little town

[Wolfgang Dudler]

I'm planning to build my son's Silicon Valley next year new. This time it should become a 90 degree module, with over 2 meter radius( 7 feet).
This is the space:



You see at the right an appendix. There I want a small industry which has its own little switcher.

Now I'm looking for a trackplan for a small Western town. What would you suggest? You see the first piece of track at the end of the module.

Wolfgang

[ppuinn]

Wolfgang:
You asked for a small western town and a small industry, but I've drawn up a plan that might be more appropriate for a medium sized scrap yard that would have enough rail traffic coming and going daily to warrant having an engine of its own.


The mainline and the town's siding would run along the outside of the 4 major modules and the scrap yard would be modeled along the inside of the entire 90 degree curve plus on the appendix module.

I have shown a short industrial siding at one end of the town's siding that would serve a business that is not necessarily related to the scrap yard. All rail traffic to this business would be switched by a road switcher or local train...not by the scrap yard engine. The road switcher or local would pick up or spot cars on the scrap yard siding and the scrap yard engine would handle all switching movements within the scrap yard.

There are 5 types of activities modeled in this scrap yard:
1. weighing cars on the scale--every car, empty or loaded, must be weighed when it comes into and when it leaves the scrap yard.
2. shredding junk automobiles--stacks of flattened autos are brought in on flat cars and run through a shredder which reduces them to pieces of metal just a few inches across; then the shredded metal is loaded into gondolas and shipped to steel mills.
3. shearing pipes and long pieces of metal for transportation by gondolas--long pipes, rails, rods, etc are brought in by truck and sheared into 4 to 6 foot lengths; then the sheared metal is loaded into gons and shipped to steel mills.
4. compressing or bundling piles of loose scrap wire, borings, turnings, and cans brought in by trucks into denser cubes or bundles for transportation by gondolas to steel mills.
5. loading and unloading gondolas containing scrap metal of various grades (e.g., #2 scrap metal, cast iron, heavy plates, high carbon steel scrap).

The engineer running the Scrap Yard Job would have several responsibilities:
At the start of his shift and before the road switcher arrives:
1. pull all empty flats and loaded gons from the Automobile Shredder and spot them on the scrap yard siding.
2. pull loaded gons by the Shearer Building and in the Bundling Building and spot them on the scrap yard siding.
3. pull all gons--loaded or empty--from the various scrap pile sidings and spot them on the scrap yard siding. (There should always be at least one empty gon spotted next to the Shearer Building, one empty gon in the Bundler Building, and one by the Automobile Shredder before spotting any empty gons on the scrap yard siding for pick up by the road switcher.)

When the road switcher drops off cars on the scrap yard siding:
1. spot the flattened autos on flat cars by the Auto Shredder, loaded gons near piles of the same of scrap metal, and at least one empty gon by the Shearer Building, one by the Auto Shredder, one in the Bundler Building, and any remaining empty gons by the various scrap piles.

The track plan shows a 4 module long main and passing siding town with 1 industry and a scrap yard that is spread across 5 modules; but a much smaller scrap yard plan is possible. The long passing siding could be shortened to one or two modules long, and the town's one industry served by the railroad could be eliminated. Any or all of the shredder, shearer, and bundler areas of the scrap yard could be eliminated. This would to reduce the scrap yard from a medium-sized industry accommodating 8 cars to a small scrap yard with a single (1 or 2 car) siding contained on the appendix module and 1 or 2 or the mainline modules.

[Wolfgang Dudler]

Dave,
I like your scrap yard idea very much. I've tried to squeeze it into the space:



It's a little bit smaller. Which type would be the scale? A more modern type with one track and not the gauntlet type I think. So you can weight the cars in motion. With such an industry you have open loads. You need a freight manager for changing the loads.

My first idea was this:



A town with house track. The industry should not be a lumber yard.

