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What Industries Does your Railroad Cater to?

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  • Member since
    September 2011
  • From: chicago, Illinois
  • 683 posts
What Industries Does your Railroad Cater to?
Posted by Mr. LMD on Tuesday, July 16, 2013 7:24 PM

Without freight, most railroads wouldn't survive so what industries does your railroad (proto or freelance) cater to?

Mr. LMD, Owner, founder

The Central Chicago & Illinois Railroad

  • Member since
    January 2010
  • From: Denver, CO
  • 3,576 posts
Posted by Motley on Tuesday, July 16, 2013 7:46 PM

For my modern layout. I have....

Oil
Coal
Ethanol
Intermodal

Those are the four big industries I have for my prototype. 

Michael


CEO-
Mile-HI-Railroad
Prototype: D&RGW Moffat Line 1989

  • Member since
    September 2011
  • From: chicago, Illinois
  • 683 posts
Posted by Mr. LMD on Tuesday, July 16, 2013 7:51 PM

My railroad cater to

-Bagged charcoal

-Bricks

-Dry bagged cement

-mineral

-mail

-steel products

-Lumber

-Lumber built products

-Imported goods via barge

Mr. LMD, Owner, founder

The Central Chicago & Illinois Railroad

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: west coast
  • 7,613 posts
Posted by rrebell on Tuesday, July 16, 2013 7:59 PM

Mine are,  logs, lumber, cattle, milk, other dairy, oil and every manner of crated freight. I have a carfloat interchange so just about anything can come that way.

  • Member since
    September 2011
  • From: chicago, Illinois
  • 683 posts
Posted by Mr. LMD on Tuesday, July 16, 2013 8:01 PM

rrebell

Mine are,  logs, lumber, cattle, milk, other dairy, oil and every manner of crated freight. I have a carfloat interchange so just about anything can come that way.

Cool

Mr. LMD, Owner, founder

The Central Chicago & Illinois Railroad

  • Member since
    March 2013
  • 450 posts
Posted by EMD.Don on Tuesday, July 16, 2013 8:06 PM

For my modern era freelanced layout:

Freight:

-grain elevators X3

-medium sized fertilizer facility

-medium sized animal feed stores/agricultural goods/farmers co-op 

-CAT heavy equipment dealership 

Passenger:

-one nostalgic tourist train (EMD F7a and F7b with streamliner passenger/vist dome cars).

-plans to acquire a small Amtrak consist...just plans  right now Whistling

Happy modeling!

Don.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that both engines have failed, and we will be stuck here for some time. The good news is that you decided to take the train and not fly."

N Scale Railroader.
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Posted by NittanyLion on Tuesday, July 16, 2013 8:08 PM

Brewery (three spurs)

Printing plant (two spurs)

  • Member since
    September 2011
  • From: chicago, Illinois
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Posted by Mr. LMD on Tuesday, July 16, 2013 8:08 PM

EMD.Don

For my modern era freelanced layout:

Freight:

-grain elevators X3

-medium sized fertilizer facility

-medium sized animal feed stores/agricultural goods/farmers co-op 

-CAT heavy equipment dealership 

Passenger:

-one nostalgic tourist train (EMD F7a and F7b with streamliner passenger/vist dome cars).

-plans to acquire a small Amtrak consist...just plans  right now Whistling

Happy modeling!

Don.

we have a winner lol

Mr. LMD, Owner, founder

The Central Chicago & Illinois Railroad

  • Member since
    September 2011
  • From: chicago, Illinois
  • 683 posts
Posted by Mr. LMD on Tuesday, July 16, 2013 8:08 PM

NittanyLion

Brewery (three spurs)

Printing plant (two spurs)

How many cars a day?

Mr. LMD, Owner, founder

The Central Chicago & Illinois Railroad

  • Member since
    June 2012
  • 2,297 posts
Posted by Burlington Northern #24 on Tuesday, July 16, 2013 8:12 PM

just about anything farmers and apple distributors can respectively shoehorn into cars or fight with to remove from the cars. 

