If you are like me and like industries and trains, you like industries that you can fit on your layout without removing most of the industry yet has a large quantity of cars. Below are some industries with good potential to model.
Carmeuse Lime & Stone (formerly Oglebay Norton) Industrial Sands - Shafter, CA Satellite View, Street View, Web Page
CTS Cement Transload Terminal - Santa Fe Springs, CABird's Eye View, Satellite View, Street View
Plains LPG Natural Gas Liquids Plant - Shafter, CAAlthough this is a relatively large plant, you can model a smaller version and still have several cars at the plant. Some ways to save space would be to have less tanks (smaller plant), eliminate much of the empty land, and replace the bullet tanks with spherical storage tanks.Satellite View 1, Satellite View 2, Satellite View 3, Satellite View 4 Street View 1, Street View 2, Street View 3, Street View 4, Street View 5 Web Page
Inergy Propane NGL Loading Racks - Bakersfield, CAThe plant is 7 miles from the loading racks.Satellite View, Street View, Web Page
ConocoPhillps NGL Plant - Zuni, NMSatellite View, Bird's Eye View, Web Page
US Cold Storage - Tulare, CAThis would make a good shallow relief industryBird's Eye View, Web Page
Former ADM Corn Syrup Transload Terminal (Closed) - Empire, CAThey moved the operations to the Port of Stockton. It looks like it is being used for dry, bulk commodities now. It was similar to the asphalt terminal in the February 1994 issue of Model Railroader and in HO Lineside Industries You Can Build (Kalmbach Publishing)Bird's Eye View, Satellite View, Street View
Diversified CPC Aerosol Propellant Plant - Anaheim, CASatellite View, Bird's Eye View, Street View, Web Page
Links to older threads:CTSOglebay NortonConocoPhillips
"No soup for you!" - Yev Kassem (from Seinfeld)
i agree 100%. i chose to have several large capacity industries rather than a bunch of small ones. two of my favorites are Milo-Meal (breakfast of losers) a large grain and cereal mill and Apocalypse Chemical (located next to the mutant animal petting zoo)
even that does not satify my desire to switch out, deliver and receive long cuts of cars (25 or more) so being blessed with a lot of room, i have 3 foreign line interchange yards. each of them holds about 60 cars.
that gives me an excuse for some foreign locomotives and cabooses.
inbound trains require a lot of classification if they are not pre-blocked.
i play mind games with phantom industries represented by some remote staging tracks where transfer moves originate and terminate.
what was your inspiration for the prototype, industries and operating plan you chose? i think a lot of us tend to be influenced by our first awareness of railroad operation or perhaps work experinces that occured early in our lives.
grizlump
grizlump9i think a lot of us tend to be influenced by our first awareness of railroad operation or perhaps work experinces that occured early in our lives.
I like your names for your industries. Plausible, but still just that little bit edgy.
I've never worked in a rail-served industry. But, I did have a couple of summer jobs at a brokerage firm in New York City, which meant riding commuter rail and subways every day. So, the subways were a key element of my layout.
I like industries that allow me to use a variety of cars. So, I've got a packing plant that needs stock cars and reefers, and a coal-and-oil dealership that takes hoppers and tanks. A brewery also needs reefers, and these ice-bunker cars need an icing platform. Pretty much any box car can stop at a freight house, too.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Modeling the Motor City
I perfer larger industries with several spots although I have smaller industries as well.
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barrok wrote:Don't forget the team track!
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Team track?
That doesn't bode well for modern modelers.The word is :distribution or transload track.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
BRAKIE I perfer larger industries with several spots ...
I perfer larger industries with several spots ...
Each spot can receive/load different products. Besides the possibility of different car types, specific cars of the same general type can be carrying/receiving different loads with particular spots for the different products. Thus, a larger, multi-product industry is more like a bunch of individual industries as far as the switching requirements are concerned. This makes things much more interesting than industries with one product.
Mark
One of the industries on my Santa Fe in Oklahoma, era 1989, is the GM auto plant. I did most of the structures along the walls, with tracks going inside for auto parts cars, etc., box and coil steel, outside the loading racks, plus fuel tracks. Makes a nice industry to receive many cars, but a minimum of space.
Also I have several of the large grain elevator complexes modeled at Enid and smaller towns. Enid has Union Equity (Farmland) A and Be, and Y and Z. Each of these have three tracks to load out and receive inbound. Plus the Pillsbury Mills, General Mills, Mid America elevator. Granted they are large structures, but again located against walls, etc.
Bob
markpierceThus, a larger, multi-product industry is more like a bunch of individual industries as far as the switching requirements are concerned.
