Help with Industry Sidings

[TomPM]

Help with Industry Sidings/Spurs

I am currently designing my layout expansion/rebuild. As part of this process I am identifying the industries that my model railroad will serve. One of the things I am trying to determine is what I will need for sidings for the various industries and some cases what items they would ship and what they would receive. He here is a list of the industries that I have decided will be part of the new RLK&T layout.

Northern Light & Power Company
power plant (built), substation (purchased)
Goods Received: coal, transformers, machinery.
Goods Shipped: Old transformers, old machinery

Farmers Co-op Grain
grain elevator(purchased)
Goods Received:?
Goods Shipped: grain

Golden Valley Canning Company (purchased)
cannery
Goods Received: Food, Cans, Labels
Goods Shipped: Canned goods

Lieperville Station
passenger station (built)
Goods Received: passengers, mail
Goods Shipped: passengers, mail

Penn Pines Amusement Park
carousel (built), passenger station (purchased), freight house (to be purchased)
Goods Received: passengers, machinery, food, park supplies (paper products, prizes, spare parts)
Goods Shipped: passengers, machinery

The following industries are planned but I have not purchased the appropriate kits:

Railway Express
Railway Express station
Goods Received: packages
Goods Shipped: packages

Feed Supply
Feed Supply store (this will most likely be located with the Farmers Co-op Grain Elevator)
Goods Received: feed, seeds, farming equipment
Goods Shipped: old farming equipment, ?

Lieperville Freight Station
freight station
Goods Received: general freight
Goods Shipped: general freight

I have several other industries in mind but have not planned them out yet. When I do I will post them.

Also once I clean up the file I will post the general track plan. I am still getting comfortable with the RTS software.

 

[60103]

Tom:
You may be pushing it a bit having goods in and out for all the industries. Your power plant won't be going through that many transformers.
However, it should be building up quite a stock of coal ash. That could go out in some sort of hoppers.
The grain elevator will be receiving grain by either rail or truck. If it's a local one, by truck; a central one by rail.
The farm supply should also get some fertlizer in. Do they distribute or are they a local retailer?

 

[davidstrains]

Might want to have a plain old team track for the rest of the folks that do not have or need their own siding.

 

[jon-monon]

Hey Tom, if you want some pictures of our local steam facory, Staleys, I have some. As a byproduct of all that steam they manufacture, they also make corn syrup, that tasty sweat fuel that powers most americans, by choice or otherwise.

I have a bunch of closer up pictures I took for modeling reference. A perfect match for corn fields and grain elevators. Be glad to post them or e-mail them to ya...

 

[Railery]

Sounds great Tom Looking forward to seeing your plan. i can't remember if it was your thread on bridge traffic but i included that in my layout design for transporting goods.

 

[TomPM]

Thanks everyone for the input so far.

I never thought of the coal ash but that is a great idea. I realize that a transformer load would be rare but it would give me the excuse to buy one of those depressed flatcars.

I also have not decided yet whether the farm supply store will be a local retailer or a distributor. Now I have another thing to think about. I also did not think of the fertilizer or pesticides.

Jon I like your steam factory but I am not sure I would have the room. Of course I could always expand later.

I am still trying to figure out where all the various industries are going and what track configurations I will need. The information I am getting here is great and will help out a great deal.

 

[Ralph]

Cool shot Jon! Looks like a place where lots of action happens. Excuse the ignorance but what is that orange equipment on the tracks?
Ralph

 

[jon-monon]

Hi Ralph, it's an SRS or Sperry Rail Service. You may know this is for detecting defects in the track. I have more info on these babies on my Sperry Page

Of course, the steam factory title is a joke and it's actually a corn syrup plant. You could spend a lifetime on all those details if you wanted to model it!

 

[Ralph]

A Sperry Rail , that's what it is! Thanks Jon. Hmmm, I suppose a corn syrup plant would sell regular shipments to a cola manufacturer or many other food industries, leading to a busy back and forth rail traffic scenario...... That huge plant could be modeled with most of it in the backdrop and maybe only a loading dock structure built in front to make it three dimensional. Say, you could blow up your photos into a photo mural!
Ralph

 

[rockislandmike]

SOW, there was a Sperry two-unit rail grinding consist at the local yard (ten blocks east) last weekend. Would've liked some pics, but we were xmas shopping at the time and didn't have the camera.

 

[chapmon]

Another use for corn syrup

I thought your industries made sense, except the grain elevator would usually receive empties.

For the corn syrup guys, there was an article in Mainline Modeler (sometime within last 2 years) of an industry easily modeled:

- it consists mainly of a siding for about 3 cars with an enclosed building next to it (drive through inside for trucks).

This building is a corn syrup transfer plant for the local soft drink beverage makers. I believe if memory serves me, that it is in El Paso, TX.

Mike

 

[BillD53A]

Consider adding a car float; ANYTHING can be sent to it. The perfect excuse for running that favorite car that doesnt fit in anywhere else. Can be a large ship, like those used on the Great Lakes, or a simple barge with track on it, like ones used everywhere. Walther has kits for the barge, as well as a ferry slip, in HO. Bill