DoughlessHey, I've been there! I grew up in GI.
I left GI in 1970 and moved to Louisiana. We moved back to NE about 20 years ago, but not to GI. GI has changed a lot since 1970!
York1 John
York1 I'm coming to this thread late, but I haven't seen anything about bombs. Outside my hometown, there was a set of buildings called the Cornhusker Army Ammunition Plant. It was a major supplier of bombs during WWII and the Vietnam War. The plant was torn down years ago, but the bunkers and the railroad tracks are still there. The tracks could make an interesting layout if I had a huge model railroad room. Union Pacific still owns some tracks to the old plant, and some newer factories have moved in that have rail connections.
I'm coming to this thread late, but I haven't seen anything about bombs.
Outside my hometown, there was a set of buildings called the Cornhusker Army Ammunition Plant. It was a major supplier of bombs during WWII and the Vietnam War.
The plant was torn down years ago, but the bunkers and the railroad tracks are still there.
The tracks could make an interesting layout if I had a huge model railroad room. Union Pacific still owns some tracks to the old plant, and some newer factories have moved in that have rail connections.
Hey, I've been there! I grew up in GI.
- Douglas
Cymrych79 Dont forget Deka Battery not far away either. That is a good low profile, edge of layout type industry. Shane rrinker That's a good one too. Palmerton, PA was home to a NJ Zinc plant, served by its own railroad but also right by a fatastic LNE bridge which no longer exists that crossed the Lehigh River, as well as CNJ and LV tracks. You can still see evidence of it being there in the surroundign hills, but I remember as a kid the hills were all completely bare of vegetation, the fumes fromt he smelting process killed everything. Years of cleanup has resulted in most of it coming back, but you can still tell when driving through the area. --Randy Glad you chimed in Randy. My grandfather retired from Dixie Cup. And I lived a few years in Palmerton after college. It's amazing how green the mountain is now, compared to when I was a youngster in the 80s. It looked like Mordor for 50+ years. The zinc plant's rails were ultimate owned by CNJ. They had a subsidiary railroad, the Chestnut Ridge RR, which ran 10 miles east to Kunkletown. Mostly general goods for Kunkletown, but the Chestnut Ridge started its life in the early 1900s with financing from Rockefeller and JJ Astor as both a line to a resort destination, as well as a line serving a unique white clay mining operation. Never quite panned out, though. I model the western end of the CRRR at its junction with the CNJ at Hazard, just west of Palmerton. Sadly, the CRRR only runs about 3 ft from the interchange track into a tunnel as hidden staging as I just didn't have space to model anything of the shortline or the zinc plant in Palmerton. Jason
Dont forget Deka Battery not far away either. That is a good low profile, edge of layout type industry.
Shane
rrinker That's a good one too. Palmerton, PA was home to a NJ Zinc plant, served by its own railroad but also right by a fatastic LNE bridge which no longer exists that crossed the Lehigh River, as well as CNJ and LV tracks. You can still see evidence of it being there in the surroundign hills, but I remember as a kid the hills were all completely bare of vegetation, the fumes fromt he smelting process killed everything. Years of cleanup has resulted in most of it coming back, but you can still tell when driving through the area. --Randy
That's a good one too. Palmerton, PA was home to a NJ Zinc plant, served by its own railroad but also right by a fatastic LNE bridge which no longer exists that crossed the Lehigh River, as well as CNJ and LV tracks. You can still see evidence of it being there in the surroundign hills, but I remember as a kid the hills were all completely bare of vegetation, the fumes fromt he smelting process killed everything. Years of cleanup has resulted in most of it coming back, but you can still tell when driving through the area.
--Randy
Glad you chimed in Randy. My grandfather retired from Dixie Cup. And I lived a few years in Palmerton after college. It's amazing how green the mountain is now, compared to when I was a youngster in the 80s. It looked like Mordor for 50+ years.
The zinc plant's rails were ultimate owned by CNJ. They had a subsidiary railroad, the Chestnut Ridge RR, which ran 10 miles east to Kunkletown. Mostly general goods for Kunkletown, but the Chestnut Ridge started its life in the early 1900s with financing from Rockefeller and JJ Astor as both a line to a resort destination, as well as a line serving a unique white clay mining operation. Never quite panned out, though.
