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**David_J_Buchholz** · 01-05-2022, 09:08 AM

Had a little time yesterday to imagineer while paying bills and hunting for my Covid card.

I had found and downloaded a file, a cross section drawing of the American Elevator at the Buffalo Harbor. It was drawn by an architect, and appears to have been commissioned by General Mills around 1999.

I opened it up in Microsoft Paint. Didn't seem like it was there until I realized that it is so huge of a drawing, that there's lots of just empty space around the structure. It would have taken 12 pages to print it out., Most of them blank. The original drawing scale was 1:96. Darn close to HO scale.

I printed it at 66%, and it is still about 16 inches from bedrock to the top of the workhouse on the silos. But what details! I hit the mother load on this one.

I will be using the modelers friend, Selective Compression, to whack an unneeded story or two out of it. I'm seeing a great deal of internal detail that otherwise I've had trouble gathering. Most of the matching pictures I have collected are starting to make sense. Sometimes it's been like having a few pieces of a 1000 piece puzzle and still don't know yet if you are looking at Paul McCartney's hair or a dog's butt. I'm betting my money on the dog's butt.

Fifth "Dave"to the right.

**Bernd** · 01-05-2022, 09:44 AM

Hey Dave have you got this link? https://www.loc.gov/resource/hhh.ny1668.photos/?sp=1

I've always been interested in what made these things tick. You got me looking for more info. It's starting to give me an idea for a grain elevator down by the Genesee River mouth entrance, where the ferry was, for a place to plop one down. What's the link to your drawing. I'd be interested.

Bernd

**David_J_Buchholz** · 01-05-2022, 09:54 AM

That's a new source for me Bernd. The interior shots are relatively rare, so that's going to be of great help. I'll try to find that link of the diagram later. Gotta get my butt out the door for work.

**David_J_Buchholz** · 01-05-2022, 03:34 PM

Bernd!

Best pictures I've seen to date of the Marine Leg. Pictures #31-37. By the way #37 is upside down unless that picture is from New Zealand.

Thank you again my friend! I owe you a few beers .

Fifth Dave on the right

**David_J_Buchholz** · 01-05-2022, 03:42 PM

This should be the link to the mammoth diagram with the cross section.

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/resourc...9.sheet.00002a

**acousticco** · 01-05-2022, 07:59 PM

This is quite a project! I'm no expert on this kind of structure so you'll hear no advice from me, but I will be following along closely.

-Cody

**David_J_Buchholz** · 01-07-2022, 10:44 PM

Thought I'd give an update on thr Marine Leg Tower. Been Been in the slow but study mode. Have been digging into some possibilities of 3 D parts from Shapeways. Found a spiral staircase that will work perfectly for the tower. A small photo should be seen just below. Three units will get me nine floors worth of spiral staircase for the front left corner of the tower.

Additionally ,I've been working on the heads of the two lifting legs. One is external on the rear of the tower, the other on top of the lifting leg.

Th rear head is being kit bashed from a Walthers farm silo kit, and the other is all scratch built, as is the tower itself. On top of the silos you can see the start of the Wye shaped grain receiving collectors. The rear lift dumps the grain into the collector, which in turn dumps it via gravity onto a conveyor belt in the head house. From there it gets directed into specific silos.

The diagram is from the massive File from the commissioned drawing By General Mills . The second photo gives a little larger overview. Please let meknow if the pictures show up oriented correctly vs on their side.

**CNE1899** · 01-07-2022, 10:59 PM

David,
You are really getting into the nuts and bolts of the elevator! This will be an impressive model.
That is how I get with my projects, research all the aspects and details. It's as much fun as making stuff!

Scott

**Bernd** · 01-08-2022, 09:06 AM

Going into some great detail. I'm impressed. Looks really good.

Bernd

**David_J_Buchholz** · 01-08-2022, 09:52 AM

Because I will be adding some detail internally, the front of the tower over the girders will likely end up being all windows, unlike the prototypes. Other than when the doors swung open and the leg went down, the insides seem to be relatively dark places of mystery.

Working in the towers in the Buffalo Harbor during bad weather, with hundreds of miles of open water to the West, must have made them an awfully inhospitable place to work. We all know of Buffalo and it's lovely relationship with snow and blizzards.
During those years when the harbor and Lake Erie froze over, meant no work in the tower, (likely plenty of work in the plant though) as at that point the boats were frozen in, and became part of what was known as the "Winter Fleet".

As a kid, I can remember seeing dozens of them stuck there till the spring thaw, when the Coast Guard cutter would try to pry them loose when the lake ice would start to break up and drift under the Peace Bridge, down the Niagara River towards the falls. It was a tough life. Not one I envy.

**desertdrover** · 01-10-2022, 09:35 AM

That's some fantastic progress since I last checked in. Nice additions David.

**Tyson Rayles** · 01-10-2022, 07:14 PM

**Michael_Hohn** · 01-11-2022, 09:28 AM

David,

You're making impressive progress. Nice seeing you pick this up again, I was wondering about its status.

By the way, your photos are oriented correctly on my laptop and my phone.

Mike

**David_J_Buchholz** · 01-12-2022, 03:28 PM

I was working on the superstructure for the grain collectors that are on top on the silos. Whereas the tower is movable along rails , the collectors are fixed on the roof, and higher than the workhouse on top of the silos. I'm using a combination of webbed girders from Evergreen and Plastruct. Flimsy stuff.

Gonna have to brace it substantial to keep it from disintegrating when I sneeze or fart in the same room. (Prototype also had to withstand high winds) Likely will reconstruct the whole upper deck of the silos, so as it make it removable for repairs that seem inevitable.

Pics later tonight.

**David_J_Buchholz** · 01-13-2022, 12:21 AM

Pics as promised with a little bonus. Found a package from Shapeways at my doorstep this evening after work. Inside was my my nine flights of spiral staircases for inside the marine leg tower. Played with positioning for a good two hours till i figured out what size and shape hole to make. Believe it or not, a half circle works best, giving the climber someplace to step off to on each floor.

That also may force a decision to not stack several flights together, all the way up.. they will either need to be off set 90* from the last floor or alternating front to back. . Otherwise it just looks awkward to be continuous with no way to step off on each floor. Leaning towards the offset to keep the rear wall available for
"other stuff".

The previously mentioned structure for the grain collectors is in the second picture. Still working on adding bracing, with a guide of the prototypes in mind. Will eventually need guard rails so the workers don't fall into the abyss of the harbor.

Comments and opinions are always welcome, I don't bite.

Well, actually I do, but I don't know where you live and likely you're too far away to drive to, so don't worry about it.

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