them) from Preiser and painted them flat white. I reduced the logo down to the appropriate size and made some dry transfers, enough for all the sacks. I didn't bother cropping out the "Micro-Finance Solutions" as it's too small to see anyway once I resized the logo for the sacks. 

These will be stacked at various places around the platform (the penny is for size comparison).










If you look closely, you can actually read, "SALT." LOL!!


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## RUSTY Cuda (Aug 28, 2012)

That's an awesome piece of work, :smilie_daumenpos: reminded me of a few items I've pulled out of attics while changing a/c units. it's a little beat up but it was from those years!


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## wvgca (Jan 21, 2013)

that turned out 'purty darn good' ...
thanks for sharing ..


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## norgale (Apr 4, 2011)

RUSTY Cuda said:


> That's an awesome piece of work, :smilie_daumenpos: reminded me of a few items I've pulled out of attics while changing a/c units. it's a little beat up but it was from those years!


Luckies were in the white pack when I came along so the green one is pretty old and probably pretty rare. They only cost .23 but for a machine you had to use a quarter so you got two cents back with two pennies already in the pack. As kids we looked for crumpled up empties to get the pennies that some people would throw away. We also looked for empty pop bottles as they had a two cent deposit on them. Later in life the bottles brought a nickle and enough of them would get me a six pack of beer which was $1.25 for Bush Beer. Loooooong time ago!:smilie_daumenpos:


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## Dwight Ennis (Oct 8, 2013)

Those are some pretty cool finds Rusty! As mentioned, very rare - and possibly worth some money!!


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## Dwight Ennis (Oct 8, 2013)

norgale said:


> Luckies were in the white pack when I came along so the green one is pretty old and probably pretty rare. They only cost .23 but for a machine you had to use a quarter so you got two cents back with two pennies already in the pack. As kids we looked for crumpled up empties to get the pennies that some people would throw away. We also looked for empty pop bottles as they had a two cent deposit on them. Later in life the bottles brought a nickle and enough of them would get me a six pack of beer which was $1.25 for Bush Beer. Loooooong time ago!:smilie_daumenpos:


Luckys went to the white pack in 1942.

Interesting about the 2 cents back being included in the package! I never heard that before. Very cool info. Thanks! :thumbsup:


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## traction fan (Oct 5, 2014)

*Refer icing platform*

Dwight;

First, let me belatedly add my voice to the very impressed chorus. Beautiful work building this model!
Second a suggestion for ice blocks. You might want to try cutting clear Plexiglass to scale size ice blocks. They look very much like real ice. A tiny amount of Tamiya brand paint's 
#X23 "clear blue" diluted about 10 to 1 with alcohol can give a slight blue tinge to the ice, if you want.

Regards;
Traction Fan


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## Dwight Ennis (Oct 8, 2013)

Traction - Thank you for the kind words. 

That's exactly what I used... 1/4 x 1/4 clear acrylic. The sides were lightly sanded with fine sandpaper to "fog it up" (I've never seen crystal clear ice). I've never seen blue ice either, so I just left it clear.


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## Dwight Ennis (Oct 8, 2013)

The Icing Platform is now finished.










The stairway and landings were the last thing, and I finished that this morning. Took a little longer than I expected.



















An overall of the icing deck...










And a series of vignettes of various activity on the deck...










"Crushing" the ice. Not sure if it was ever done this way, but it was on my railroad.  Salt is also prepositioned at each station...




























Upper level salt storage...




























Lower level salt storage...










I redid the "Rosie the Riveter" sign to look much newer, which is suitable for the era I'm modeling.




























Other than installation and wiring up the lights, that pretty much wraps up this project. I'll probably build a wooden "light tower" to place on the end near the stairs to light up the deck for night ops.

Thanks for looking.


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