I model the western end of the CRRR at its junction with the CNJ at Hazard, just west of Palmerton. Sadly, the CRRR only runs about 3 ft from the interchange track into a tunnel as hidden staging as I just didn't have space to model anything of the shortline or the zinc plant in Palmerton.
Jason
[/quote]
A pessimist sees a dark tunnel
An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel
A realist sees a frieght train
An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space
It's difficult to see the rail lines in this image:
Underground bunkers:
Doughless It amazing how many people try to put them together with yellow wood glue. I love those. They snap right apart.
.
So true... I love finding plastic kits in the 1-4 dollar bargain bins assembled with wood glue.
Pop them apart and harvest the raw building materials.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
doctorwayne I really like DPM's modular wall systems, but I find them to be grossly over-priced, even moreso than when I used them to build this grocery warehouse... Wayne
I really like DPM's modular wall systems, but I find them to be grossly over-priced, even moreso than when I used them to build this grocery warehouse...
Wayne
Nicely done Wayne. Yes, the modulars are pricey. I've gotten most of mine from breaking down poorly built DPM structures individuals sell at trainshows. Once I got the huge DPM power plant nearly falling apart for only $5. It supplied a great deal of parts at once. Old DPM kits, or poorly built structures is one of the items I regularly look for at shows. It amazing how many people try to put them together with yellow wood glue. I love those. They snap right apart.
There were several cotton mills in my hometown of Hamilton, Ontario, but most of them have been torn down.This one, Imperial Cotton, is no longer a cotton mill, but it's still around and houses many small artisan-type industries, plus an art and photography school.
It has also been on several of the local "Doors Open" tours, where interested parties can visit sites normally restricted from public access...
...it was rail-served...
Basically a steel-framed building, the floors are 2"x6" lumber, installed on-edge, in two layers at 90º to one another. This was to support the heavy looms and carding machinery used to make sailcloth, industrial belts for power transmission to machinery, roofing for railway cars, and awnings.
I modelled another cotton mill in my home town, a much larger curtainwall-style structure, which no longer exists.
jmbjmb Something I seldom see is the cotton industry. A cotton mill would generate a lot of traffic, at least into the early 70s era and provides a great backdrop industry for a small town becasue of it's linear design. Also in that industry would be a cotton gin & oil mill. The town where I grew up had one with a fascinating "E L Moore" like mix of brick, corrugated, and wood structure. I even took pictures of it to model some day, if I could find the pictures.
Something I seldom see is the cotton industry. A cotton mill would generate a lot of traffic, at least into the early 70s era and provides a great backdrop industry for a small town becasue of it's linear design. Also in that industry would be a cotton gin & oil mill. The town where I grew up had one with a fascinating "E L Moore" like mix of brick, corrugated, and wood structure. I even took pictures of it to model some day, if I could find the pictures.
My new layout will recycle some structure parts that I used on the old layout. Notably, DPM modulars. These are a repeating design which mimick the linear and repeating brick designs of many cotton mill structures I have seen in the SE USA. It's already assembled for the most part, and is a background structure that uses those old parts plus a few new modular sections. It will represent and abandoned mill that is no longer rail served, sometime in the 2000s.
Related to a couple of posts others made, the town we now live in still had a row of very model genic industries that were still rail served until around 2010. In the space of a couple hundred yards were a wholesale grocery that received both box and refrigerator traffic; a warehouse; a small propane dealor that looked like it came out of a Walthers box; and a tannery that received hides by rail. Every one of these was pretty much the "boxcar is bigger than the factory" yet completely real.
I have a string of open-top coal hoppers. Pretty ordinary, I suppose, but these are the old Tyco clamshell door hoppers that actually dump coal out the bottom. I have an old flood loader from Vollmer, I believe, and also one of the old trip-tracks that would open the hopper doors and dump the coal. So, I have a coal industry that both loads coal into hoppers and then unloads it into a waiting bin on the other side of the layout.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
In Model Railroader and other train magazines in the 80s, they actually advertised smells for stuff like, maybe not offal, but they did offer rendering plants, leather tanning plants, pickling plants, meat packing plants, and smells like real burning coal and diesel oil smells. You didn't see those ads anymore in the 90s, however. Anyone with a wife can understand why that wouldn't work. Probably why they'll never have smellovision.
