Scrap yard advice.

[Sweet pea]

I need some advice on a scrap yard I am building. I have spread some filler on the base area and added some gravel for a gravely rough look.

I'm stuck on what colour I should use as a base colour on the ground area.

 

[KeithMacdonald]

From the colours visible here, I'd suggest random shades of sand, brown and gray, with the occasional "oil spill" in mucky black.

 

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffcm&q=scrap+yard&atb=v180-1&iax=images&ia=images

[steve1]

https://shop.keypublishing.com/product/View/productCode/SPECBRENG2/Modelling BR Engineers Wagonload Formations

 

I would recommend purchasing this bookazine. It has a large section on scrap trains and yards that may well help you.

 

No connection with writer or publisher.

 

steve

 

 

[Barnaby]

Thanks Steve just ordered it and as a Subscriber to the Hornby Mag I got £2 off whoopy dooo.

 

Best

[Rivercider]

Have a search on Flickr for Shipley Crossley scrapyard which was rail connected 

 

https://flic.kr/p/o7mDkS

 

 

cheers

[doilum]

Go heavy on the black.  Oil got everywhere and formed a unique impervious clay. This resulted in puddles, the second most important feature unless you are modelling the summer of 76.

[smokebox]

The ground in scrap yards i visited in the early 70s and 80s were all black with a hint of blue from all the oil and grease.  Modern scrap yards have hd to change their processes to avoid creating pollution.

[Sweet pea]

Thanks for the response to my question, most helpful.

[Fat Controller]

Don't forget that scrap exists in different grades, and scrap-buyers pay vastly different prices for them. Thus, the scrappies will tend to have piles of material of similar type gathered together, separated by sleeper, or concrete, walls. Typically, you'd have cast iron, heavy steel, baled scrap (mostly old cars and domestic appliances), loose light steel (metal turnings etc) and various types of non-ferrous. Loose light steel is often carried in sheeted trailers.

Most scrappies will have some old containers or van bodies to hold items like batteries.                                                                                                                                                                                           

[Ray Von]

I've got a scrap yard on my N Gauge layout, there is not much gravel to be seen at that scale - but I did happen across a satisfying shade of "oily concrete" quite by accident:

 

I hope that might be of some help! (Do you have any pics of what you have all far?) 

 

 

[Sweet pea]

That's a great looking breakers yard.

[Ray Von]

1 minute ago, Wrenn said:

That's a great looking breakers yard.

I just took a couple of quick snaps:

 

 

 

 

Some are a bit dark, so I took a couple with my work light on!

 

I used iron filings along the bottom of the fence and in other places where metallic debris might collect - this was NOT glued down in the same way as regular ballast, except I mixed the filings with water and PVA in a small pot and applied the resulting paste with a paint brush (you don't want loose iron filings on your layout!)  Incidentally, I used salt water to ensure the filings rusted!

[doilum]

Much depends on the time period modelled and size of the yard. The older and larger is more haphazard. Some vehicle dismantles might keep lottie's or buses for years in the hope of selling useable parts. Those of us of a certain age remember how profusely nettles could grow around the car you needed to break. Today, it is more like collecting materials from a reputable builder's merchant.

[Sweet pea]

My scrap yard is part of a diorama/cameo. With the modelling area being 140mm x 100mm. 

I know it's small but it's still going to have a small scrap yard. I have uploaded a picture of the fence and the ground cover of the scrap yard.

[Ray Von]

18 minutes ago, Wrenn said:

My scrap yard is part of a diorama/cameo. With the modelling area being 140mm x 100mm. 

I know it's small but it's still going to have a small scrap yard. I have uploaded a picture of the fence and the ground cover of the scrap yard.

Nice.  Do you have any height restrictions?  Also, will the scrap feature on both sides of the line? 

[Sweet pea]

Thanks for your kind words. There is no restriction in my diorama build, also I will have a skip and some items of scrap on the opposite side.

My loco will be a Ruston 48DS ideal for little scrap yards.

[Ray Von]

1 hour ago, Wrenn said:

Thanks for your kind words. There is no restriction in my diorama build, also I will have a skip and some items of scrap on the opposite side.

My loco will be a Ruston 48DS ideal for little scrap yards.

It sounds a lovely project, with a great little loco to run it!  

[Wheatley]

18 hours ago, doilum said:

 Those of us of a certain age remember how profusely nettles could grow around the car you needed to break.

And no H&S either ! I remember unscrewing a wing mirror from a Datsun Cherry which was standing on top of two other cars with my mate throwing screwdrivers and sockets up to me as required. The only advice we got from the scrappy was "Don't fall off". 

[doilum]

18 hours ago, Wrenn said:

Thanks for your kind words. There is no restriction in my diorama build, also I will have a skip and some items of scrap on the opposite side.

My loco will be a Ruston 48DS ideal for little scrap yards.

Just a general question. When did the modern skip first appear?

[Phil Bullock]

10 minutes ago, doilum said:

Just a general question. When did the modern skip first appear?

Mid 60s I reckon ... certainly in common usage by early 70s as it was my time filler to repaint them at my Uncles haulage business in Worcester when all else was quiet!

[sb67]

Have you seen a layout called Crossley Scrap? It is a superb scrapyard layout full of inspiration, I'm sure there is a thread on here.

[Fat Controller]

BR had held trials of a number of types of skip-type container, using a Foden eight-wheeler with a 'gallows' type lifting device in the middle of the 1950s. David Larkin has some phots in 'Wagons of the Middle BR period'

[F-UnitMad]

2 hours ago, Wheatley said:

And no H&S either ! I remember unscrewing a wing mirror from a Datsun Cherry which was standing on top of two other cars with my mate throwing screwdrivers and sockets up to me as required. The only advice we got from the scrappy was "Don't fall off". 

Similar here, climbing up a stack of 3 or 4 cars for bits from the one you needed, which was always the one at the top, unless you wanted something from the engine bay, in which case it was second one up; too high to stand in front of, and not enough height to raise the bonnet because of the car on top....

The unwritten rule at the yard I used to go to was "don't tread in what the guard dog had left behind."

[37114]

Crossley scrap has been mentioned and I would echo it is an excellent model.

 

Although 0 gauge, my layout used real swarf that was sieved as part of the ground cover, I paint the plaster brown and black underneath, page 11 shows how I did it.