SP&S modeler, 1960's give or take a decade or two for some equipment.

 http://www.youtube.com/user/SGTDUPREY?feature=guide 

Gary DuPrey

N scale model railroader 

  • Member since
    September 2011
  • From: chicago, Illinois
  • 683 posts
Posted by Mr. LMD on Tuesday, July 16, 2013 8:14 PM

Burlington Northern #24

just about anything farmers and apple distributors can respectively shoehorn into cars or fight with to remove from the cars. 

How much do you charge? :)

Mr. LMD, Owner, founder

The Central Chicago & Illinois Railroad

  • Member since
    July 2006
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Posted by BATMAN on Tuesday, July 16, 2013 8:41 PM

I will and/or do have a few agricultural type industries on the layout. The big business though will be a Rocky Mountain Pusher Station. With all the track and service buildings required to keep those monsters in fighting form, it will take up a lot of space and thus be the centre of attention on my layout.

Brent

"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."

  • Member since
    October 2001
  • From: OH
  • 17,574 posts
Posted by BRAKIE on Tuesday, July 16, 2013 8:43 PM

Like most switching lines the customer base changes.

Current customers:

SCR handles:

Food stuffs

Plastics

Tobacco

Alcohol beverages

crushed glass

steel pipes

construction equipment

Lumber

Line poles

--------------

Summerset Ry.

Foodstuffs

Manufactured goods.

Scrap rubber

Scrap plastic.

------------------

Huron River

Grain

Manufactured goods.

Chemicals.

 

 

Larry

Conductor.

Summerset Ry.


"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt  Safety First!"

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    June 2012
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Posted by Burlington Northern #24 on Tuesday, July 16, 2013 9:04 PM

Mr. LMD

Burlington Northern #24

just about anything farmers and apple distributors can respectively shoehorn into cars or fight with to remove from the cars. 

How much do you charge? :)

not sure I'd have to dig up prices for the NP, GN, BN, and BNSF. then I'll try to make a realistic price for DRST cars.

SP&S modeler, 1960's give or take a decade or two for some equipment.

 http://www.youtube.com/user/SGTDUPREY?feature=guide 

Gary DuPrey

N scale model railroader 

  • Member since
    September 2011
  • From: chicago, Illinois
  • 683 posts
Posted by Mr. LMD on Tuesday, July 16, 2013 9:05 PM

BRAKIE

Like most switching lines the customer base changes.

Current customers:

SCR handles:

Food stuffs

Plastics

Tobacco

Alcohol beverages

crushed glass

steel pipes

construction equipment

Lumber

Line poles

--------------

Summerset Ry.

Foodstuffs

Manufactured goods.

Scrap rubber

Scrap plastic.

------------------

Huron River

Grain

Manufactured goods.

Chemicals.

 

 

Awesome

Mr. LMD, Owner, founder

The Central Chicago & Illinois Railroad

  • Member since
    September 2011
  • From: chicago, Illinois
  • 683 posts
Posted by Mr. LMD on Tuesday, July 16, 2013 9:07 PM

Burlington Northern #24

Mr. LMD

Burlington Northern #24

just about anything farmers and apple distributors can respectively shoehorn into cars or fight with to remove from the cars. 

How much do you charge? :)

not sure I'd have to dig up prices for the NP, GN, BN, and BNSF. then I'll try to make a realistic price for DRST cars.

I'm sure you will have a profitable line by now. 

Mr. LMD, Owner, founder

The Central Chicago & Illinois Railroad

  • Member since
    October 2004
  • From: Colorful Colorado
  • 8,639 posts
Posted by Texas Zepher on Tuesday, July 16, 2013 11:23 PM

Burlington Northern #24
Mr. LMD
Burlington Northern #24
just about anything farmers and apple distributors can respectively shoehorn into cars or fight with to remove from the cars.
How much do you charge? :)
not sure I'd have to dig up prices for the NP, GN, BN, and BNSF. then I'll try to make a realistic price for DRST cars.

Actually at that time period you would not have gotten to make a rate.  Rates were regulated by the government.  Railroad rates weren't deregulated until the Staggers act of 1980.

