Suggestions for an industry needed

[subman]

Can Anyone suggest an industry that I could use on my layout besides oil and coal which I already have on it. The catch is that the industry would be next to a 3 track yard with a power house and water  adjacent to it as well. I am speaking HO and the space is 30"x9". Thanks

[MisterBeasley]

Can you tell us a bit more about your layout, and what sort of things you're interested in?  What era do you model? Is this "water" a river, lakefront or ocean?  Are you modelling an urban area, or rural territory?

We've had some discussions here on packing plants and breweries.  Both of these could generate a lot of rail traffic, depending on how various materials were brought into and out of the area.  However, you wouldn't be likely to find a packing plant in current-day New England, for example.

I've been trying to work a car float into expansion plans for my own layout.  This is a low barge that handles short water crossings carrying some small number of rail cars.  One big advantage of a car float is the possibility that just about any rail cargo could be on it, so you get a lot of variety.  Some people use a car float as a "casette," a mechanism to introduce a new set of cars on to the layout and take another set off during operations.  In this case, the float would be removeable, and there might be more than one model float in the room, taking turns at the float terminal.  Others model the float as a fixed piece of scenery.

[Courage8]

Thirty by nine inches is a good sized space.  If this is waterfront property and you like heavy industry (which it sounds like you do, if you already feature coal and oil,) consider a paper mill.  They are usually near large sources of water, and can have logs, wood chips, lime rock, and chemicals such as tank cars full of anhydrous ammonia, sodium hypochlorite, hydrogen peroxide and sulfur compounds coming in, and box cars full of paper products going out.  This large need for rail traffic (sometimes several cars per day) would interface nicely with the nearby yard.

[subman]

The layout is in the transition stage steam/diesel and the water is a river. As to whether the layout is rural or urban I`d have to say more rural than urban. I have the Water Street freight station,OL King coal,  Interstate fuel & oil New River Mine   several freight depots a fairly large company town made up of about 12 kits. and Northern Light & Power among others. I don`t want a car float because the industry would be on a spur off the yard and there wouldn`t be any room for switching. What is confusing me in the proximity of the yard.

[BRJN]

You could build a New England-style mill with a water wheel on the river side and say it makes textiles.

A freight house might work (just a transfer shed if width is tight).

A metal-working plant would need a lot of electricity and could fill the yard with cars itself.

City Trolley Co power plant, maintenance sheds, and main office.

Westinghouse (washers, dryers, refridgerators, &c)

not an industry: tenement row plus slummy side of town

<begin smirk> Alcoa (Aluminum Company of America) got famous during the 1990s because they successfully got their Congressman to put an amendment onto a utility tax bill that basically said "except for electrons which are used to turn bauxite into aluminum".  There ought to be a way to commemorate that event on the layout. <end smirk>

A cereal manufacturer (Kelloggs Jr) might be a thirsty industry.