Cleveland,Columbus,Akron had lots of manufactured business that shipped by boxcar to other areas of the country while trucks haul the short hauls between the two states- 2-3 days versus hours in this case.
Here is my thought..I would settle on a given area served by CR and model that instead of a larger chunk.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Boxcars? That points to manufactured goods. Container Corp of America had numerous box factories in the Philadelphia area (Manyunk, Conshohocken, Oaks) and could have shipped to anyplace in Ohio. There could be any number of foundries that produced machine parts shipped to Ohio.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
Will the freight cars I'm going to use are mostly boxcars. A few gondolas, and flatcars. Secondary freight was going to be covered hoppers, and hoppers. Modeling 85' cars are not going to look good on my curves so no auto (racks, boxcars,).
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.
In my town alone Conrail served Kodak, (maker's of that old stuff called film), Nabisco (home of Oreos and Chips Ahoy) a pasta factory and a lumber yard. That was in a 2 mile stretch of track on 4 separate sidings. All but Kodak are still served by my local NS peddler.
The OpSig industrial database and their free IndMan software will let you search by railroad, location or industry.
www.opsig.org/reso/inddb/
The database has an abbreviated nationwide file as well as four more indepth regional files.
Steel, manufactured goods, machinery, chemicals, oils, chemical feedstocks, fuels, ore, rock, coal, paper goods, auto and truck parts, electrical equipment.
You are picking a part of the country that produces just about everything and consumes just about everything.
What type of cars do you want to use? You need to narrow down what you are asking, there are about 20,000 commodites that fit the scope of the question you are asking.
More like the most common industries in both states without picking one particular state or city.
When you say something like "the area of an entire state," you can almost literally pick anything. I mean, it's not like an area the size of Pennsylvania is small. Not that it's Montana sized, but it's bigger than Denmark.
I'm originally from Reading PA and lived with Conrail from the beginning. Just to mention a few businesses... from the Reading, Lancaster, and Harrisburg areas. There was still coal and some lumber products coming out of the coal counties, fledgling Blue Mountain and Reading was contributing some mixed freight, M & M Mars in Elizabethtown, Hershey in Hershey, stone trains from Wimpy Minerals, truck frames from Dana Corp in Reading and some steel products from Car-Tech in Reading. Just to mention a few.
Mark H
Modeling in HO...Reading and Conrail together in an alternate history.
Another question is what division or sub division?
Your question has many answers that will vary from area to area to include the years you model.
While the "PRR CT 100 industry list for every mile of every track" will work for PRR I doubt if CR would served the same customers since the PC fiasco chased off a lot of customers and the truckers took a large chunk of those remaining customers not to mention those that closed shop.
I agree with James, There are hundreds of industries that Conrail served. You just have to decide what you would like to model or what's available in commercial structures that you would like to see on your layout.
Plastic injection molding, stamping, warehousing, chemicals, frozen foods, auto parts, paper... etc, etc.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p3984.m570.l1311.R2.TR2.TRC0.A0.H0.Xconrail+timetable&_nkw=conrail+employee+timetable&_sacat=0&_from=R40
I have quite a few Conrail employee timetables and track charts that list industry sidings and car capacities. Take a look here and find a site that has the geographic area you're interested in.
https://www.google.com/search?q=conrail+track+charts&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=3IAnU8zxHMjcyQHh_4HoBg&sqi=2&ved=0CEoQsAQ&biw=1680&bih=914
Reasearch is FUN! Ed
James Sanchez
I need some help on my Conrail 1980s layout. I been seaching, and researching, but it doesn't work. I need to know what businesses, and industries Conrail served in the eastern coast? Probably around Pennsylvania, Ohio, but I don't care as long as its a couple of the same businesses though out the states.
I'll take whatever information... I'm very desperate other then modeling a power plant.