Also, it allows you to model a privately-owned switch engine for just that industry, if you'd like.
I have a cement plant I can get to use boxcars, and hoppers. Normally if I will add a plant, shipping, etc....I will make sure I can use a couple of different cars. I think I will get more enjoyment out of it.
On another note:
A plant right below me does "rock salt" for winter, and they only have about three sidings. Right now with it being winter, they have hoppers everywhere. The room for them???? Nope. A small yard below the plant is full of hoppers. Way more than normal. I guess used for the extra hoppers.
I guess you could always add a small yard just for a plant, but that will take up more layout room.
Here is a quick shot of the lower yard. Not the best shot, but hey its was taken in a moving car on the bridge.
"Rust, whats not to love?"
barrokDon't forget the team track!
I purposely left out the team track. The post was about industries, I do not consider a team track to be an industry.
Good list. My old T/C had a couple that may be of interest. (1955)
1. Limestone mine/plant. Used gravity loaded covered & open hoppers for bulk, box cars / fork trucks for bagged product.
2. Furniture factory. Used flats for lumber in, tanks / adhesives/varnish, etc., box cars / fabric, metal parts, etc., in - finished goods out. Usually had a gondola under a chute for waste.
3. RR / truck cross dock. Long narrow dock, 4-5 box cars on one side, trucks on the other. Freight moved back and forth. (RR owned)
(#1 & 2 also had facility for using trucks, as well)
Do US cement works still send out bagged cement (in boxcars) by rail? Just wondering because a plant I worked at shipped about 95% bulk by tanker but the rest bagged on pallets. It could add another variation. Maybe all door box cars?
Something I've never seen modelled is either a plaster-board factory or a corrugated cement/asbestos cladding/roof sheet factory???
I don't think that much of the factory needs to be modelled. What I am aiming to do is to run the tail track for an off-scene large industry out from a scenic break and along between the backs of smaller industries and the main tracks. Hopefully this will give me the best of all worlds. It also gives somewhere for the big plant's own internal locos to shuffle about.
Thanks for starting the interesting thread. I like the links.
Dave,Yes,bagged cement can be ship in boxcars.
Here is a handy list.
http://www.csx.com/?fuseaction=customers.acquanted#DOC26911
Even loose cement was shipped in box cars before suitable covered hoppers became generally available.
markpierce Even loose cement was shipped in box cars before suitable covered hoppers became generally available. Mark
Mark,One of my favorite waybills was for a N Scale SP&S 40' boxcar..It was loaded with bagged cement for Imperial Cement Products Bristol,Va on my old CD&B....I have the same waybill today but,its for a BN boxcar headed for Reliance Universal Concrete Products Jackson,Oh on my C&HV...I used real names gleamed from phone books but,relocated the industries to towns on my former CD&B and now my CH&V's Jackson Line.
Boxcars haul a lot of things.Even today loads for boxcars can be anything from pet food to gaylords of scrap paper..I suppose that's why I like boxcars.
ok so ive searched for Golden Grain Ethanol plant in Mason City Iowa but can not find any views...what am i doing wrong?
HO Scale modeler of Union Pacific and Iowa Chicago and Eastern Railroads.
The most recent Track Planning has an article on corn syrup switching. Never knew how much of that stuff there was.
Something I think is interesting is how we are influenced by what we grew up with and see. I grew up in an area with one large dominant industry and many small businesses. Even the town I'm in had many small rail served businesses, some as recently as a couple years ago. One was a dead ringer for Walters propane. Another, a commercial food service, was a classic "freight car is almost bigger than the building". What also surprised me was how many covered hoppers a very small elevator can consume. Those can be very small and still generate a lot of traffic. There are two small elevators and a feed mill here that help justify a locomotive stationed in town.
ChadMichaels ok so ive searched for Golden Grain Ethanol plant in Mason City Iowa but can not find any views...what am i doing wrong?
When I searched for Golden Grain Ethanol, I did not find much relevant. It looks like that is because its name is actually Golden Grain Energy.http://www.goldengrainenergy.com/plant_photo.htm
I am in the process of relocating to Williamsburg Michigan just east of Traverse City. This is fruit country (in northern Michigan of all places). 22 wineries within 30 miles, cherry, apple and peach trees as far as the eye can see, National cherry festival around the Fourth of July and a really neat little rail loading building in Williamsburg. Originally rails served the numerous packing plants directly but now this little forty by twenty foot building does the job. There are two truck docks on the west side, two rail loading doors on the north and one on the south side. Apparently fruit is brought by truck, unloaded by forklift directly to rail cars. The building is modern corrugated steel siding and perfect for a small space. The siding looks like it can handle ten to twelve cars at a time but right now everything is covered in snow. As soon as the snow thins out (57" at this point) I'll get some pictures.
