The entire "animal" industry and its offshoots offers many possibilities for sidings and industries and work for the local. Here in Milwaukee it involved shipments between on-line industries of shorter distances -- more like one sees on a layout - than is common in railroading.
The animal is shipped. It is slaughtered, usually at a place like a packing house, but animal (dog) food places also got their share.
The meat might be shipped. Not all meat is for human consumption.
The organs might be cleaned - at one time "gut" was used for tennis racket strings and musical instrument strings, and other durable rope.
The hides -- to tanneries, which get other things shipped such as chemicals or bark and themselves are shippers of finished leather but also byproducts such as fleshings and hair.
The fleshings -- bits of hide with bits of flesh or muscle -- shipped to fertilizer plants or glue factories. Also chicken feed.
The offal is shipped often in open gons. I saw and smelled this at a siding that served a glue factory, and a factory that made not just fertilizers but chicken feed. In high heat the mass would ooze and burble and sometimes a sort of volcanic eruption would send the stuff over the sides of the gon. Result: the ties and rails were slick with fats sometimes to the point where the ground beneath the ties was destabilized. The whole area stunk.
Presumably some "good" offal is separated and shipped for dog food.
Bones and hooves are shipped - glue and fertilizer and "bone meal."
The blood is saved and shipped, often to be dried and sold as fertilizer or repellent of rabbits and chipmunks in gardens.
The hair scraped from the hides either at slaughterhouse or tannery is saved, packaged and sold. Makes felt.
The tallows and fats are sold, some edible some not. Shipped by tank car as a rule. But tallow is also canned and sold by some slaughter houses, such as Patrick Cudahy.
The manure squeezed from organs also has a market.
At at one point all of this moved by rail, but even into the 1960s alot of it moved by rail, and often tanneries, slaughter houses, and glue factories and fertilizer and dog food factories were all located within a few miles of each other, yet still shipped between them by rail.
The Schlitz Brewing Company here in Milwaukee shipped its spent grain to its company owned duck farms in Northern Racine county - by rail. The ducks were sold as food, as was duck blood (duck blood soup is delicious). The duck manure was retained. Schlitz also owned cranberry bogs in northern Wisconsin, fertlized with their own duck manure as well as some grain wastes. The cranberry wastes and fragments were blended with Schlitz's own duck manure to make a super garden fertilizer that was bagged and sold for high prices. And broken brown glass from the Schlitz bottling plant was shipped by rail to a facility that melted glass cullet into new brown bottles. In bright sun the siding looked like it was ballasted with diamonds!.
Dave Nelson
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.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
dstarrNobody has mentioned paper mills.
Yea, right! Not that long ago, WI. was full of them, paper, paper products, along with the raw materials and the other industries that supported the mills, such as clay and clay slurry, was a major portion the WC's traffic.
Mike.
My You Tube
dstarrNobody has mentioned paper mills
I remember reading articles in model magazines about them. And about paper transport in various cars. I think there have been discussions here, too.
A problem with most mills making roll paper is that the calendering process requires a long process line. That footprint is likely the antithesis of most small industries that will fit on a layout. On the other hand, if you need something as a backdrop across a wall, that might be it.
And there's paper for newsprint, and then there's kraft paper, like the big mill built in Springhill, Louisiana. Lots of sulfur, settling ponds, lots of visual interest.
Not an actual industry or even much of a structure, but a carfloat is more than just a scenic element. It is a universal source and destination for rolling stock of all kinds.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
MisterBeasleyNot an actual industry or even much of a structure, but a carfloat is more than just a scenic element.
It had literally not occurred to me before the trolleybus thread last week that there were now not one, but two effective systems for making working carfloats. You might have to put some kind of magnet keeper on one or more of the cars and gin up some sort of raisable magnet or solenoid arrangement to keep them from rolling 'in transit', but otherwise lots of fun staging cars down the apron and then retrieving them 'across the water' at a different part of the layout...
Perhaps the most underrepresented industry on my RR is a paper cup company, I've only seen one on one other layout - someone who was modeling the Western Maryland line coming out of Baltimore.
In the Baltimore suburb of Owings Mills there used to be the Maryland Cup Company. It received 100T covered hoppers with plastic pellets which were sucked out the car and into the building with hoses, the siding was alongside the building with no platform. Tankcars with wax were spotted on a different siding, I suspect they were double-hulled to allow steam to be pumped into the void in cold weather to liquefy the wax. The wax was pumped into large storage tanks. 50' boxcars were spotted inside a building, I can only guess at their use - inbound plastic bags and thin cardboard boxes for individual sale and cardboard cartons to hold several of the smaller boxes, also inks and dyes for the paper cups, paper for the cups. Outbound would be cartons of paper and plastic cups, plates, and cutlery in 50' boxcars.
So there's 3 different types of cars for one industry. Not bad. It was a very large facility so not a good candidate for complete, accurate modeling, but a combination of building flats and 3D structures would get the point across.
