queston about storage tracks......

trainsteve2435

trainsteve2435

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Jun 18, 2004
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barboursville, wv
hello everyone, im wondering how or what determines if an industry needs a single line in to unload, or two lines in to it? i have been reading John Armstrongs book( Realistic track planning), but im not sure what justifies a single or double track into an industry. anyone have any ideas or recomendations? the industry in queston is the Walthers golden valley cannery. thanks everyone!:rolleyes:
 
well 60103, i guess there considered inside tracks, i mean there inside of the main. as far as how many cars it will hold, the one line holds about 5 50' cars. the industry is a cannery, so i guess it would be fairly busy. as far as how lond it is, i think its about 12" long. thanks for your help!:wave:
 
A cannery might have multiple spurs that go to different parts of a building to serve different purposes. One might be strictly for inbound reefers carrying fruit and vegetables to be canned, another might be strictly for outbound cans, or for loading-in of sheet tin for cans, empty boxes, corn syrup or other ingredients.

Two tracks next to each other implies that the cars on the outer track can wait a while before being unloaded. I think some places used big boards set in between the doors of boxcars to unload the second track where two tracks faced a loading dock, but it must have been unwieldy.

The major factor involved in how many cars an industry's spur should hold is how much traffic does that industry require...which is an open-ended answer as any you're likely to get, I'll agree, but it's a pretty open-ended question. How much does a person weigh? Well, one can give averages, but it really depends on the person...
 
Oftentimes plants utilized multiple tracks and loaded (or unloaded) cars on the outer track thru the cars on the nearby track. I guess it was a case of limited real estate or volume of goods moved from a given loading dock.
 
We have a glass plant locally (Matthyro modelled it a year or two ago!) which has 2 tracks -- but I think they only have unloading facilities on one. They have one of those square tractor things they use to switch cars inside the factory grounds.
 
A cannery receives several types of cars.They receive both loaded and empty boxcars,corn syrup/corn sweetener tank cars,reefers and covered hoppers of sugar just to name a few items.Plus we can't forget salt,knocked down cardboard boxes and paper for the labels.So,there would be unloading areas for each of the inbound shipments and of course a loading track.
The Golden Valley Cannery would use a minimum of two tracks since its a small plant compared to real canneries like Birdseye or Del Montes..The two tracks would be used for inbound reefers*,boxcars for unloading and loading while the second track would be used for covered hoppers and corn syrup tank cars.As a suggestion the corn syrup should go into holding tanks with a pipe going into the building.
* You could eliminate the reefers by having the vegetables trucked in from local produce warehouses.The vegetables would be shuttled in by truck.In the trucking industry this is called "shuttle service" and is used by smaller companies that doesn't have enough storage space such as the Golden Valley Cannery.

My personal thougts..I would just shipped the finish canned vegetables and would receive vegetables and corn syrup/sweetener by rail.Everything else would be trucked in.This would be done to save space and so I could add another industry or two in the same area. :D For the tank cars I would extend the track beyond the building by at lest two car lengths and would add a storage tank for the corn syrup/sweetener..
 
2 concepts here and Larrys covers one very well.

The other is a featured industry with the normal large industry sprawl which many newer layout operators are going to.If you want many small industries larry's methodology will work best.
If you want to use this as a featured industry(and a large cannery makes a very good one due to multiple car types and the fact that railshipments to Distribution points are still being utilized to this day)

Seperate Shipping and Recieving area's each with multiple tracks can be used.
Additional trackage for the plant if it has its own power plant.( Era can make a huge differance here) An Icing platform and Ice track for cars that are loaded but not ready to be processed,Are we canning fruits and vegetables?? How about meats??If we have meats this will be a seperate area of the plantwith livestock pens,slaughterhuse etc(do you see how plant sprawl takes place here?)
We have to can so we need cans.Are we buying these or are we manufacturing them ourselves?? So we are buying rolls of Tin and we have yet another building for the machinery to make the differant cans.We can at this point certainly justify a dedicated plant switcher if we would like creating 1 job for operating.A Plant of this magnitude is likely going to have pickups and setouts as much as twice a day by the class 1 RR considering the nature of the product.(Orders of several boxcars going to IGA and another pickup in the Evening to the Piggly Wiggly or A&P distribution centers as an example)Also, if you are more modern and include for example a processing area for fresh produce(example Dole plant making bagged salads) Or meat products (prepackaged bacons,lunchmeats etc)
Hormel makes canned Chili's,Beef stews. They also have bacon,sausage,Canned hams,lunchmeats etc.
Campbells makes canned soups.Do they process thier own noodles?? Chicken?? Beef??
This one industry may employ 1/2 the town it is located in.An entire branchline may be in place specifically for this one industry.

This is the other scenario.neither is right or wrong,they are just differant and require differant approaches.This industry could become a layout unto itself if one so desired.Few would desire this but some have done this type thing(particularly with stell mill and paper mill type operations)

Study some differant operations.Find out how they do things and why.See if a sprawling industry is something that appeals to your sense of railroading.See if 1 really large industry will complement your vision.There is always of course a happy medium between the 2 also.The choice is yours,its your world :)

So, there you have it,options!!! And dont we all like to have options :)
 
After reading Tileguy's post, you could change a lot of things. Outsource the tin cans: put a tin can factiry at the other end of the layout. Now you have car moves to get the cans from supplier to user. And the tin can factory gets all the sheet steel supplies.
Same with other products: Mamma Bravo's noodle factory. Steerforth's meat factory. (put that one in the next room because of the smell.)
For interesting operation, your railroad should underbid the local truckers and put them out of business. Then you get to run in all sorts of RR cars.

Sorry, did you say the original factory was only 6" wide and 8" long? :D
 
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