Wolfgang

[Wolfgang Dudler]

I forgot to write, time era should be about 1950 to 1970.
I think, my plan with house track will be a little bit congested.
Wolfgang

[ppuinn]

Originally Posted by Wolfgang Dudler

Dave,
I like your scrap yard idea very much. I've tried to squeeze it into the space:



It's a little bit smaller. Which type would be the scale? A more modern type with one track and not the gauntlet type I think. So you can weight the cars in motion. With such an industry you have open loads. You need a freight manager for changing the loads.

Wolfgang:
I wonder when manufacturers started making the modern (single track) scales...maybe other TBers know. I'd guess considering that bit of information and the era being modeled would lead to a fairly clear choice between one type or the other...unless there was a longer transition period, similar to the overlap of steam and diesel locos.

If the modern scales permit weighing cars without pausing, then RRs or businesses using such rail car scales would probably be relatively quick to make the conversion to save time and money.

Some additional information for anyone to consider when modeling a scrap yard--Automobile Shredders tend to be all one structure with several different elements. At one end (by the flat car siding), there is a crane that takes the flattened carcasses of junk cars off of the flat cars and places each car on a conveyor or sloping tray that moves the car into the jaws of the shredder. Some shredding companies also have their own mechanisms/buildings?/structures for stripping out engines, tires, upholstery, plastics, glass, etc, and then flattening junk cars so they may not need to ship in flattened cars on flat cars (but they make really interesting loads to model). The buildings where workers strip out cars would probably be right next to the shredder (or even part of the same building complex).

I'm not certain, but I suspect some scrap companies had machines than both flattened and shredded cars in one step rather than separate steps in separate locations.

Shredders need to be powerful, so the shredding mechanism itself is usually right next to a large motor room. At the other end of the structure (by the gondola siding), the shredder spits out the smaller pieces from a smaller conveyor or shute directly into the gondolas. A friend who worked for a shredding company a number of years ago, told me that some conveyors could be repositioned, or there were multiple shutes, or the car was moved by a loco or a winch so the load would be evenly distributed in the car. He also said some shredders just dumped the pieces off a conveyor into a big pile, and then a crane with an electro-magnet loaded the pieces into the gondolas.

[Wolfgang Dudler]

I looked at Google: Southern Calilfornia Scrap Metal Recycling
Would it be too modern for 1960?

Wolfgang

[BoxcabE50]

Wolfgang-

Am curious about what you mean by "west?" West of the Mississippi River? West of the Missouri River? West of the Rocky Mountains? West coast of the USA?

As I have lived all my life in the north-western US, I've seen many small town spurs in the region. Grain loading, and stock yards were usually done on a siding. So wanting a spur would eliminate many of these scenes.

For my memory, the most common small town spurs were fuel/heating oil distributors, small sawmilling/forest products operations, and team tracks.

You might also see warehouse/cold storage facilities in agricultural settings. Potatoes, or fruits such as apples and cherries.



Boxcab E50

[BoxcabE50]

Originally Posted by Wolfgang Dudler

I looked at Google: Southern Calilfornia Scrap Metal Recycling
Would it be too modern for 1960?

Yes. For my memory, I don't remember anything close to what you see on that web page.

Boxcab E50

[ppuinn]

Originally Posted by Wolfgang Dudler

I looked at Google: Southern Calilfornia Scrap Metal Recycling
Would it be too modern for 1960?

No, I don't think so. The specific model pictured might be more modern, but the basic concept has been around a long time.


Here are some more pics taken from googled scrap metal recycling sites.

http://dc2.uni-bielefeld.de/dc2/auto/images/shredder.jpg
Drawing of the how an Automobile Shredder works

http://www.gershowrecycling.com/images/Auto_Shredder_.jpg
Pic showing automobile shredder being loaded by mobile and stationary cranes. It is possible to see a red gondola (behind the stationary crane) and a blue gondola (in front of mobile crane cab and just barely visible under the conveyer belt) which will be loaded with the shredded metal.

http://www.budgetsteel.com/images/shredder_sm.gif
Drawing showing relative positions of a car crusher, car shredder, and the conveyors for moving the shredded metal to piles or to trucks or gondolas.

