rail to truck transloading

[Stevert]

carknocker1

Where I work we own and operate a transload warehouse where we transload box cars of sugar from Mexico into trucks . The sugar is loaded in large bags usually weighing 1600 lbs. the warehouse has 2 bay doors for 2 50ft boxcars . We usually unload 4 boxcars per day in an 8 hour day .
I was suprised sugar is shipped this way but does make for an interesting operation in small area

 

 

Many years ago (early '70's) I worked in a large candy manufacturing plant.  We received boxcars of bulk sugar, loaded the same way grain would be:  Reinforced kraft paper bulkheads nailed into the door openings, and the sugar sloping up to the roof at both ends of the car. 

 

A single car would be spotted inside the building on a "sunken" spur so the boxcar's floor was level with the plant floor.  There was unloading equipment built into the side wall of the spur, so you could drive a smallish front-end loader right into the car to unload it.

 

After the car was spotted and the dockside unloading equipment was readied, you'd open the car door on that side and remove the paper bulkhead.  Then you'd start removing the sugar that was immediately inside, working towards each end.  When you had enough room, you could back the unloader in towards one end and unload the other end.

 

Occasionally, but not always, the boxcar would have loading hatches near the four corners of the roof.  If it did, I'd open them since running that loader in the car for a while would get stuffy!  Unfortunately, for safety reasons you were not allowed to open the car door on the other side.

 

We'd also get tank cars of corn syrup on that same spur inside the building, but I wasn't involved in that unloading and unfortunately don't recall much about it.

 

It would make a nice little background industry on a layout.  All you'd need is a building deep enough for for an overhead door, and long enough for maybe 3 cars.  Loads in would be mostly corn syrup tanks with an occasional 40 or 50 foot bulk sugar boxcar, and empties out.

[Motley]

Frac sand facilties use rail to truck loading into covered hoppers.

[nscsx]

hey could you send me a picture of your work place, where you load the sugar into box cars?

[BRAKIE]

carknocker1

I was surprised sugar is shipped this way but does make for an interesting operation in small area

Modelers would be surprise what is still being shipped in 50-60' boxcars.

[ndbprr]

Look at Williamsburg Michigan on google earth. Just north of m72 and west of elk lake road on old 72 is a small 20'x 20' transfer building used to ship fruit and sunflower seeds. Two semis could back Into the front and load box cars and freezer cars. Built by either pere marquette or c&o there is hardly room for a fork lift to turn and load a railroad car. No longer used it is truck all the way now

[theodorefisk]

Go to Google Images and put in 'transload terminals', you will get some great photos of what you are looking for. I have a similar two track yard on my layout for transloading bulk materials into trucks. 

[dknelson]

There is an entire chapter on transloading facilities in Jeff Wilson's Industries Along The Tracks 3.  He makes the point that some forms of transloading involve expensive devices that are kept on site.  That would in turn seemingly involve fences and other forms of security, and perhaps also a shed or other protective structure.

Still other forms of trandloading - and sugar would seem to be one of these - involve onsite storage. 

As a dry bulk commodity sugar would need to be protected from contamination during the transloading process.   

The cars that haul sugar such as airslide cars often are large capacity cars, again which suggests local storage since not all trucks are large enough to take on the contents of an entire Airslide car.  If you have storage bins or tanks that would seem to suggest the high likelihood of buildings of some sort, as well as fencing.

Dave Nelson

[ericsp]

It looks like Center-Flow hoppers are commonly used to ship sugar. Here is C&H's Crockett, CA sugar refinery.

[ericsp]

http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/13/t/27006.aspx

http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/167123.aspx

[carknocker1]

Where I work we own and operate a transload warehouse where we transload box cars of sugar from Mexico into trucks . The sugar is loaded in large bags usually weighing 1600 lbs. the warehouse has 2 bay doors for 2 50ft boxcars . We usually unload 4 boxcars per day in an 8 hour day .
I was suprised sugar is shipped this way but does make for an interesting operation in small area

[wjstix]

If you put it in as a "team track" you could have any number of different types of cars there. You could have a tank car that would unload into tanker trucks, but you could also have reefers, boxcars, flats, gondolas etc. 

[JoeBlow]

If you want prototype examples, a good place to start would looking at shortline, regional railroad and even logistic company websites (Ex: Anacostia, BMRN, etc.) and then using Google Maps for aerials. Shortline and Regionals tend put more focus on loose carload traffic and team tracks/transloading. 

[BRAKIE]

NVSRR

Of the transloading facilities i have seen, none have had buildings.   Just a materials handler for hoppers.   And a paved area.  

 

I agree in general but,like all things possible I know of one that has a small office about the size of a security guard shack-maybe a 12'x12' building..There truck drivers report in there.Maybe its a weigh station?  I can't tell because the back of the building faces the public highway and the entrance road is private and posted with Warning! Truck and Employee entrance! No Trespassing! Violators will be persecuted.

I never cared to test that sign's warning.

Of course the area is fenced and a security officer is on duty after hours,on weekends and Holidays. They seem to unload several boxcars a week at this transload location as well as tank cars and few coveredhoppers.

[NVSRR]

Of the transloading facilities i have seen, none have had buildings.   Just a materials handler for hoppers.   And a paved area.  

[BRAKIE]

nscsx

I am imagining a small "rail to truck" transloading center (on a single straight spur) on my 4x6 pike;I thought of corn syrup or sugar. I know that corn syrup is transported by rail in tank cars but how about sugar. I couldn't find much about it on Google Images. What would the main building look like at at simple rail to truck transload center?

 

There may not even be a building or if there is it would be small office building that may double as a security guard shack after hours.

Sugar could be shipped in coveredhoppers or in bags in boxcars.

A truck would simply back into the door of the boxcar after the unloading crew climbs into the boxcar or trailer if the car was just delivered since there would be bags or pallets by the boxcar's door.. A floor jack could be used if the bagged sugar is on pallets or the bags could be unloaded by hand.

[cv_acr]

As far as sugar goes, it is probably shipped in food-grade pressure-unloading covered hoppers.

[cv_acr]

Probably just a tiny little office.

A lot of truck<->tank car transloading facilities don't require any sort of structures. In some cases the product can simply be pumped directly from one to the other. The car itself might be kept on location for a few days as the "storage tank". (As tank cars are basically all leased or privately owned, demurrage is a non-issue.)

Although, corn syrup is thick and might use steam heating coils to encourage the product to flow out of the cars, so you'll probably have some fixed unloading piping along the tracks, and a steam boiler in a building.

Some covered hopper to truck transloads are the same - I'm familiar with a couple of plastic pellet distributing operations, and the rail facilities consist of nothing more than a bunch of tracks with driveways between them. The cars themselves (again, all leased or privately owned, not RR-supplied) stay in the yard for days or weeks as necessary rather than transferring product to a physical warehouse. Product is transferred directly from rail car to truck using a special sort of vacuum device on a trailer.

[nscsx]

I am imagining a small "rail to truck" transloading center (on a single straight spur) on my 4x6 pike;I thought of corn syrup or sugar. I know that corn syrup is transported by rail in tank cars but how about sugar. I couldn't find much about it on Google Images. What would the main building look like at at simple rail to truck transload center?