One need not model a large industry on the layout. You can have a siding to a chain-link fence gate with the track continuing behind a hill/line of trees that can lead to a multitude of possibilities: explosives plant, military base, virtually any type of inustry that is fenced in.
They've been mentioned earlier in the post, but I'll add my vote to quarries as an underappreciated industry for modelers. To actually model a believable quarry would take a lot of space, but they're a great 'background' industry. My quarry is in a corner of the room, where the layout curves. I designed the layout to allow for a duckunder and space to stand and work in the corner behind the backdrop. (This was necessary because there's a plumbing shutoff valve up in the ceiling there.) The lead to my quarry goes through the backdrop to a couple of spurs that curve along behind the backdrop. It's a simple empties in/loads out operation, shipping both sand and gravel for a bit of visual variety. On the layout, there's a chain link security fence along the property line (including an operating gate across the track), with a lot of trees and brush inside the fence (which is typical around an open pit operation). I used the trees to hide the opening in the backdrop and pasted a cutout photo of a rock crusher and some gravel piles on the backdrop behind the trees. It looks good, generates a lot of switching action and traffic, and best of all, instead of taking up space it makes use of space that otherwise might have been wasted.
Another idea that hasn't been mentioned is an auto parts plant. These take up a lot less space than an assembly plant but can generate a fair bit of interesting rail traffic. Back in the 70's, I worked a few summers in a facility that was two plants in one. One side was an engine assembly line that brought parts in (spark plugs, timing belts, etc.) and shipped finished engines out to assembly plants, using both truck and boxcar. It had an indoor loading track. The other side was a foundry that made castings (engine block, cylinder head, etc.). Again, boxcars to deliver metal ingots and ship finished parts out to other plants. Casting sand could be delivered by hopper car. I also saw tank cars there; not sure what they were bringing in. As a security guard, I had the run of the place, but was pretty ignorant about the actual casting process!
mbinsewi I think somebody mentioned roofing granules, but your right! The WC had covered hoppers just for this service. Mike.
I think somebody mentioned roofing granules, but your right!
The WC had covered hoppers just for this service.
Mike.
Yes, its a way to have shorty two bay covered hoppers without having to default to having a cement facility or theme. And it trandscends era since roofing shingles have been around for a while.
Sand is another possibility, and more modern short hoppers are being used and even built for fracking sand. Very good way to have a lot of short cars for modern layouts.
jeffhergertI see a lot of reefers of cheese destined to Wisconsin. I assume they are coming from California.
Jeff, don't tell our gracious hosts up in Wisconsin, but California dairy products are very good. I have had fresh milk in California and Wisconsin, and I prefer the West Coast product for sure.
Maybe there is something about those "Happy Cows" we keep hearing about.
Just to be fair, California Navel Oranges are far superior to the Navels grown in Florida. Other types or Oranges, not as much.
rrinker The Dixie Cup plant was near where I grew up. The water tower on top was shrouded and painted like a giant Dixie Cup.
While not a rail served industry, the Tervis Tumbler manufacturing plant in Sarasota, Florida has its main entrance shrouded and shaped like a big Tervis Tumbler.
Brick Factory
I was always surprised to see very few 'brick factories' on layouts or modules.
I saw this image a long time ago when I was looking thru old mags, and it made such an impression on me that I am putting that scene on my new layout,....out back of my old time waterfront scene.
Brian
My Layout Plan
Interesting new Plan Consideration
My You Tube
I think another modern industry that uses rail service that I have not seen modeled is a roofing shingle factory. They get inbound covered hoppers and gondolas of aggegates, and ship outbound via boxcar, centerbeam cars and semi-trucks. a very nice variety of cars.
James Sanchez
rrinker dstarr Save your Dixie cups. The South will rise again. The Dixie Cup plant was near where I grew up. The water tower on top was shrouded and painted like a giant Dixie Cup. Rail served off the Lehigh Valley's Easton & Northern Branch. More modern times - how about toilet paper? Reading and Northern serves a huge Proctor & Gamble plant near Mehoopany PA that makes Charmin. --Randy
dstarr Save your Dixie cups. The South will rise again.
