I was just looking for some info on industries for my modules that would ship from one place to another industry that I could model. For some reason I'm drawing a blank. I'm loosely looking at early eighties northwest kind of stuff, but any ideas would be great. Thanks Wayne W.
Almost any raw material to a processor (some already mentioned above): Grain to food processors Ores to steelworks Coal to power plant Wood to sawmills Woodchips/wood to papermills Finished or intermediate goods to distribution or further processing: Cars Finished lumber Finished metal (coils of plate or wire) Refinery output Many other intermediates in tanks or hoppers Amost anything that will fit in a boxcar/container/road-trailer As you can perhaps see, it is quite possible to have a string of industries with a web of product transfers. Eg. Raw lumber to a saw mill. Output is finished lumber and chips. Chips go to paper mill, along with other material. Paper rolls go to printing press. Finished papers/magazines go to distribution. Similar things happen with food and metals. You could pick one string to focus on. Alternatively you could just model a port, like say Seattle, in one place ...
Consider a cement plant. There is one just north/west of Victorville that takes coal and of coarse covered hoppers for finished and raw product. The track layout is actually fairly simple with a long track along the back to the power station for coal loads and a couple tracks through the plant for loading, and beyond that, on the opposite side where the tracks come off the main there is small four track yard for car storage. There are 2 dedicated locos for the plant also. I like the elevator idea also. There is one here in San Bernardino that deals with oils along with grain. So they receive both covered hoppers and food grade tank cars. My understanding is that there were more covered hoppers in service than any other car in the 1980's, followed by tanks, then box cars. Take a drive around the area you would like to model and see if you can find any remnants of old rail served industries. You may discover some history you did not know and it could drive a more believable selection of cars and industries.
Or Create Your Own Raw Resource I realize you prefer to have something historically accurate but since my modelling skills are so limited I decided to create an entire industrial base around "Mystryium" (and other spellings). I see mines, quaries, drilling platforms, etc.. for this amazing product that comes in so many different forms. Just an idea but I don't expect it to be taken seriously.
The portland cement plant offers some advantages, if you're an operational purist. Since the majority of the loads are moved in covered hoppers, then you need not fuss with as many simulated loads like with coal hoppers. Grey One, have you considered transporting unobtainium or improbabyllium? Supposedly not as dangerous as kryptonite.
Might one try a hand at a small fertilizer facility? Covered hoppers, tank cars, maybe a boxcar? It dosen't have to be large or take up a lot of room. Just enough for a few cars. Make a potato shipping place that is what I am doing for the winter layout party... A spot for a small building and a spur for a car or two that is it. Both of these industries can generate large or small volumes of traffic, and the realy great thing is hardly any room taken up for them!!! These are two personal favorites and they seem like they might work for what you are doing. Have fun modeling!!!
Don't get me wrong, I am far from a proto modeler, trust me. I am just attempting to give you some ideas to find your own answers. Have your own Widget factory and you can use any car type you like in and out of it.( Widget, made up product).
I have some more small ideas, but a person could go big and take up a whole 4'x8' sheet of plywood and build a sugar factory...:tb-biggrin: Sorry maybe too big!
You can be sure that "Mystrium" (my original spelling), is as safe as "Widgets" and the products you name although it does require very specialized cars for transport. On a serious note I guess you could have a raw material that could supply a processing plant that in turn supplies two or three manufacturing industriess plus one or two that are off table. Grain: Silos > Plant > Bakery Oil: Storage tanks > Plant > Plastics > Manufacturers Lumber: Trees > Plant > Lumber yard / Manufacturers Depending on era these would all use some form of tank car, open or closed gondola / hopper, and box car to transport the main product as well as the finished or byproducts.
Not your traditional "Paired" industries, but... what about a satellite yard and a central yard. Satellite yards are smaller yards fed by and feeding into the RR's main large yard. They are often located near several major industries and interchanges that the RR serves, but because so many cars move between the interchange tracks and nearby industries, the RR will build a satellite yard for sorting or classifying cars prior to taking them to the more distant main/larger yard...especially if the cars are destined for delivery to industries nearby rather than back near the main yard. Also, a string of cars may be sent from the large yard to the satellite, but the cars may not be blocked in the most efficient order, so the satellite yard tracks are used to sort them into a better order. In the 1970s, one of the jobs on the Peoria and Pekin Union Railway, the terminal RR I am modeling, was to take cars from the main/large P&PU Yard in East Peoria, 5 miles over the river to the Kickapoo Yard where several scrap yards and industries were served, and cars were interchanged with CNW, TPW, RI and BN. Cars were sorted some more, and then were delivered and picked up at Keystone Steel and Wire (mostly from/to the scrap yards, but also from/to the other RRs). Cars would be sorted some more and then delivered to the local industries and interchanges near the satellite yard. When everything had been delivered, picked up (and sorted again, as needed) then those cars headed east were taken over the river to the East Peoria Yard where they would be sorted to the correct tracks for continuing their trip East from Peoria via ATSF, N&W, C&IM, PRR, P&E/PC/CR, or ITC.
How about a brewery. In: Covered hoppers of grains in. Insulated box cars of hops. Box cars of packaging material. Out: Insulated box cars or reefers of beer. If it was big you could even ship beer in tank cars like coors. Another good one is a lumber industry. The Potlatch Mill in Lewiston at one time, and still may make, multiple products. In addition to plywood they made tissue (kleenex or TP). Main industry: Chemical track (various chemicals used for paper industry) supports both covered hopper and tank cars Chip track (wood chip cars) Log track (full logs and even pulp wood) Outbound track for each product (centerbeam flats, and various box cars) The rest of the layout could have a log loading spur, chip loading facility and a small interchange yard to bring in the chemicals and take out the forest products.
Wayne, You are in an excellent location to do some recon and research for industries served by rail. There is a small yard just north of Kelso, called Rocky Point. BNSF interchanges with Columbia and Cowlitz (C&C) there. Mostly wood chips for the fiberboard plant. They also load ballast into rail cars, which is trucked in from a local quarry. In Longview, there is a large yard called Longview Junction. BNSF and UP jointly operate the yard and service industries around the area. I think a lot of this traffic heads across the Cowlitz River to different industries there. In Kalama, there are two huge grain elevators (Harvest States and Peavy) that export via ship. Peavy usually takes two or three grain trains a day. There is also a chemical plant and a steel mill. Good luck,
I've got a brewery on my layout. Love the Red Caboose 62' insulated box cars. Needed an industry for them.
