Looking at satellite images I see a lot of warehouses that had rail service at on time but no longer do. Even so, I found a surprising number of warehouse type structures that still receive shipments via boxcars. Most of these fall into the category of large loading doors on the rail side and tractor trailer loading docks on the other side. Some appear to be normal warehouse structures. Some appear to have heavy duty refrigeration systems. One warehouse I identified as being Southern Freight Service which advertised less than truck load freight service.
What types of products are typically shipped to these warehouses? Do they hand freight for all customers or are they normally only for company owned trucks?
If you are looking at Google Maps or Google Earth go to Streetview at the front of the building if it is on their route and then see what the name etc of the building is from the sign and do a search of the company name to see what they do. A little bit of stalking for research purposes. That way you would get to see exactly what any specific warehouse would have shipped through it.
If you cannot fix it with a hammer;
You have an electrical problem!
MJ4562What types of products are typically shipped to these warehouses? Do they hand freight for all customers or are they normally only for company owned trucks?
I can help here seeing my last job before health issues forced my retirement in '05 was a forklift operator in a warehouse.
We received by truck and rail..We stored just about everything you would find in a department store except food stuff.
Here's the way it worked.
As a watered down example using one of our clients instead of the several would call on a weekly bases.Each had their own storage area in our warehouse..
One of our 43 clients would called and advised they was having a sale on the following stock numbers and needed the items by(say) Sunday the 17th.The items would be pulled from his storage section,then the items would be open priced and repacked for shipping.
A local LTL truck line would be called and the needed items would be loaded in their trailer in store order and they would deliver X number of skids to each store.
Some times it may be nothing more then a single skid of variuos lamp styles going to (say) store 1432.
Modeling wise you should have a large warehouse or flat with several spotted trailers and more stored in a drop lot for drop,hook and go.
I use two Walthers "Bud's Trucking" background buildings for my warehouse.I found multi car spots enhance switching operation.
I hope this helps.
BTW..Yes,some railroads have modern freight houses called "distribution centers" that unload boxcars for off line customers.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Coquihala and Rock CreekIf you are looking at Google Maps or Google Earth go to Streetview at the front of the building if it is on their route and then see what the name etc of the building is from the sign and do a search of the company name to see what they do. A little bit of stalking for research purposes. That way you would get to see exactly what any specific warehouse would have shipped through it.
Thanks for the replies so far. Yes, a little legwork helps but not always. Many times the buildings only have an address or are as non-descript as possible.
So in a sense these are less than carload facilities? I guess that while down from its peak years, it still exists in a form. Reading either in Trains or on the AAR website, the railroads are attempting to take some of the frozen food and perishable goods business back from trucks.
Industries I have identified as receiving boxcar loads of goods:
BRAKIEHave a large warehouse or flat with several spotted trailers and more stored in a drop lot for drop,hook and go. I use two Walthers "Bud's Trucking" background buildings for my warehouse.I found multi car spots enhance switching operation. I hope this helps. BTW..Yes,some railroads have modern freight houses called "distribution centers" that unload boxcars for off line customers.
Yes that helps quite a bit, Brakie. Thank you. I find learning about how the industries work to be as interesting as how to model them so I always appreciate background information to go with modelling ideas. I've been making a list of such rail served boxcar type industries in my area and those "distribution centers" are popular. They may have parking slips for 30-40 trailers.
As far as boxcar loads I will add some.
Tobacco products
Alcoholic beverages
Scrap plastic and rubber for reclaim-these are shipped in large "Gaylord" shipping containers..Giant sized cardboard box mounted on a standard 40" x 48" skid.The scrap is reclaim into plastic or rubber pellets-can be loaded into Gaylords for truck shipping or loaded into covered hoppers..
Modeling these plants is easy..A medium size building and a silo for loading covered hoppers.A outside rail dock would work for receiving scrap in boxcars.
55 gallon drums of oil
Automotive and truck tires.
Bagged animal and pet feed
Bagged seeds,fertilizer mulch etc.
Noticed in passing in Flagstaff, AZ - WalMart distribution center. Rail siding on one side, about fifty truck loading doors on the other. Building and about 90% of the trucks present were clearly signed WalMart property. Solid carloads of a single stock number (or stock from a single manufacturer) in, everything for a single store out.
When I was working at Toys 'R' Us the store would get a pup trailer (24 foot) twice a week, store stock in, baled cardboard and specific requested items back to the distribution center. As Christmas approached the pups got more frequent, then were changed to 40, 48 and finally 53 foot hi-cubes for the final pre-Christmas push. Exactly what came in which trailer was determined by what we had sold the previous week and what the sale fliers would be featuring. A single trailer could easily contain a thousand or more different stock numbers. A satellite view of our regional distribution center looked very much like that WalMart facility - rail on one side, intermodal containers at one end and about a gazillion Geoffery trucks along the long wall and parked in the lot. No Geoffery box cars, though.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Just to be clear, these aren't LCL warehouses. LCL implies multiple smaller shipments, each with its own waybill, for different customers. In this case, regardless of how many SKU's or part numbers are in the boxcar, it is ONE shipment, a car load.
A lot of this break bulk is being done dockside now. Companies in the far east ship 4 containers, each with a different product, they are unloaded stateside, the products mixed and the containers are shipped to the individual stores/warehouses with the proper mix of the 4 products to meet the demads of each store/warehouse. They do the same thing with autos. The manufacturers ship a car load of each model to a mixing center, the autos are unloaded and reloaded with the specific mix needed by the dealers at a specific destination.
The concept of a railroad LCL freight house is pretty much dead and has been so for 30+ years.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
dehusmanLCL implies multiple smaller shipments, each with its own waybill, for different customers.
For the record LTL warehouses is alive and doing well..See my first reply for the type of services they offer.Its a hectic JIT type of job that is time sensitive.
While its true the old LCL freight house is long gone from the railroad scene replaced by distribution centers..These unload off line customers boxcars and other type of cars(except bulk) and offer limited storage-some offer cold storage as well..
tomikawaTTFlagstaff, AZ - WalMart distribution center
Russell