Forum Clinic: Ideal industries for a typical layout/misc/misc

[Anonymous]

What would be the best industries to model (on 4ft X 8ft layout) for a beginer and for an experianced modeller? I want to model a switching layout that feeds a modern mine. The setting is in the northwest mountains with mines and "depot" for serving the area round about. What types of coal hoppers and switchers should I use. I was reading the post on what the easiest and hardest industries to model and most of the people said the hardest was either a some sort of refinery or steel mill. I tried looking up pictures of both of them on the internet and didn't find much. Can you post some good pictures of a model steel mill and/or refinery and/or mine. I hope this starts some good conversation.
thanks

Alexander

[vsmith]

4x8? Depends on where your setting your model RR? city or countryside?

East coast? Warehouses, small manufacturing factories, coal mines.

Midwest? Grain Elevators, farm and produce businesses, cattle ranches.

Rockies to West coast? Mines, ranches, to Wide Open Spaces?

[egmurphy]

Here are a couple of shots of a refinery scene built on an N scale module (not by me) that I think is one of the best I've seen. This represents only one unit at a refinery. Click on the photos to enlarge them.







Try these links for a page showing scratch/bashed steel mill, and a page showing various kits (Trix and Walthers) for steel mill buildings and cars:

http://www.trainboard.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi/ubb/get_topic/f/9/t/003112.html?

http://www.peachcreekshops.com/genprods.php3?val=HO+Steel+Kits


Just to give you some ideas.

Regards

Ed

[Anonymous]

cool mill! thanks a lot.

[Jetrock]

I don't know if there is an "ideal" industry--modelers' interests are very diverse and the industry that is best for you depends on those interests. Operations enthusiasts may be fond of interchanges and team tracks, since they're really easy to model (just add a ramp to the team track, no building at all on the interchange) but lack a certain flair for those of us who like building buildings. I like a lot of short spurs on my small switching layouts, so small, self-contained industries are my preference--small lumberyards, packing plants, freight houses, planing mills and small machine shops--but those who like to model big industries might feel limited by small-footprint buildings.

Big industries can be real eye-poppers (like the steel mill above) but definitely represent a modeling challenge. They take up a lot of real estate and a huge, detailed scene takes some time to build.

Perhaps the best thing is a mix of industries--one or two big industries with lots of detail, a handful of small industries with lots of character in your head-scratch-inducing switching district, and a couple team tracks and interchanges to make use of real estate where a building won't fit or wouldn't look right. For passenger enthusiasts, a similar analogy could be made in the form of big union stations, small passenger terminals and bare-bones station platforms.

Of course, that mix wouldn't work for folks who like single-purpose railroads: loggers, coal haulers, etcetera...

[BRJN]

Given your 4x8, you should pick some industrial theme you like and which naturally buy/sell from each other. Other companies can be added to suit. Two examples:
1) open range (painted on backdrop) - stockyard - meatpacker - grocers warehouse - grocery (served by truck)
2) dairy farm - milk shed - creamery - grocers warehouse - grocery (served by truck)

I probably shouldn't brainstorm on an empty stomach. But I hope you can see where I'm going; have some cars that naturally move around the layout for a while before they exit/re-enter. Other cars enter, do something, then depart in short order. This way, you can superdetail the cars you really like, and keep them out for display for a while.

[ericsp]

QUOTE: Originally posted by bnsf6733

What would be the best industries to model (on 4ft X 8ft layout) for a beginer and for an experianced modeller? I want to model a switching layout that feeds a modern mine. The setting is in the northwest mountains with mines and "depot" for serving the area round about. What types of coal hoppers and switchers should I use. I was reading the post on what the easiest and hardest industries to model and most of the people said the hardest was either a some sort of refinery or steel mill. I tried looking up pictures of both of them on the internet and didn't find much. Can you post some good pictures of a model steel mill and/or refinery and/or mine. I hope this starts some good conversation.
thanks

Alexander

A refinery is not necessary difficult. If you want to model as simple one with not much process units (asphalt plant usually), the Walthers refinery is a close approximation.

If you want a bunch of different process units (atmospheric distillation, vacuum distillation, hydrotreating, hydrocracking, catalytic cracking, catalytic reforming, alkylation, polymerization (not used for making plastics), coking, etc.) and want it to look accurate, it will take much research and scratchbuilding.

Does "northwest mountains" mean MT, ID, WA, OR, and that area? I know Montana has, or had, some ore mines. There are also some coal fields in Montana. Some other industries in this area are lumber mills, paper mills, oil refineries, power plants (rail served ones are probably mainly in the eastern part of this region), fertilizer plants, packing sheds, and potato storage sheds.

What era are you modeling? Do you want to be prototypical or make the layout want you want it to be? I am guessing from you screen name you are modeling BNSF and therefore the modern era. Around here BNSF usually uses GP35s and rebuilt GP30s (I don't remember the designation off the top of my head, I think it is GP39 something), and I think GP38-2s. I have also seen 8-40Bs and GP60s on the locals occasionally. I believe BNSF has some SW1000s and SW1500s.

http://www.wadafarms.com/storage.htm
http://www.wadafarms.com/packing.htm

[philnrunt]

Remember that with a 4x8, if you model a mill or a refinery (great shots Ed!) it will probably take up most of your real estate. If you want a dedicated industrial rail line, thats fine, but if you want diverse industries and lots of different switching stops, it might be better to go with smaller sidings and buildings. With a view block down the center of your 4x8, you could use flats and backdrops to represent bigger plants, with the sidings going towards the center. This would make everything well within reach. But if you are going with a loop or figure 8 design, you might limit yourself to small cottage industries. These, however, would give you the opportunity to have a bunch of different car types to switch.
As you can see, all we can help you do is ask yourself more questions, but thats how good layouts always seem to start out. Mull it over and let us know which way you are headed.

[Anonymous]

I recall a 101 trackplans 4x8 er that had a left center area for a mine/logging and the track would wind down towards the lower right and then around the back then coming around the left side at a lower altitude to the "front" for the customer which was either a lumber mill, powerplant and/or a riverside barge to transfer the railcars downriver. (whew long sentence eh?) Good for short ore/coal cars and log vehicles as well as a small gas/electric with a boxcar or combine to serve the high camps.

I will have to look this up but this struck me as a awesome way to have a "Purpose" in a 4x8

[cefinkjr]

With only 4x8, you ought to consider the late John Armstrong's "off the edge of the layout" technique. Taking a refinery as an example, this technique would model a siding with a loading/unloading platform very close to the edge of the layout. Industrial fencing would surround the siding and platform on three sides with the open side being toward the rest of the refinery which is, of course, off the edge of the layout and just as large as your imagination wants to make it.

The same space saving technique can be used for other industries. I once saw an exquisitely detailed warehouse that was only about 2" deep. It had one wall and a rail loading dock roughly parallel to the edge of the layout and two side walls leading right to the edge of the layout. Most of the warehouse and the fourth wall were off the edge. The effect was that of someone inside the warehouse looking out through the wide doors at the railroad. Very neat.

Chuck