  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: Smoggy L.A.
  • 10,743 posts
Posted by vsmith on Tuesday, July 16, 2013 11:49 PM
My harbor layout cars are brought in and out via rail barge. Industries and businesses served include:

Wharf shipping warehouses

Power plant

Soda bottling/distributor

Import warehouse

Brewery

A few small warehouses

   Have fun with your trains

  • Member since
    June 2012
  • 2,297 posts
Posted by Burlington Northern #24 on Wednesday, July 17, 2013 1:29 AM

Texas Zepher

Burlington Northern #24
Mr. LMD
Burlington Northern #24
just about anything farmers and apple distributors can respectively shoehorn into cars or fight with to remove from the cars.
How much do you charge? :)
not sure I'd have to dig up prices for the NP, GN, BN, and BNSF. then I'll try to make a realistic price for DRST cars.

Actually at that time period you would not have gotten to make a rate.  Rates were regulated by the government.  Railroad rates weren't deregulated until the Staggers act of 1980.

ok, thanks texas! and they say you don't learn something new everyday.

SP&S modeler, 1960's give or take a decade or two for some equipment.

 http://www.youtube.com/user/SGTDUPREY?feature=guide 

Gary DuPrey

N scale model railroader 

  • Member since
    December 2004
  • From: Bedford, MA, USA
  • 21,408 posts
Posted by MisterBeasley on Wednesday, July 17, 2013 6:19 AM

I'm building a tannery, which will get its hides from my meat packing plant, along with salt and acid from "elsewhere."

I load coal at a mine and also unload it at a coal and oil dealership at another point on the layout.

I've also got a brewery, a cloth-oriented factory called Moose Mills, and the Powder Milk Biscuit Company.  Then there's Interstate Pipe, the Drosophila and Melanogaster Wholesale Fruit warehouse and a scrapyard.

It may not be an "industry," but the icing platform for ice-bunker reefers is very much a part of the process for shipping meat and fruit.  It also serves the express reefers that will visit the Railway Express Agency once that's built.

Finally, I have a car float that serves to take goods to and from some unknown place off the layout.  Again, it's not an "industry," but it can be thought of as one in the context of operations and switching.

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

  • Member since
    December 2011
  • From: Northern Minnesota
  • 2,774 posts
Posted by NP2626 on Wednesday, July 17, 2013 7:00 AM

My Northern Pacific Proto-Lanced layout operates: through freight, local industries and some passenger service.  It serves: the railroad itself (Coal, oil, sand and parts for cars and locomotives and general freight) Copper Mining, Logging, Meat Packing, a brewery and a Railroad Express Agency.  There are three copper mines served by the line, delivering empty ore cars and picking up loads and delivering mining supplies.

I am very new to operations, although I have been building and running trains on this layout since 1988.  I'm finding that keeping the railroad supplied with coal, sand and oil seems to be 50% of my operations.  In an interest to learn more about operations and find out if there are other model rails in my area, interested in operations, I joined the OpSIG.  Most of the operations in Minnesota appear to be in the Twin Cities, so joining the OpSIG was not much help for me.I probably don't operate prototypically and am content with that.

NP 2626 "Northern Pacific, really terrific"

Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association:  http://www.nprha.org/

  • Member since
    September 2013
  • 2,499 posts
Posted by caldreamer on Wednesday, July 17, 2013 8:01 AM

Steel Mill

Coke Ovens To Steel Mill

Coal to Coke Plant

Sugar from Sugar Beets

Wood furniture

Paper and Carboard Boxes

Limestone to sttel mill and Granite for aggregate and cut stone

Pianos

wine

fresh fruit and vegtables

  • Member since
    August 2001
  • From: US
  • 791 posts
Posted by steamage on Wednesday, July 17, 2013 8:30 AM

Water heater manufacture

Gravel for ballast

Scrap Iron

Oil dealer

Feed and farm supply

Chain link fence mfg. http://lariverrailroads.com/cyclone.html

Dog food mfg. http://lariverrailroads.com/strongheart.html

Lumber supply

Beer Distributor http://lariverrailroads.com/miller.html

And there are three Freight Stations

  • Member since
    September 2011
  • From: chicago, Illinois
  • 683 posts
Posted by Mr. LMD on Wednesday, July 17, 2013 8:44 AM

Awesome choices guys.

