I was wondering if you had to build a shelf layout with one industry what will it be? There's no wrong answer, scale doesn't matter. What era and railroad and motive power would you use.
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.
I would go with ethanol manufacturer. There is a lot of detailing that can go into it and can mix in silos, tanks and basic buildings and it can big to make use of all the shelf and you can use grain cars in and tank cars out. As for era, I would stick with what I am doing now, modern-ish CSX and I would use for switching either GP-38 or NRE 3GS21B switchers, I have a couple of those from Atlas and they run like a champ.
I have a sugar beet plant on my layout that generates a lot of different traffic. Such an industry generates the obvious carloads of sugar beets in and boxcars of processed sugar out. However, it also generates inbound cars of cloth sacks, paper bags and carboard boxes for the finished sugar products, carloads of bottles/jars/cans for the molasses by-product, plus carloads of the various chemicals used for the processing of the sugar beets. Additional outbound bulk loads of molasses and sugar beet pulp (for cattle feed) require freight cars as well.
Other aspects of a sugar beet plant include the parking lot(s), truck deliveries, product movement on-site plus the beet dumping process itself. Since sugar beets were a seasonal crop, railroads were hard pressed to find sufficient numbers of suitable sugar beet cars during the "season." Thus, any available car that could be used to carry beets was pressed into service. Cars that could not dump their load had to be unloaded by other means, usually a small crane with a clamshell bucket. The plant could not process a trainload of beets at one time so giant piles of beets were used to store them until they could be fed into the plant.
Photos of prototype plants show several spur tracks. These include multiple spurs over a dumping sluice plus additional tracks for cars that could not dump their loads, separate storage tracks for the sugar beet cars, plus additional tracks for carloads of inbound supplies and outbound finished products. Plenty of action for a small shelf layout.
Hornblower
I would consider a refinery / chemical plant. I've put one on my rectangular layout, linking to my working days but inspired by some photos I saw in the forum that showed it need not occupy a large rectangular plot as items can be rearranged along the trackside direction as needed. Mine includes both Vollmer and Walthers kits (the common paint color ties them well) plus various additional tanks, plus a rail loading rack (not shown). I have some piping items to add when I get around to it.
Paul
Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent
I'm taking this to mean the layout is the industry, not just a business on the line somewhere. So, in that vein, I'd look at a paper mill. Lots of switching, pulpwood, chemicals, etc in, paper out. And it could use just about every type of car produced -- flats, gons, and racks of pulpwood, tanks of chemicals, hoppers of coal for fuel, boxes in and out. Depending on the era, covered hoppers of clay and big wood chip hoppers.
Lots of visual interest around the plant in the details. A great way to go for a single industry layout.
The two sugar beet plants I have seen are located on some of the flatest terrain in North America, the Red River Valley of North Dakota. Talk about easy table top terrain. Also, they are out in the middle of nowhere which would facilitate concentrating on only the industry and its supporting tracks. I agree, this would make a great shelf layout theme.
Looking at my friendly, neighborhood industrial district, one microbranch serves a single KIND of business, but multiple outlets. Seems that every car spot on the south side serves a propane or LNG dealer - four of them. Lots of weenies on wheels, nothing else.
Were I to attack the single industry on a shelf with great gusto, the industry would be the Newport News Shipbuilding facility. Lots of spurs into shops, each receiving something different. [How about an oversize load on a depressed-center flat - one of those new multi-curved blade 'silent' screws? (Propeller, to you landlubbers.)] Then, on the photo-mural backdrop, a Nimitz class carrier under construction.
Or I could stay with my prototype, in which case the year would be 1939, the facility would be the Kure Naval Arsenal, and the ship would be HIJMS Yamato...
Chuck (Ex engineer cadet modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Depending on era and the available size of the shelf layout, I would like to build a meat packing plant and the various supporting features. The prospect of building holding pens for livestock, ice house for loading bunkers in outgoing boxcars, boxcars for removing hides heading to the tannery, tank cars for removing liquids, tank cars coming in for fuel, or coal cars, refueling, an area for steam cleaning the boxcars, etc. etc. I know I'm missing other things too. This could be one huge shelf layout, or you could also select a few destinct aspects to model. it could really take on a life of it's own.
Another industry that could be an entire layout in itself would be a steel plant. Driving past the old Kaiser Steel (don't remember who owns it now) plant in Fontana, California some time ago, I was amazed at how much trackage existed inside the property boundaries. Easily enough railroading to fill an entire layout!
Either an older 1920's built brick paper mill that is heavily weathered, or a modern grain elevator such as one builtfrom Walthers kits (ehtenol series modern concrete elevator and various sized steel silos), slightly weathered to represent maybe a slightly newer construction of the last few decades but kept fairly clean because of what it is.
Rolling stock and such I wouldn't pay as much attention too. If I'm taking some realistic photographers I would be sure to make sure all locomotives, rail cars, vehicles etc. matched the same era, but personally it wouldn't bother me using an NRE Genset locomotive to spot single-sheathed, double-sheathed, riveted 40' steel box cars, or modern funnel flow tank cars at the paper mill.
With that said however it would be all covered hoppers at the grain elevator, although I wouldn't worry about a P-S 4427 next to an FMC 4700 next to a Thrall/Major 4780 next to a Trinity 5161.
Great, now I want both.
I have thought of a finishing mill and a veneer mill set in the late 40s/early 5 with either a company owned 2 truck shay or a 0-6-0T.
I would interchange with the C&O in either WVa or Va.
Who knows this long time idea may become a reality..
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
If I had the wall space/length I would love to model an intermodal facility in N Scale. I have been fascinated with these facilities for quite sometime, with the large overhead/overtrack cranes, miJacks, 18 wheelers parked, being loaded/unloaded. Lots of modeling challenges, detailing possibilities, locomotive options and operating potential. Someday....
Happy modeling!
Don.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that both engines have failed, and we will be stuck here for some time. The good news is that you decided to take the train and not fly."
I looked up the old Kaiser Steel plant on Google Maps to see whether the current owner of the remaining portions of the plant is listed (Auto Club Speedway occupies only the north half of the old Kaiser property). Google Maps shows the current owner to be California Steel Industries. The satellite view shows all of the existing tailroad trackage on and around the site. Definitely enough action for an entire layout!
I would say a port. Hoppers for coal, covered hoppers for grain, tank cars for fuel, boxcars, husky stacks, passanger trains for cruise ship. Lots of vessels, cranes, mi-jacks, 18 wheelers, rolling stock and locomotives. Not to mention the track work, buildings and scenery.
Larry, when you say "finishing mill" I'm curious what type you're referring to. I'm familar with a finishing plant for textile, but would like to know about other industry possibilities.
Thanks,
jim
Subway Trains.
Gotta be subway trains.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS