industries on model railroads

[ShaunCN]

ok guys i need ur help again. I building a new shelf type layout and would like to include some new industries on it. What kind of industries do u have on your layouts? what industries serve each other? what kind of freight cars go with them? Also i don't have a lot of room as tthe layout will be 18 inches wide and about 16 feet long.

[Anonymous]

If you want something fairly uncommon, you could model a railcar paintshop. There used to be one of these in my hometown. They'd receive 10-15 cars that were gray with white reporting marks stenciled on the side. It took them a while to paint all of them.

What you'd need is a large, modern windowless box and enough storage tracks for however many cars you want to have serving your company. Then you'd have to get that many undecordated cars and an equal number of the same kind decorated. I never saw two different railroads have stuff get painted at the same time, so you could have, for example, 15 undec autoracks and 15 matching BNSF autoracks.

During one operating session, a train would deliver the undec cars. Then they would be spotted inside the big building. Then the giant hand of God would come down later and swap the undec cars for the painted ones. Then in a second session, the painted cars would be removed from the building and set out to be picked up by a train delivering more undec cars.

[ericsp]

What types of cars do you want to run? What era is you layout?

[fiatfan]

Back in the eighties I worked for a pet food company that shipped out as many as 10 insulated boxcars per day to several points around the country. They were returned empty.. The building was fairly small and you could use an interchange track to move them out of town and then return them as empties in your next session.

Tom

[ericsp]

Try this thread.
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?page=1&TOPIC_ID=19465

[Jetrock]

Currently on my layout: Cannery, bottling plant, team track, interchange.

Cars associated with each:
Cannery: Refrigerator car (loads in), tank car (corn syrup for canned fruit), boxcar (loads of tin or boxes for packing in, loads of canned goods out.)
Bottling plant: Refrigerator car, tank car, boxcar.
Team track: Any car that can be unloaded at a team track--boxcars, reefers, livestock cars, flatcar or gondola loads (with a winch), or even open-topped hopper cars (with an unloader.)
Interchange: Any car under the sun--they're just moving from railroad to railroad. The nice thing about an interchange is all you need is a piece of track, ideally one that leads "off-stage" or at least to the edge of the tabletop to suggest traffic going elsewhere.

My current layout is six feet long and 12" deep (mostly), so I feel your pain when it comes to space...your best bet is to use building flats to represent industries against your backdrop, or industries that take little or no space to model (team track, interchange) if you want to have a lot of switching action--or represent a small division yard in the middle with your industries along the edges.

You can also represent industries on the "near" edge--just show the loading dock on the close edge of the layout, suggesting that the building it serves is "off-stage." This would be ideal for something like a tank farm--just show the relatively small fuel-storage unloading area on the layout. Or put it up against the back wall and add a photo of a fuel tank on the backdrop (that's the next industry I'm going to add!)

Currently none of my industries serve each other directly, although traffic from any industry can go to or from the interchange. The area I model was primarily a site for processing of goods produced by the surrounding area--lumber milling, canneries, granaries, meat packing, bottling, etcetera--so it's mostly a flow of unfinished goods in from off-layout, then a flow of finished goods from the layout to the off-layout world. The cars are shuffled at the end of a session and the process repeated.

Other good small industries: Freight stations and warehouses are always good for lots of traffic. Various sorts of packing industries.

[Anonymous]

It really depends on what era and location you're modeling to determine what type of industries you should use. But one thing I saw on a narrow layout of a freinds of mine would work anywhere, anytime. . While most people get the narrow background buildings and trackwork looking right. they forget about the foreground. He built and open warehouse you looked at from the front of the layout What you do is take DPM module building sections, 1 deep and however long you'd want with freight doors. (Or you could go 2 deep and deliver the cars inside.) If you prefer 'out of the box kits' substitute one of Walthers background kits. Place the open end toward the ailse at the edge of the benchwork. Use brick imprinted sheet plastic to line the interior. Add a door level lower floor, upper floor(s), crates, forklifts, fixtures and don't forget people and you have a striking foreground model that will keep people looking. Plus you've only used about 6" of layout and you can deliver cars to the other side of the mainline that would be empties in loads out, or load in then load out on trucks. I'm planning on trying this on my new layout.