Mr. LMD, Owner, founder

The Central Chicago & Illinois Railroad

  • Member since
    April 2012
  • 164 posts
Posted by ONR FAN on Wednesday, July 17, 2013 9:05 AM

Mine will include mining, a transfer station and a steel mill.   I'm still deciding on the industries I want to add later when the layout has progressed.

  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, July 17, 2013 9:36 AM

I'm currently tearing down my modern-era current layout, but it served the following industries:

  • Asphalt ready-mix plant (receives bituminous in tank cars)
  • Granite cutter for home decor and counters (receives granite blocks in gons)
  • Commercial cookie bakery (receives bagged chocolate chips and other ingredients in boxcars, corn syrup tanks, flour and sugar in airslide covered hoppers)
  • Building supply yard (receives lumber on centerbeam flats, insulation/drywall/etc and other products in double-door boxcars
My new layout (still modern-era) will revolve around a large paper mill and have the following traffic:
  • LOTS of pulpwood in gondolas or bulkhead flats
  • Salt cake in large covered hoppers
  • Coal for the powerplant
  • Lime in covered hoppers
  • Corn starch in airslides
  • Chlorine, caustic soda, NaHS, sulfuric acid, liquor, tall oil, turpentine, all in tank cars (list includes inbound loads as well as outbound byproducts)
  • Recycled paper in boxcars (inbound)
  • Scrap paper in an old boxcar (in-plant move)
  • Paper rolls in boxcars (outbound)

I'm nowhere near finished planning for this since I have yet to finish tearing down my old layout, but I'm quite excited for the switching opportunities! This plant will keep a switcher and crew busy full-time.

  • Member since
    November 2003
  • From: Halifax, NS
  • 405 posts
Posted by THayman on Wednesday, July 17, 2013 9:37 AM

The layout I hope to build someday will be based on a section of CN's mainline between Montreal and Toronto, ideally representing (in some compressed form of course!) the stretch from Brockville to Montreal. Although the focus of my interest is the VIA passenger service on the line, the freights are what pay the bills :P

Major industries along that way that I'd like to model(moving from Brockville east):

-CN metals distribution (Brockville)

-Brockchem (includes Invista, Nitrochem, Dyno Nobel - lots of various tanks!)

-Maitland Ultramar terminal (unit tank trains from QC)

-Kriska (general transfer) and pipe loads at Prescott

-Prescott Grain and Greenfield Ethanol (in Johnstown - again more tanks, and grain and corn hoppers)

-CASCO (Canada Starch) Cardinal (tanks and hoppers)

-Not sure of specific industries from there to Cornwall/Coteau, etc....that area may get "very" compressed, only modelling the VIA station at Cornwall and possibly around Coteau Jct.  ;)

 

The way I'd like to design the layout would have run off to staging at either end (representing points east and points west), as well as the CP interchange at Brockville and maybe even the CSX interchange at Coteau. So that would allow me to run pretty much anything as run-through and interchange freight (lots of autoracks, intermodal, etc.).

-Tim

  • Member since
    September 2011
  • From: chicago, Illinois
  • 683 posts
Posted by Mr. LMD on Wednesday, July 17, 2013 10:30 AM

Loving the ideas and unique industries. 

Mr. LMD, Owner, founder

The Central Chicago & Illinois Railroad

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: Boise, Idaho
  • 1,036 posts
Posted by E-L man tom on Wednesday, July 17, 2013 11:32 AM

My Toledo Erie Central Railroad's industrial corridor ships just about anything, as it includes a team track, a warehouse and a (proposed) freight station. But among the rail-served industries it ships the following.

Beer and ale

Brewers' grains

Barley

Grain (mainly corn, soybeans and wheat)

Scrap metal

Fabricated metal

Coal

Small auto parts (brakes and suspension)

Manufactured goods (to be determined, industry not yet built)

 

Tom Modeling the free-lanced Toledo Erie Central switching layout.
  • Member since
    April 2009
  • From: Staten Island NY
  • 1,734 posts
Posted by joe323 on Wednesday, July 17, 2013 12:13 PM
Petroleum products mostly diesel some gasoline.

I have an intermodal transfer yard (rail to truck and vice versa)

During the summer and Hollidays a tourist line runs.

Joe Staten Island West 

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