A link to a turkey feed manufacturer in Dubois Indiana. Receives a 10 to 12 car train of soybean meal every few days. This satellite photo is when it was relatively new. Its only about 5 years old and looks like an ADM grain elevator kit could model it very well. An Alco S2 brings the cars in from the NS interchange about 16 miles away. Zoom in close and scroll due north from the center of town.
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&source=hp&q=dubois+Indiana&rlz=1R2GGLT_enUS333&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=Dubois,+IN&gl=us&ei=0lVbS8rYLYXUNdfV-PwO&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CAkQ8gEwAA
- Douglas
On my all-too-frequent trips to visit the in-laws, I pass the Union Tank Car Co. repair shop in Cleveland, TX coming and going. A reasonable representation of this will reside on my layout when it (the layout) eventually moves from paper to plywood.
Look how many cars are staged on the map: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&source=hp&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=union+tank+cleveland+tx&fb=1&gl=us&hq=union+tank&hnear=cleveland+tx&cid=0,0,18312235321312360894&ei=4C5eS4LLM4H-tQOCrrnpAQ&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CAoQnwIwAA
One really cool feature is they have a sign at the entrance with a miniature detailed tank car mounted on top. I figure I can duplicate this pretty closely with a Z-scale tank car.
Another one that is common in the south, but is usually modeled as a small siding is woodchips/pulpwood. When I was a kid there were several pulpwood yards nearby. Basically a single track, a couple of small frame structures and a lot of pine. Even though small, they loaded out a lot of cars. Today's chip mills would make a great project as well. Both would be well suited for an empties in/loads out connection since many pulpwood cars were destination specific (Canton NC for example).
jmbjmbAnother one that is common in the south, but is usually modeled as a small siding is woodchips/pulpwood. When I was a kid there were several pulpwood yards nearby. Basically a single track, a couple of small frame structures and a lot of pine. Even though small, they loaded out a lot of cars. Today's chip mills would make a great project as well. Both would be well suited for an empties in/loads out connection since many pulpwood cars were destination specific (Canton NC for example).
I had completely forgotten about it, but MR had an article about those in the October 2002 issue.
Here are a few more.
Nevada Cement Terminal - Sacramento, CABird's Eye View, Satellite View, Street View, Web page
Cemex Terminal - Polk, CABird's Eye View, Satellite View
Headwaters Resources Fly Ash Terminal - Fresno, CABird's Eye View, Satellite View, Street View, Web page
West Coast Pipe Inspection and Testing - Shafter, CAThis is actually rather large, but should be easily compressed.Satellite View, Web page
Grimmway Farms - Shafter, CAThis industry is a bit on the large side. However, for the amount of reefers there, it is small compared to other industries that have the same quantity of reefers.Satellite View, Street View, Web page
You could also do a Military Arsonal, and they are huge like 26000 sq acres. they need parts in and parts out. Mainly box cars. Also flat cars for the heavy equipment like tanks and hummers.
How about Hercules Powder? Many different types of products in (for black and smokeless powders, Dynamite, TNT, Cordite and Plastic Explosives). Tank cars, box cars, hoppers, covered hoppers, and gondolas inbound. Insulated cushioned underframe boxcars and covered hoppers for bulk shipments and all of the empty cars out. Explosives 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 cars, HANDLE CAREFULLY!!!.
I'm modeling an ethonal plant after reading an article in the last issue of the walthers catalog. Then I found a prototype ethonal plant just northeast of my area (Fort Collins, CO).
It should be fun switching this, because of the variety of cars and type of loads like Grain, pellets/corn, gasoline, and the end-product ethanol alcohol.
I love looking at satalite images of the industries, and then just following the tracks to see were they go, man that is the coolest thing EVAR!!!
Michael
CEO- Mile-HI-RailroadPrototype: D&RGW Moffat Line 1989
My grandma lived across from a pulpwood yard in rural southwest Arkansas; her first cousin ran it. Every few days, KCS would send a GP9 down with a couple of bulkhead flats and drop them at the siding. He would use his pulpwood loader to unload the trucks coming in from the woods, and he'd load them onto the flat cars. The local would show up and pick up the loaded cars. Of course, nowadays, the paper mills feed in entire logs, not the 5 foot sticks my cousin would unload/load. Ah, good memories!
Here is a small auto terminal in Silver Bow, MT.Satellite Photograph
Here is a small intermodal terminal and auto terminal in Valley, NVBird's Eye View, Satellite Photograph
ericsp Here is a small intermodal terminal and auto terminal in Valley, NVBird's Eye View, Satellite Photograph