[Junctionfan]

Saw Mill to Lumber Store-ie Weyerhauser to Home Depot
Steel Mill's Blast Furnace to Slag Dump
Food Manufacturer to Food Distributor-ie Lamb Weston to Sysco
some autoparts manufacturers require lube oil 1-2 tankers

[Anonymous]

On my yet to be built layout with similar dimension to yours I intend to build a "Bluebird" Bus factory. I have several of the ConCor "Bluebird" School busses and I am going to use a modern steel building as a flat with a track going into the building. there will be several sidings for coil steel, boxes of supplies (motors, tires, glass, etc), and a loading point for flats to take out completed busses. Obviously the building will be compressed from the real thing as the school bus factory here in Tulsa is about a 1/4 mile long.

[Anonymous]

I have a large furniture factory. i used Walthers Hardwood furniture, with the distribution building from its Lakeside shipping kit as an additional warehouse, and a Pikestuff small yard office as a gaurd shack. The local comes in and leaves one or two boxcars and picks them up later in the session. The warehouse is served exclusively by trucks, giving me a chance to show off my massive fleet of Walthers trailers...

[BRAKIE]

I have several distributors that receive by rail and ship by truck to the local markets.Of these the Carr's Distribution:( In Beer,Whiskey.wine,tobacco Products.Out Empties) is my favorite because of the truck fleet I lettered for Carr's Distribution.To my mind this adds believability to the layout.I plan on having delivery trucks lettered for Deer Creek Meats as well.
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Now to answer your question..On my industrial switching layouts I avoid any industries that serve each other..The reason being is because on a small industrial switching layout I strive for believability.Two companies that is located within sight of each other would not use rail service but,would use a trucking company that specializes in transfer work between local industries or industry to warehouse.You see it would be cheaper and faster then rail service..Plus the railroads usually shun this type of service..Atfer all they realize trucks can do local transfer work faster and better then they can and at less costs..Now in plant switching is another subject but still within boundaries usually that of spotting loads and pulling empties like you would find at (say) a GM or Ford plant..
Now, A GM or Ford plant could be a small layout in its self.

[Anonymous]

I built an industry based on where I work. It's built from a DPM Modular bulk pack (steel sash window) and manufactures rail maintenance products, i.e., rail joints, pre-assembled insulated rail joints, car securement equipment, rail lubricators. Car types include flats loaded with rail or bundles of steel, box cars for shipping crates of parts, and gondolas for scrap. The fact that your layout is narrow is well suited by the module packs because you can build your industry to any dimension you need.

You might also consider building a mine, but only modeling the actual loading station.

[Anonymous]

On my shelf layout, the industries that really generate a lot of traffic are modelled off the layout. I provide a lead spur that may hold up to 10-15 cars that is hidden behind a stand of trees or a bridge. So with a car fowarding scheme of operating, as far as the engneer is concerned, he is delievering cars to an electronic factory, a couple of lumber yards, auto parts supplier, chemical plant, etc... Very diverse rolling stock can be used justifiably with this scheme. Of course there are modelled industries as well to provide good visual interest. Use your imagination and remember there are no rules!na

[AntonioFP45]

I'm about to build an "around the room" shelf layout. Industries will include a small lumber yard, a Purina Feed Mill, Furniture company, and a Fruit and Vegetable warehouse distributor. That will keep Boxcars, Center Flow Hoppers, Reefers and Flat cars pretty busy!

[Anonymous]

Grain elevators lots of em, fun to switch!

[leighant]

East Texas piney woods layout
( http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/aad.jpg)
Bulk oil dealer
Creosote wood-preservation-treating plant
Farm implement dealer
Gravel pit
Logging reload spur
Lumber mill log dump
Lumber mill shipping building
Lumber mill wood chip loading
Peanut putter plant
Pulpwood shipping spur


Navy blimp station on-base railroad
( http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/aaa.jpg)
End-loading (circus-style) heavy equipment ramp
Fuel depot
Helium containment tank
Outside storage yard
Naval stores warehouse

Planned Island Seaport layout being started:
( http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/ael.jpg]
Automobile-boxcar unloading platform
Bulk oil dealer
Dry ice handling (for frozen seafood)
Corps of Engineers construction yard
Cotton compress
Export grain elevator
Flour elevator
Freight house -LCL
General dry cargo docks- bananas
General dry cargo docks- coffee
General dry cargo docks- jute
Industrial gases supply
Oystershell dredging
Salt (for super-refrigeration of seafood)
Seafood shipping
Ship chandler
Shipyard
Sulphur export dock
Tea blending plant
Wholesale grocery supply

[Anonymous]

If you have only limited space the micro-chip industry shouldn't take up too much space.[:D]