One industry layout designs

[Beaumont Yard]

I'm looking for layout designs that focus on one large industry. I'm thinking of doing something where it would basically be a loop where cars were brought in and taken away (to and from staging) from one large industry. A bonus would be if the industry used multiple car types.

I have seen designs like this from time to time, but I'm having a difficulty finding many in my searches.

[rg5378]

Look in the back issues of Model Railroader. From time to time there will be info on a big industry for a railroad. A couple of years ago, there was an article on a layout that served a big steel mill. The steel mill was the focus of the layout.


Here in Commerce City, Colorado, there is an area that is a HUGE grain elevator and within less than a mile it, there is an oil refinery. Between these sits a company that makes the rigging for cranes. 2 railroads serve all these industries. There is a big yard that the railroads use that is next to the grain elevator. They use this yard to serve all 3 industries. Additionally, there are through trains coming/going from Cheyenne to Denver. These through trains pass through the grain elevator yard without stopping. All-in-all, it is a busy place.

I know that these are more than one industry, but they are all contained within a small area of land. It has all the elements you are looking for. You would need covered hoppers, boxcars, tank cars, and flat cars. to model this area. Through trains would have any car imagineable. Hope this helps.

[cajon]

Here's a couple of Yahoo Group sites for you to look at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/small-layout-design/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ldsig/
You have to join but it's free. Once in use the search function to find your kind of layout. Also take a look in their "Files" & "Photos" sections.

[rg5378]

Hi again,
I just remembered that there is the Coors distillery and bottling plant in Golden, Colorado. Its HUGE! That plant has a big railyard and various sites for spotting cars. I think they even have their own locomotive for shunting the cars. You would need grain cars, tank cars and boxcars.

[jhn_plsn]

The grain elevator could be a good alternative and you could add the supporting structures for dealing in vegetable oils for tankers. You could then add a small industry across the tracks from it for added diversity.
Cement plants with their own power plant could make for a very busy place to. In Victorville Ca. the Cemex plant has a quarry many miles away linked by its own railroad line. Google it and look further the north and you will find TXI Riverside Cement along old route 66 in Oro Grande.
A paper mill could create quite a bit of traffic too.
Your title mentions Beaumont and Beaumont here in Ca. has a lumber supplier (Lowes I think), and if you back date it there was a citrus packing house next to it with a team track nearby.

Using the prototype will help give a more satisfying plan.

Keep us posted.

[cajon]

Hi again,
I just remembered that there is the Coors distillery and bottling plant in Golden, Colorado. Its HUGE! That plant has a big railyard and various sites for spotting cars. I think they even have their own locomotive for shunting the cars. You would need grain cars, tank cars and boxcars.

The boxcars used by Coors were the insulated type to keep the beer cool as per their advertising back in the day. Used to see 6-8 (mostly western RRs) parked at a Coors distributor in Irvine CA. This was back in the '70s & '80s. Not sure if Coors still ships beer by rain anymore. You can check the aerials on Google & Bing to see whats going on now.

[cuyama]

This compact N scale T-Trak switching design is inspired by the Budwesier brewery in Van Nuys, CA, along with the nearby supporting yard (Gemco).

[Keith]

Unless mistaken, Coors gets 2 trains daily, Monday thru Friday. 1 train on Saturday.
They also have 6 SW Switchers in use. 5 in regular service, with the 6th unit being rotated in
as units come due for regular service. RA I service is about 70% of Coors delivery.
Also like 75% cans, 20% bottles, 5% kegs.
Railfan/Railroad magazine had an article on Coors in 1985. Not sure what month.
Trains magazine also had an updated article 3-4 years ago, I think, by Mike Danneman.

I've got both. Just don't know where!

[Kenneth L. Anthony]

2 x 3 feet in N scale. The industry is a U S Naval Air Station for blimps.


Track at lower right runs through a gate as connection/interchange to trunkline railroad.
Track at left end outside loop is naval store warehouse, general commodities and munitions, and at end of same track, helium gas unloading.
Spur inside loop left end is open car unloading into handling area. At end of spur is end-loading ramp for vehicle-on-flat-car.
Spur inside loop right end is fuel dump (naval version of a bulk oil distribution facility) for aviation gasoline and diesel fuel.

Car types: helium tank cars, petroleum tank cars, special 1 1/2 door munition boxcars, regular boxcars, flats, gondolas.

EDIT: I forgot to mention. This layout has NO mainline. The oval loop is not a "mainline" but a circulation loop to access spurs at various locations. The Navy switcher makes runarounds by leaving one end of a cut of cars and running all the way around the loop to the other end to get on the right end to switch spurs.

[friscobob]

Besides steel mills, you could build layouts featuring the following industries:

• Paper mills- pulpwood, woodchips, kaolin, misc. chemicals inbound, paper outbound. Covered hoppers, tank cars, pulpwood flats, large woodchip hoppers, and boxcars would be right at home.
• Food manufacturing plants- one example would be the massive Campbell Soup plant in Paris, Texas. Tinplate for cans, various vegetables, flours & sugar, corn syrup, etc inbound, canned product outbound. Boxcars, covered hoppers, Airslide hoppers, tank cars and reefers used here.
• Lumber mills- inbound logs, outbound cut lumber & woodchips (unless they were either burned as fuel or used for making OSB board). Log flats, bulkhead and center-beam flats, woodchip hoppers, tank cars (inbound glue if OSB is being made), boxcars.

Somewhere in our archives, member Tad Tadlock made numerous comments about modeling the huge Georrgia-Pacific complex in Corssett, AR, as well as the Ashley, Drew & Northern, and he did it all in N scale.