Help with Industry Sidings

TomPM

Another Fried Egg Fan
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

Pooh Bah
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?
 

jon-monon

Active Member
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.
lafsrs2.jpg
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

Member
Sounds great Tom :D 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

Another Fried Egg Fan
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

Remember...it's for fun!
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

Active Member
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

Remember...it's for fun!
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

Active Member
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

New Member
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

New Member
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
 
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