The last major step in completing the coal shed is the floor. The foundation for the floor was completed earlier. All that remains are the concrete and steel grates of the floor itself.
Without any interior photos to work from, the floor is freelanced. Coal must be unloaded from the bottoms of the hopper cars (the facility is not equipped with a rotary dumper.) Therefore there must be a pit and conveyer system beneath the floor. Between the rails the pit is open. On the powerplant (front) side of the shed, the pit is protected by steel grates on which workers can stand to open the hopper doors. The grating will allow coal to slip through to the conveyer below. The far side has grates 2 feet from the rail and a simple poured concrete floor the remainder of the way to the wall.
Modeling the Steel Floor
Plastruct No. 91701: Z scale Tread Plate. Although it is labeled for Z, the tread looks right for HO. All of the flooring can be made from one of the two sheets. And by some strange chance of luck, the sheets are exactly half the length of the shed.
Cut four strips of the material: 2 2' wide and 2 6'. Paint the grates with flat black paint.
To highlight the grate detail, drybrush a little grimy black paint across the top of the grates. This will give a subtle highlight to the raised surfaces.
Concrete Floor
To model the concrete floor, some ordinary flat .060 styrene is cut into a 4' wide strip as long as the interior. Spray the sheet an aged concrete color. Weather with an overspray of flat black.
One of the great qualities of styrene - with the right paint it can be made to look like almost anything.
