B-FURNACE Part 10

Short night in the basement tonight.  I wanted to attach the elevator structure permanently to the foundation but first I needed to add the doors and platform while I could work on things flat.  Let me preface the following by saying that I don't have any real prototype information on these elevator structures.  Some are round and others are square and that is about the extent of my knowledge.  I assume the outer structure just houses a basic construction type elevator.  So basically what I am getting at is that if you see this and my door placement is wrong,...etc., I'd be interested in learning more, but I probably won't go back and correct things.  I am trying to maintain a balance between adhering to the prototype exactly and getting my blast furnaces built.  I could spend another year or two researching things and gathering every detail, but short of actually walking through the prototype (which is gone) and taking a million photos and measurements, Ill never be 100% accurate anyway.  I want a believable, interesting, and well modeled structure when I'm finished, but I also want to finish and run trains.  

On my elevator I've installed four doors - three elevator doors, each one a double door totaling 4'x7' and then a single 3'x7' door for accessing the hoist equipment, near the roof.  The first 4' door is on the ground and the other two are on each of the two platforms on the small stove.  The 3' door is located on a platform reached by a caged ladder from the highest elevator door level.   The doors were made of .020 styrene, with scale 2x4 styrene trim and a piece of styrene rod to represent the door handles.  For caged ladders I like the Plastruct units.  There are others that have a bit finer lines but are difficult to assemble.  The Plastruct ladders are easy to build and durable.  For platforms I usually use at least .030 styrene but sometimes .040, both with .040 square strips under for reinforcing.   For railings I scratchbuild them entirely.  I have used Plastruct or Tichy railings in the past with good affect, however, I always had to compromise when it came to the spacing of the verticals, unless by dumb luck, things worked out perfect.  I saw Jeff Bourne building his own railings and at first thought it was crazy to try that, but, I've found it to be easy and fast.   I use .030 square stock for the verticals, which in real-size  would be around 2-3 scale inches.  For the horizontals I use .020x.040  - this will bend into a tight circle, something impossible to do with manufactured railings.   The picture shows some of the doors and rails on the elevator. You can also see the scribe lines simulating panels in the corrugated siding.