N Scale Architect - 10504 - Structure, Building, Industrial, Coal - Industrial Structures

Specific Item Information: The prototypes that inspired the Lackawanna Coal Company kit were located in the Anthracite Coal Region of Northeastern Pennsylvania. In these immense structures, know as "breakers" or "collieries", the hard shiny anthracite coal was brought from a mine shaft or drift and then washed & broken into sizes usable for home heating & industrial processes. Breakers of the size and type represented in this kit were typically built in the 1930’s as a means to consolidate the production of several smaller older processing plants and many of them were still operational into the 1970’s. At their peak, there were hundreds of these structures in operation and the several thousand employees that worked in them could process as much as 12,500 tons of coal in a single day. The railroads in this area used hundreds of hopper cars to transport this huge volume of coal to customers in the eastern United States as well as to coal piers located along the Atlantic Ocean and Great Lakes. Coal was brought to the breakers for processing from the surrounding mines via extensive mine railroads and conveyors that could literally stretch for miles. The conveyor included in this kit is typical of those used and our M-TRAK product line provides an easy way to create a rail link to the mines. M-TRAK is a 2’ 6" gauge mine track system that includes turnout, curved, straight and flexible track sections with laser-cut wood ties and metal rails. Mine Locomotives & 4-Ton Mine Cars are also available separately as part of our "Making A Scene" detail parts line. The Lackawanna Coal Company model covers an area of 10"(L) X 11"(W) X 6 ½"(H).

Road Name History: A factory (previously manufactory) or manufacturing plant is an industrial site, usually consisting of buildings and machinery, or more commonly a complex having several buildings, where workers manufacture goods or operate machines processing one product into another.

Factories arose with the introduction of machinery during the Industrial Revolution when the capital and space requirements became too great for cottage industry or workshops. Early factories that contained small amounts of machinery, such as one or two spinning mules, and fewer than a dozen workers have been called "glorified workshops".

Most modern factories have large warehouses or warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production. Large factories tend to be located with access to multiple modes of transportation, with some having rail, highway and water loading and unloading facilities.

From Wikipedia

Brand/Importer Information: The N Scale Architect was founded in 1991 by Russ Kaufman who has been active in model railroading since the early 1970s. Although many model railroaders received a Lionel Train as their first train set, Russ and his brother Bill were bitten by the model railroad bug in the form of an Aurora N-Scale set.

Russ started The N Scale Architect based on the encouragement of fellow modelers who thought that the plans he had drawn up for scratch building over the years might be enjoyed by others in kit form. The first kits featured detailed step-by-step instructions with hand drawn illustrations and plastic templates to be used for cutting the various pieces. This tradition of high quality instructions continues with the addition of "in-process" and color photos and, thanks to better computer aided programs, more detailed drawings. These templates have been replaced with laser-cut micro-plywood pieces along with the addition of many detailing castings which are now also available separately as part of their "Making A Scene" product line.