Save your Dixie cups. The South will rise again.
The Dixie Cup plant was near where I grew up. The water tower on top was shrouded and painted like a giant Dixie Cup.
Rail served off the Lehigh Valley's Easton & Northern Branch.
More modern times - how about toilet paper? Reading and Northern serves a huge Proctor & Gamble plant near Mehoopany PA that makes Charmin.
joe323 Trash! On my former layout I had modified a 2 stall engine house so trash trucks used in city service could unload and the waste would be loaded into gondolas for transport out. These days there are dedicated cars for this but my layout was a bit older so I used gondolas. Not sure if that was ever done in real lif.
Trash! On my former layout I had modified a 2 stall engine house so trash trucks used in city service could unload and the waste would be loaded into gondolas for transport out.
These days there are dedicated cars for this but my layout was a bit older so I used gondolas. Not sure if that was ever done in real lif.
SeeYou190 tstage If you know nothing about them then why your earlier strong opinion about them??? There is life (and industry) outside of FL... . Tom, All I said was: . SeeYou190 Sugar Beets... Booooooooooo! . That was more "Tounge In Cheek" than a strong oppinion. . Sorry if it came across incorrectly. . I would expect a Georgian to say "Pepsi... Boooooooooooo!", or a Wisconsonite to say "California Cheese... Booooooooooo!" with the same light hearted intent. . -Kevin .
tstage If you know nothing about them then why your earlier strong opinion about them??? There is life (and industry) outside of FL...
Tom,
All I said was:
SeeYou190 Sugar Beets... Booooooooooo!
That was more "Tounge In Cheek" than a strong oppinion.
Sorry if it came across incorrectly.
I would expect a Georgian to say "Pepsi... Boooooooooooo!", or a Wisconsonite to say "California Cheese... Booooooooooo!" with the same light hearted intent.
Actually, I see a lot of reefers of cheese destined to Wisconsin. I assume they are coming from California. (Where they have Happy Cows, so I've heard.)
Jeff
Quite a few years ago when I was first getting back into the hobby, the modular concept was become real popular. I attended one such event at a big hotel just south of DC. It attracted modules from all over the world, and it took up the entire garage area of the hotel. In addition they had many displays touting the different model train scales thru out the lobbies..
It was at this event that I decided to get back into the hobby. I began to think of ideas for construction different modules....themes you might say. As I viewed various module events (Timonium show, Firehouse & club events), I noticed how the young kids marveled at these displays. My thoughts turned to how these modular train displays could not only be very satisfying for a person to create, but also might become a 'teaching event'.
There were two themes that I recall dreaming up in particular,...one was a Saturn 5 rocket launching scene with liquid oxygen being supplied by cryogenic railcars. The other was a big power plant scene,..
I just don't recall seeing a lot of good power plant scenes that might cover a broad era of their use. As I mentioned before not a lot of young folks even know where and how our electrical power comes from/is generated. I wanted to create a whole scene with the older style coal plant (with coal piles sitting along side the delivery tracks). Then perhaps some ongoing construction to a portion of that plant with turbines sections (peaking and otherwise) being added to the plant. Then over across the river bridges (source of cooling waters). a nuclear plant under construction. I had (have) collected lots of various transformer delivery train cars, and lots of various style construction cranes This could be a pretty exciting scene to visit, particularly with today's multiple flashing LED lights on construction equipment. Don't think I'll have room for such a scene on my new layout, but it would be fun. Update to this older posting:Over a few years I collected up quite a number of cranes, tall construction type, both mobile mounted and stationary i figured these could all add into the construction of that nuclear plant, and the unloading & installation of the large electrical transformers etc. I also gather some of the transformers, and one or two of those very long transformer moving cars. Guess I'm going to have to consider selling some of this off, as I don't have room on my current layout construction...too bad as it would have been an attention getter and a 'deposit' for a variety of freight cars
I just don't recall seeing a lot of good power plant scenes that might cover a broad era of their use.
