Ya’ see …you are my father as we think alike!
Andy Clarke said:Sonotubes ain't cheap :) I don't think they are available as small as Bob is looking for, but I could be wrong.
To make the concrete Silo's, just use the tubes they use when the pour a round concrete footing, that they sell at lowes or home depot, or similar type store.... course, got no idea what those cost....
I can buy Sonotube as small as 6" and sometimes they have short pieces left over at a discount.
Sonotubes also break down over long exposure to weather
Home depot has precut pvc pipe in the big diameters. Usually like $4-6 a piece
Lowes has ““Quickrite Concrete forming tubes””, 48 inches in length, and 12 inches in diameter for $10.53, acording to their website… It doesn’t seem that expensive to me… they also have other sizes available…
Keep in mind those Concrete tubes are a paper product. If your going to use them your going to have to seal them somehow. It would seem to me, the better option is a piece of PVC pipe. It comes in many different sizes and you should be able to find one in a diameter to fit your needs. Plus its waterproof.
One could get a piece of PVC pipe, cap one end and place it inside of a quickrite tube, then pour cement into the tube, let it cure, then use the concrete cylinder as the tower… coat the pvc, so you can pull it out of the concrete, and reuse the pvc… note sure if the quickrite tube would be usable again… but, if you only want 24 inch tall towers, then one piece of quickrite tube could make 2 towers…
My vote is for sewer pipe also! Kind of pricey to buy, but if you have construction projects around look for scraps, broken pieces etc. Styrene ‘welds’ decently to plastic sewer pipe with MEK so you can add details fairly easily.
Craig
You can buy aluminum tubing cut to whatever size you want, online. However, anything over 8" diameter is unbelievably expensive. Eight inch outside diameter, 1/8" wall thickness, costs $36 for a one foot piece. Two feet long is $69.13:
http://www.onlinemetals.com/merchant.cfm?pid=7083&step=4&showunits=inches&id=71&top_cat=60
Unfortunately I haven’t found a site yet that sells large diameter plastic tube or pipe in small, custom quantities.
Ray,
If you want large diameter pipe look in the phone book for sewage supply houses. I bought a 14’ piece of 8" sewage pipe from a local supplier once. It was quite pricey, but I couldn’t find what I needed cheaper. When I went to the supply house they had all sorts of different types and sizes of drainage pipes to choose from. There should be something ‘local’ for the construction contractors/builders to buy from. If you can’t find a place, I would say contact a local lumberyard (not a boxstore!) and see if they know of any place.
Craig
(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/bob_mccown/buildings/GoodsonsBateries/gb3.jpg)
Having decided to ignore the tank size issue for now, I’m moving on to the building itself. I have a bunch of 1/4" Sintra on order, so time to get designing. The space I have to fit the building in is a bit more than 40" long, and about 26" deep. The picture shows the building face roughly square. It is also seven stories tall. If we figure 10 feet per storey, that’s a bit over 41" in 1:20. That works out to roughly square. Sounds good to me.
I’m thinking that’s big enough to double duty as a dog house 
Wow thats big. Bob you can live in that thing. Its going to look great on your layout. Cant wait to see it done.
Well it looks like you’re ready to begin. Since that was a landmark in Baltimore , in the Camden area , there should be loads of photos on line to help.
It’ll certainly keep ya busy over the winter…
As the old saying goes ‘Go big or go home’. Certainly will be impressive when it’s done.
I have trouble with buildings that dont look right for what they are, like a freight house that couldnt hold three suitcases, or a passenger terminal too small to have a bench inside, or a train agents desk.
100 % AGREE! with you Bob. I am looking at designing a station for the RR. It has to fit on a small foot print but it must be of a size that looks realistic.
It’s big, not quite as big as my building! It’s 6’x7’ x 3.5’ tall! It works out to be 166’ x 113’ in 1/29
(http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/58219_433631871911_838651911_4992962_7423113_n.jpg)
(http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/47679_433631906911_838651911_4992963_3357764_n.jpg)
The bigger the better I say! Keep up the work. Bigger buildings are really fun to build! Craig