Plus every town had one or more bulk oil plants and beer distributors.
Few ideas:Mining, Coal is rather prominent in the central Rockies along the former DRGW. Hard rock mines such as copper & lead are prominent in Utah and Montana. Any mining activity opens up further support industries such as smelting. One copper smelter or an alluminium mill could offer all the industrial switching you need for any layout in one massive industrial sprawl (Columbia Falls alluminium was a plant that operated in northern Montana for example). Limestone pits are needed to dig up flux for any large smelting operation, and tend to not be to far away from the smelters they ship the flux to. A simple gravel pit might also offer an easy to model industry, with ballast cars for the railroad perhaps being loaded there before heading out on MOW trains. Agriculture, depending on the era you can see stock movements, particularly cattle and sheep in mountain areas. Idaho also has a large sugar beet industry that is still heavily dependent on rail transport to this day. Any large amounts of livestock in an area might require grain silos to store feed for the animals, and maybe even reefer's to ship out dairy products.National Defense, Those isoltated mountain ranges often make a good place to train soldier, base equipment or even perform highly secret experiments. In the 1960's the Department of Defense had several rail served facilities in Washington, Idaho, and Utah that all fueled into the nuclear build up during the cold war. Chemical weapon's were still transported via rail into the 1960's to. Logging, Another classic inudstry particularly up in the Pacific North West. If you can't fit an entire logging railroad shortline, you can have a single mill served via logs being floated down a river to the milling site. Outbound loads of cut wood and sawdust or even paper can create a nice mix of freight cars coming in and out of the industry. General Industry, some industries aren't region specific. Have a food packaging plant in the area? Then why not a corn syrup transloader that stores and ships syrup to the off layout plant? Or a former railroad shop which has been sold to a third party and is now used by them to repair or maintain private railcars? Maybe in the most isolated of areas fuel depots are still in use for local farmers to buy tractor fuel from.
A lot of it depends on era. In the 1920's there will be more indusries than in the 2000's.
https://www.historicaerials.com/
Is a site with multiple older areial photos and topo maps, they might help you find things.
The short answer is that in the mountains, there are waaaaaaay fewer industries than there are cities. It is entirely prototypical to go 10-20-30 miles between industries, especially in the modern era.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
On the Canadian Pacifics mainline through the Rockies and Selkirks you can find railroad related operations going on.
In this spot, out in the middle of nowhere, they harvest everything from Riprap to ballast. I have been here many times and it is sometimes a real going concern with lots of blasting and other times, not a soul to be found. The closest evidence of civilization is about 50km to the west.
They have sidings here with lots of cars filled with various sizes of rock able to be accessed immediately to any washout or other emergency.
There is obviously lots of equipment at the site to process the rock, however, the most interesting part of exploring the area is all the old steam driven equipment in the area that has been there since the 1800s when the railroad was built. It is like stepping back in time and would make for a good scene on any RR.
Also, don't forget the ghost from the past. All railroads have them. They add to any scene. The Rogers pass is a ghost hunters dream and I imagine most mountain passes will tell similar stories.
A loco still lays where it wrecked over a hundred years ago.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
An aerial visit to beautiful Avery, Idaho reveals lots of trees. Not many potatoes. Going up to Mullan, I see Hecla Mining.
Definitely a place to (visually) explore.
Ed
The OpSig has an industry database with lots of helpful information. http://www.opsig.org/reso/inddb/
I don't see Avery listed specifically, but a quick look through the rest of the entries for Idaho will give you a good idea of what would be realistic options.
Mike
NWP SWPI'll take a look around Avery, Idaho to see what's there.
'taters is big business in Idaho.
https://streamlinermemories.info/?p=3700
I'll take a look around Avery, Idaho to see what's there.
My goal is to start doodling layouts in different sizes and stuff so when the time comes for a layout I'll A have the skills to do the planning, and B have some "finished" ideas to draw from.
Practice makes perfect as they say.
Steve
If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough!
Extractive, I think: lumber and mining.
If you have a stretch of railroad you're curious about, you can do a satellite view along the tracks. That's how I researched double crossovers along the UP mainline.
My friend Rod loaned me John Armstrongs Classic Layout Designs, and I saw a track plan that piqued my interest, it's based on the Milwaukee Road in the Cascades.
The only problem is there's no industries, so my question is what sort of trackside industries with operational interest can be found in the Rockies and Cascades?
Thanks!