As I mentioned before not a lot of young folks even know where and how our electrical power comes from/is generated. I wanted to create a whole scene with the older style coal plant (with coal piles sitting along side the delivery tracks). Then perhaps some ongoing construction to a portion of that plant with turbines sections (peaking and otherwise) being added to the plant.
Then over across the river bridges (source of cooling waters). a nuclear plant under construction. I had (have) collected lots of various transformer delivery train cars, and lots of various style construction cranes This could be a pretty exciting scene to visit, particularly with today's multiple flashing LED lights on construction equipment.
Don't think I'll have room for such a scene on my new layout, but it would be fun.
Update to this older posting:Over a few years I collected up quite a number of cranes, tall construction type, both mobile mounted and stationary i figured these could all add into the construction of that nuclear plant, and the unloading & installation of the large electrical transformers etc. I also gather some of the transformers, and one or two of those very long transformer moving cars.
Guess I'm going to have to consider selling some of this off, as I don't have room on my current layout construction...too bad as it would have been an attention getter and a 'deposit' for a variety of freight cars
One of my more recent structures is a depot, decorated for the Railway Express Agency. Again, this is a flexible industry that can bring in or send out many loads. My layout found itself with a pair of express reefers badged Railway Express that would have run on my passenger trains, and also a couple of Railway Express light delivery trucks.
As an aside, the reefers would need ice service, like beer and meat reefers at the icing platform. Somewhere, probably a train show, I found and ice bunker reefers labelled for my home road, the Milwaukee. When very local ice could not be procured, it would be delivered in cars like this to ice houses throughout the system.
Railway Express used to be a common sight along rail lines. It's another reason why I model the Transition Era, before so many childhood memories faded away.
A sheetrock plant can have a connection to a coal fired power plant. A plant near Pittsburgh uses gypsum from the air pollution control equipment of a nearby power plant. I belive it is shipped by barge or truck but could arrive in covered hoppers if the distance were greater and the economics allowed.
Mark Vinski
My layout includes a local power company that receives various sized utility poles by the carload. The power company that I work with IRL used to recieve thier poles this way. I asked one of the older lineman over there and he thought they pulled the tracks back in the early 90's.
mbinsewi Shock Control The split-level house in the residential section of my winter layout runs an e-sales business out of the basement. I'd raise the lease, and what about taxes? Does the state you live in have a sales tax due on e-sales? You don't want the tax police knocking down your door. How would you explain that to the neighbors? Mike.
Shock Control The split-level house in the residential section of my winter layout runs an e-sales business out of the basement.
I'd raise the lease, and what about taxes? Does the state you live in have a sales tax due on e-sales?
You don't want the tax police knocking down your door. How would you explain that to the neighbors?
Ha ha! I don't currently have any police cars on the layout, although I can't rule out the possiblity that one of the 1950s sedans on the commercial strip could be driven by an IRS representative!
dstarr Nobody has mentioned paper mills. Granted most of 'em have moved off shore by now, but back a few years, 20 say, we had a grunch of 'em in New England. Solid brick buildings, a power plant with a tall stack, access to water. Took in pulpwood on flats, coal, chlorine, sizing in covered hoppers. Shipped out paper in big rolls by box car. Great reason to run solid trains of pulpwood even if you lacked a logging camp to supply it.
Nobody has mentioned paper mills. Granted most of 'em have moved off shore by now, but back a few years, 20 say, we had a grunch of 'em in New England. Solid brick buildings, a power plant with a tall stack, access to water. Took in pulpwood on flats, coal, chlorine, sizing in covered hoppers. Shipped out paper in big rolls by box car. Great reason to run solid trains of pulpwood even if you lacked a logging camp to supply it.
Also recycled paper mills, that use collected waste paper to make sheetrock grades (grayback & creamface), tube and core stock, and cartons. Finished product can be in large rolls or stacks of flat sheets on pallets.
This is where all those big bales of crushed old corragated cartons ("OCC") and loads of old newspaper and mixed paper are going, much arriving by rail. No need to be near timber areas, any good-size population center (an "urban forest") will do. Also, these mills tend to be smaller since the raw material is already paper fiber, so they don't need the complex chemical process to break the wood chips down.
Jim