This is a great thread, always like reading about the industries that people model.
Jeff
There are still quite a few paper mills in the Southern United States.
.
They are HUGE, and would need to be compressed massively for a layout.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
jcopilot So there's 3 different types of cars for one industry. Not bad. It was a very large facility so not a good candidate for complete, accurate modeling, but a combination of building flats and 3D structures would get the point across. This is a great thread, always like reading about the industries that people model. Jeff
Michael
CEO- Mile-HI-RailroadPrototype: D&RGW Moffat Line 1989
SeeYou190There are still quite a few paper mills in the Southern United States. . They are HUGE, and would need to be compressed massively for a layout.
Makes me wonder, though ... what about a specialty papermaker? Like a smaller version of Crane -- notes, invitations, currency paper, pardon the expression 'cream laid stock' ... special car lettering for 'Rag Service'?
Save your Dixie cups. The South will rise again.
How about ZINC? AKA white metal. It's on EVERYBODY'S layouts. If not locomotive boilers, frames, and other white metal detail parts, it's the weight in those locomotives and some freight cars, or even the floors. And many of our vehicles are white metal. Even if you use pennies for weight, yeah, they're zinc these days.
For modelling, it could have to do with mining, transporting ore, processing, or transporting the finished product. Dan.
Southgate How about ZINC? AKA white metal. It's on EVERYBODY'S layouts. If not locomotive boilers, frames, and other white metal detail parts, it's the weight in those locomotives and some freight cars, or even the floors. And many of our vehicles are white metal. Even if you use pennies for weight, yeah, they're zinc these days. For modelling, it could have to do with mining, transporting ore, processing, or transporting the finished product. Dan.
Speaking of zinc, one of my favorite industries to read up on is smelting. Lead smelting often has zinc production as a by-product. While steel production is pretty popular on model railroads, it seems copper smelting and/or lead/zinc smelting is not as commonly represented.
Overmod SeeYou190 There are still quite a few paper mills in the Southern United States. . They are HUGE, and would need to be compressed massively for a layout. Makes me wonder, though ... what about a specialty papermaker? Like a smaller version of Crane -- notes, invitations, currency paper, pardon the expression 'cream laid stock' ... special car lettering for 'Rag Service'?
SeeYou190 There are still quite a few paper mills in the Southern United States. . They are HUGE, and would need to be compressed massively for a layout.
There's a pulp and paper mill on my layout. It is fairly well described in the narrative on my blog. The mill produces all types of paper from newsprint to kleenex to cambric linen stationery for the swells.
Usual deliveries of raw materials include gondola loads of hardwood tree stumps and giant bales of recycled corrugated medium (what civilians call cardboard). And every once in a while, a carload of old blue jeans arrives.
If it's paper, it's SJP&P.
LINK to SNSR Blog
SouthgateHow about ZINC?
Russell
ROBERT PETRICK pulp and paper mill
Water treatment plants, either drinking water or sewage are not often modeled. The larger ones receive chemicals by rail.
csxns ROBERT PETRICK pulp and paper mill Logs are brought in from local tree farms and made into wood chips we have one north of Bostic on CSX and one on the NS in Nebo NC.
Logs are brought in from local tree farms and made into wood chips we have one north of Bostic on CSX and one on the NS in Nebo NC.
Hey Russell-
Yes.
My mill is based, more or less, on the MeadWestvaco Mill in Sylacauga, Alabama and the WestRock Mill in Stevenson, Alabama. The Stevenson mill has a pretty impressive debarking/chipping facility, and the Sylacauga mill has a long log radial stacker. My N scale San Juan Pulp and Paper mill also features a 36" long fourdrinier paper machine, a 1300 ton pulp chest, a combine-cycle steam generating plant and incinerator (fired by natural gas and/or chip bark), and an 18-wheeler inclined chip/sawdust dump. All will have to be scratch built.
For rolling stock, I have a unit train of 24 bulkhead flat cars neatly loaded with cordwood and pulled by a pair of ACL SD35s.
Robert
A creosote plant.. In raw telephone poles out treated telephone poles. The same will work for railroad ties.
A paper recycling plant. In used paper out Gaylords of shredded paper in 50' boxcars..
Rail served landfills..Yes,there are garbage unit trains that is operated daily on several railroads.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
If your modeling the present - try these.
1) Transload Sites / Team Tracks - A lot of the shortlines and regionals are partnering with logistics providers to service offline customers. These can range from siding in a dirt lot to a complex of cranes/ramps/warehouses. Anything and everything comes through-tank cars, box cars, flat cars, etc. Check out Anacostia Rail Holdings and Genessee Wyoming.
2) Industrial Parks - Lots of varied customers in a central area. The real estate development aspect of railroads is so under appreciated. Rail car mix depends on customers. Check out the Modesto Empire Traction Railroad and Big Spring Railway.