http://www.budgetsteel.com/04Update/aerial_1.jpg
Aerial view of a scrap metal shredder


Other equipment often seen in scrap metal yards.
http://www.gershowrecycling.com/images/High_Density_Baler_.jpg
High Density Baler for compacting cans into bales and bundles

http://www.gershowrecycling.com/images/Guillotine_Shear_.jpg
Guillotine Shear for cutting pipes, rods, and rails into shorter lengths.

http://www.hub-4.com/images/news/379.jpg
hydraulic shear

http://www.gershowrecycling.com/images/Mobile_Shear.jpg
Mobile Shear


Pics of scrap metal yard materials. Some pics are from the scrap metal recycling sites, and I took all of the Railimages pics when I toured the former Luria Brothers Scrap Metal Facility and the Keystone Steel and Wire Plant in Peoria with the KSW Plant manager (a fellow model railroader):
http://www.aceautosf.com/LST-RIDEsm.jpg
Cars on Truck flatbed to be crushed
http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/1108/shredded_scrap_pile.JPG
Shredded scrap metal pile at Keystone Steel and Wire
http://www.jenikeandjohanson.com/pages/experience/environ_ind/scrap_metal.jpg
shredded metal pile
http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/1108/borings_and_turnings_pile.JPG
A pile of turnings and borings (scrap metal byproducts from machining steel items) sitting in the Keystone materials yard waiting to be used in the steel making process.
http://www.tolmets.lv/uploaded_images/copy_copy_1.jpg
Loose scrap wire to be compacted into denser bales or bundles and subsequently used in the steel making process.
http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/1108/bundles_bales_.JPG
Bundles or bales of scrap metal compacted in the Luria Brothers’ Bundling-Baling Building and presently piled in the materials yard at Keystone. The bundles are used in the steel making process.
http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/1108/gons_of_scrap_wire_plates_at_luria.JPG
Gon loads of scrap wire and heavy plates in the Luria Brothers scrap yard. The blue building in the background is the Bundling-Baling Building where loose wire, cans, and other low density scrap metal will be compacted into higher density cubes (also referred to as bales or bundles) to be used in the steel making process at Keystone Steel and Wire.
http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/1108/gons_at_luria.JPG
Empty gons in foreground will be cut apart into heavy plate scrap metal. Loaded gons in background have various types of scrap metal (mostly #2 scrap) which will be sorted by type and/or sheared as needed, and then shipped in gons over to Keystone Steel and Wire (whose Electric Arc Furnace is visible in the background) where the sorted materials will be used to make steel billets, rods, and wire.

http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/1108/scale_house_and_scale_at_Keystone_Wire_and_Steel.J PG
Pic of the Keystone Steel and Wire scale house and scale (modern single track type, not gauntlet track type scale)
http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/1108/pig_iron_pile.JPG
Pic of Keystone steel making materials, pig iron pile. Pig iron would NOT typically be seen in a scrap yard, since it is a lower grade metal made in steel mills as one step in the overall steel making process.

[ppuinn]

Ken and Wolfgang:
Sorry about the curt contradiction...it reads a lot more abruptly than it was intended.

Here's my thinking on this:
Some of the models pictured will appear to be too modern for 1960 because they will have precipitators to collect dust and other emissions occuring during the shredding process. Most of the big tubes and piping seen in any of the pictures are probably related to those Environmental Protection Agency guidelines developed in the 1960s and 1970s.

But, apart from variations in size, my guess it that the basic form of most shredders would be fairly standard without the precipitators: a tray/shute or conveyor to get the cars into the shredder, the big box with the shredding mechanism, the motor room to run the shredder and conveyors, and the conveyors to get the shredded materials to a pile, a truck, or a gon. There may be cranes at either or both ends of shredder, and they may be mobile or stationary.

Speaking of cranes...I'd guess in 1960 there were more Caterpillar type tractor treads on the mobile cranes than rubber wheels, and more cranes may have been mounted on rails. Do you think the cranes of 1960 may have tended to be smaller than those of the 1990s or 2000s?