SeeYou190 Anything agricultural. . It seems that model railroaders think the Grain Elevator, Citrus Plant, and Feed Mill are the ONLY rail served agricultural industries. I rarely recall seeing feritlizer plants, canning plants, or the countless other industries revolving around agriculture. . -Kevin .
Anything agricultural.
.
It seems that model railroaders think the Grain Elevator, Citrus Plant, and Feed Mill are the ONLY rail served agricultural industries. I rarely recall seeing feritlizer plants, canning plants, or the countless other industries revolving around agriculture.
-Kevin
For steam era folks, in the early part of the 20th century, weren't sugar beets a big industry? I recall seeing pictures of tall wooden gondolas specifically used to haul beets.
edit: nevermind. I see you've already discussed sugar beets as far as you want to....
My layout will have an oil recycler to receive tank cars of used oil.
Asphalt shingle producer receives oil tank cars and short hoppers of granuals. Ships in boxcars.
Not far from me is a Solo cup factory, and plates and lids. Receives plastic pellets in pressuraide hoppers.
- Douglas
Not rail served, but there is a team track nearby. This was the rear wall that came with the background flat Centennial Mills kit. I was surprised to find the back wall at all, but it has loading docks. I painted it and named it "Drosophila and Melanogaster Wholesale Fruit." Drosophila Melanogaster is the Latin name for the common fruit fly. My daughter was studying biology at the time.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
DoughlessFor steam era folks, in the early part of the 20th century, weren't sugar beets a big industry? I recall seeing pictures of tall wooden gondolas specifically used to haul beets.
Yes, Sugar Beets were huge.
Not that I don't want them discussed, I just know absolutely ZERO about Sugar Beet farming and processing.
In Florida it is all about Cane! Unfortunately, there is a very dark side to the history of Sugar Cane farming that still has deep scars in some communities today. Some of the past stories of Florida's Sugar Cane Industry still persist in culture today, and people still mistakenly think that is the way it still is.
I have been involved with the Sugar Cane industry since 1986, and it was all cleaned up by then. I never saw any of the atrocities of the past except for in pictures, but I sure met a lot of old-timers that remembered those days.
The movie Strip Tease sure did nothing to improve the image of Sugar Cane in Florida. That movie is all that a lot of people know about the industry, and it is 0% accurate.
Discussing Sugar Beets in Florida is probably like drinking a Pepsi in Atlanta!
Living the dream.
SeeYou190 Doughless For steam era folks, in the early part of the 20th century, weren't sugar beets a big industry? I recall seeing pictures of tall wooden gondolas specifically used to haul beets. Yes, Sugar Beets were huge. . Not that I don't want them discussed, I just know absolutely ZERO about Sugar Beet farming and processing.
Doughless For steam era folks, in the early part of the 20th century, weren't sugar beets a big industry? I recall seeing pictures of tall wooden gondolas specifically used to haul beets.
If you know nothing about them then why your earlier strong opinion about them??? There is life (and industry) outside of FL...
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
tstageIf 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:
SeeYou190Sugar 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.
SeeYou190 Not that I don't want them discussed, I just know absolutely ZERO about Sugar Beet farming and processing. Discussing Sugar Beets in Florida is probably like drinking a Pepsi in Atlanta! -Kevin .
I got what you meant.
I don't know much about them either.
IIRC, it would be an industry for the early 20th century in western states. I think the pictures I saw or articles I read were about the Espee and their branch lines.
Not to elaborate on sugar beets, but the wife grew up Billings MT., the plant there is still in operation, name has changed, but she lived next to the spur that led from NP's yard ( now MRL) in Billings, to the sugar factory, and beets were a huge deal.
the NP used a steam switch engine to haul cuts of beet cars from the main yard to the factory, well into the late 60's.
Mike.
My You Tube
csxns jjdamnit drywall or sheetrock production We have one here lots of Centerbeams and flat bed 18 wheelers thats in Mt Holly NC.
jjdamnit drywall or sheetrock production
We have one here lots of Centerbeams and flat bed 18 wheelers thats in Mt Holly NC.
We have one here in the Las Vegas, NV area. They (PABCO) not only manufacture the sheetrock, they also own a gypsum mine. Lots of centerbeam flats with their wrapped loads.
Tried looking around with google earth, but views are limited. May have to take a trip.
Terry
Inspired by Addiction
See more on my YouTube Channel
Another under represented industry is wholesale groceries.
Back in the 80's I worked in a distribution warehouse for the now defunct A & P grocery chain The warehouse had an enclosed siding to receive boxcars which were unliaded sorted transferred to trucks for delivery to the stores.
Probably would make a decent background industry as there was not that much activity.
Joe Staten Island West
SeeYou190 Yes, Sugar Beets were huge. Not that I don't want them discussed, I just know absolutely ZERO about Sugar Beet farming and processing. -Kevin
Indeed sugar beet processing IS very interesting and there is a lot to learn about it. Jeff Wilson's wonderful series of books on industries along the tracks should be in everyone's libraries. Vol 3 has the chapter on sugar beets. As it happens limestone plays a big part in sugar beet processing which I found fascinating. And the beets themselves are not the little red baseball sized things you get at a grocery but big honking things more like a football in size. And there are plenty of byproducts as part of the process, including animal feeds (much like ethanol) . Push the era back far enough and for a rail served processing plan it would be beats and limestone loads in and sugar and byproduct loads out kind of stuff, plus the empties.
Change of topic but here is another industry I am familiar with and in the case of one factory, pretty compact building, it is rail served even today: plastic bags. The pellets arrive by Center Flow, airslide, and other covered hoppers - I once found some spilled load near the vacuum device trackside and they were translucent plastic pellets about the size of aspirins. Most interesting of all, the siding and vacuum unloader (a sheet metal box with tubes to the hopper vents) was across the street from the factory itself. You could omit the structure! The factory began as a dry cleaner over half a century ago but gradually transitioned into making those rolls of plastic bags for dry cleaning that you see. very thin clear plastic. Another market they service: big plastic bags for caskets. They ship by truck.
Dave Nelson
Hello All,
In southern Colorado sugar beet production was huge.
The Holly Sugar company had a processing plant east of Pueblo, CO. The silos with the Holly Sugar logo still stand today.
Tyco made a 34-foot covered operating hopper car with the Holly Sugar livery. These cars were labeled as "air slide" so I believe they transported the finished product and not the raw sugar beets.
I have re-purposed several of these cars to carry rock dust, used to line the coal mine, on my pike.
Hope this helps.
"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"
The split-level house in the residential section of my winter layout runs an e-sales business out of the basement.
joe323Another under represented industry is wholesale groceries....
I have two of them on my layout. This one, freelanced, and with a made-up name, was kitbashed out of what I believe were Tyco drug stores...
...while this one is mostly DPM modular walls...
It's based on a real business of the same name, but does not ressemble its prototype at all.
Wayne
Shock ControlThe 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?
For the steam era stock yard cleanings.. I recall seeing PRR gons filled with dirty hay from stock yards in the mid 50s..I'm not sure where these smelly loads was going but,I notice they was always heading West.. I alway felt sorry for the fellas in the cabin especially on a hot summer day.
I am not sure how one would model dirty hay unless he uses real hay(clean) and dirties it by weathering.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
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
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.
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!
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.
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
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.
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
Brian
My Layout Plan
Interesting new Plan Consideration
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...
SeeYou190 Sugar Beets... Booooooooooo!
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
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.
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.
--Randy
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.
I think somebody mentioned roofing granules, but your right!
The WC had covered hoppers just for this service.
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.
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.
mbinsewi 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.