3) Military Installations - These have everything from rail served warehouses, fuel depots to ramps were equipment is still loaded circus style. Some installations even have there own switching railroads. There are installations near Yermo and Herlong in California.
4) Cold Storage Warehouses - Lots of reefers. Depending on the facilities business model/location, product can be cross docked from rail reefers to highway trailers (local distribution) or reefer containers (international shipping). Check out KPAC Cold Storage in Los Angeles, CA.
5) Harbors That Specialize In Maritime Break Bulk - There are many smaller harbors that handle cargo such as aggregates, bulk liquids, project cargo and other merchandise that cannot go into containers. Some of these harbors are rather compact and have there own municiple switching railroads. Others rely operators such as Gennessee and Wyoming. Check out the Port Of Panama City Florida (Municiple Railroad) or Port Hueneme (Ventura County Railway).
6) Power Plants - Coal plants can have rather elaborate trackage arrangements involving the use of switchers or even dedicated railroads. The Navajo Mine Railroad is one example of a point to point railroad serving one customer.
Here in California many of the large natural gas and nuclear plants have rail sidings. While they are are not regular customers they may occassionally require service during the initial construction/periodic upgrade/refueling(nuclear) or decommisioning. Rail moves can require the use specialized equipment. Both the plants at San Onofre and Oxnard have rail connections.
7) The Regional Railroad Intermodal Facility - Some regional railroads do have their own dedicated intermodal facilities that handle containers. The Iowa Interstate Railroad has facilities at Blue Island, Illinois and Council Bluff, Iowa.
8) Sewage Treatment Plants - Rail services can range from a single spur that recieves a few tank cars to in-plant railroad. Check out the Chicago Sanitary District Railroad.
9) Project Railroads - In the 1990s, the Los Angeles Metrorail built the Red Line tunnel through the Hollywood Hills that used a mine train to haul rock from the boring machine to the tunnel entrance where it was loading into trucks since there was no nearby railroad. Other examples include aquaducts both recent and in the distant past. The Southern Pacific built everything from a special yard in Mojave to sidings and spurs to on the Jawbone branch to service the construction of the California Aquaduct. The facilities existed only a short time in both the case of the Red Line tunnel and the aquaduct.
These are just a few examples of often overlooked industries/operations that can add variety to a layout or in some cases be the basis of a layout. Research can be done by using the library, the internet and on the ground visits.
JoeBlow Industrial Parks - Lots of varied customers in a central area. The real estate development aspect of railroads is so under appreciated. Rail car mix depends on customers. Check out the Modesto Empire Traction Railroad and Big Spring Railway.
Railroads been servicing industrial parks since the 50s when they started showing up. As far Transload track major railroads use them as well but,they are lease and operated by a transload company.
Hello All,
I don't know if I would consider it a "favorite" but drywall or sheetrock production seems to be underappreciated.
The gypsum could arrive by rail from the mines, along with the requisite rolls of paper and processing chemicals to produce the finished product that could, depending on the era, leave on rail or trucks.
Another is quarrying--be it granite, limestone, marble, etc.
I have seen a few pikes based on quarry operations but not many.
A narrow-gauge short-line could bring the blocks from the depths of the quarry to a cutting mill and then ship the finished blocks or panels out.
On my freelance coal branch loop, based near Paonia, Colorado, it would not be a stretch to have an occasional quarry train moving from the pits at Marble, Colorado, to a processing mill.
In the NMRA magazine there is a column called "Love Those Loads" that deals with unique freight loads.
One installment was about a modeler that got ahold of samples of faux marble countertops, through his work, and made them into oversized HO scale loads.
Hope this helps.
"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"
I have a couple fairly odd ones. I have Powell Piano Co. named for late S scale model railroader Sam Powell and my favorite decadent snacks......Tastykake. The bakery gives me a place to send covered hoppers and reefers on my coal hauling Western Maryland Ry.
oldline1
I had a Frito Lay plant on my first layout. It recieved potatos and cooking oil and empty box cars to ship out.
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
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
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.
And then of course scrap yards. I recently watched the State Line Farm Supply Kitbach Challenge videos and I just about fell over when Eric White said what he was going to build with his. Across the street from that scrapyard was (and still is) an old fashioned type of drive in called Richard's. We would often go there for hot dogs and their steak sandwiches, and milkshakes, when i was a kid. There was no seating, though the order windows was inside, so you didn;t have to stand in the rain to order food and ice cream. You ate in your car, but no car hops, you had to go up and order your food yourself. We used to sit parked on the side of the parking lot by the tracks, and could watch them bring gons in and out with scrap if we were lucky, or else just watch the crane with the giant electromagnet unloading scrap. Huge childhood memory for me.
jjdamnitdrywall or sheetrock production
moelarrycurly4 Frito Lay
There's a fleet of special refrigerated box cars that haul potatoes exclusively from Idaho to the McDonald's french fry factory. There's an exhibit at the B&O Museum in Baltimore of one of these cars.