What would TrainBoard do?

SOO MILW CNW Oct 18, 2011

  1. SOO MILW CNW

    SOO MILW CNW TrainBoard Supporter

    768
    111
    29
    Howdy all,

    I walked into the garage/ train room, and I was thinking what kind of industry could I put here...

    [​IMG]

    As you can see that is plenty of room for a N scale industry!!

    The building would mostly be made out of foam core,, then I could glue styrene and other stuff to that. I am at a loss as to what to build there. I would love a mega industry!!! to the left of the space is my main industrial area which is 8' x 20".. and to the right/ bottom is going to be my main yard. So I can use the industry as a veiw block also.

    I had thought about having service come from both ends. Maybe two railroads service one industry? Or maybe the industry could require a dedicated crew/loco.

    So any ideas would be welcome,, no idea too crazy.
     
  2. r_i_straw

    r_i_straw Mostly N Scale Staff Member

    22,188
    49,384
    253
    A rail car construction and repair facility. I have always been fascinated by the GATX tank car facility in Hearne, Texas. Brand new or rebuilt shiny tank cars and covered hoppers going out and nasty looking and wreck damaged cars coming in. They have a few critters to move things about inside the plant.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  3. RailMix

    RailMix TrainBoard Member

    1,522
    3,821
    60
    How about an auto plant? Model Railroader ran a good series on them back in the late 90's. Parts/ raw materials in, product out.
     
  4. TwinDad

    TwinDad TrainBoard Member

    1,844
    551
    34
    A Peanut Butter Plant?

    http://g.co/maps/upv5v

    This is the JIF (J.M. Smuckers) plant in Lexington, KY. 75% of the world's peanut butter is made here. There's like half a dozen tracks on the back side of the plant. Covered hoppers in and out daily, with periodic swaps of at least one tank car of peanut oil as well.

    Maybe not a mega-industry, but with the space you have you could almost model it 1:1

    Most of my other ideas are considerably less original.
     
  5. Bevale

    Bevale TrainBoard Member

    131
    8
    10
    The first thing that popped into my mind was a steel mill. There would be opportunity for a dedicated loco, as seen in the photos in these links. http://209.85.120.98/viewphoto.php?id=322847&nseq=136 and http://209.85.120.98/viewphoto.php?id=322845&nseq=137

    What industries do you have already? My other thought would be to put a large grain terminal. From looking at your blog, I am guessing that the space for the industry is by the garage door? If so, if you didn't put a backdrop there, you could have space for some waterfront with a barge or ship next to the terminal. If thats not an option though, I would opt for something like a steel mill that would provide more visual interest.

    Cheers,
     
  6. SOO MILW CNW

    SOO MILW CNW TrainBoard Supporter

    768
    111
    29
    Great ideas guys!!!! The more I think about it, I would like to have something that takes different types of equipment.

    Manufacturing,, could have all sorts. Box,coil,gon,flat,tank,covered hopper,open hoppers. As I sit here, I thinking about the junction idea',, hmmmmm. I could put the industry on a curve,,, like the grain terminal,3-4 tracks that could hold a butt load of covered hoppers

    A huge warehouse for anything and eveything,,,

    A printing company like 3M or Mead

    A rail car maintenance/ repair facility, very good idea Russel. I know of the plant you talk about. There is one just for tank car cleaning and maintenance in Plantersville,TX . Real neat facility.
    Too many to choose from.

    Thanks for the ideas,, keep them coming.

    Ben, the area in question would be the southeast corner of the building, so it has two solid framed walls. If you look at the drawing I made for this thread, the garage doors would be on the bottom. Other wise the west wall.

    Adios wyatt
     
  7. BarstowRick

    BarstowRick TrainBoard Supporter

    9,516
    5,679
    147
    A casket factory.

    But then you'd expect a retired mortician to come up with such.
     
  8. MRL

    MRL TrainBoard Member

    1,406
    14
    25
    The all time favorite of ming is a sugar factory!
    Or you could have a place like Progress Rail...
     
  9. r_i_straw

    r_i_straw Mostly N Scale Staff Member

    22,188
    49,384
    253
    Hey, great idea. I may have to look into one of those for myself.:tb-wink:
     
  10. MisterBeasley

    MisterBeasley TrainBoard Supporter

    1,089
    20
    29
    I would look for industries that take several different types of cars. A packing plant could take in stock cars and the occasional boxcar for paper products, and send out reefers. If you reasearch these things, there a a lot of different steps which can be modeled with a dedicated switcher for internal motion.

    A steel plant would work in N-scale in that space. Again, raw materials and coal in, steel products out, with a lot of interesting specialty cars for the smelting process.

    A brewery could take in coal or oil for fuel, tankers of "mountain" water, and hoppers of grains, and export beer in boxcars or reefers.

    A lot depends on your era. A lot of very interesting industries, unfortunately, are no longer rail-served.
     
  11. Kenneth L. Anthony

    Kenneth L. Anthony TrainBoard Member

    2,749
    524
    52
    I wonder what area/ region you are modeling. I notice YOUR location is in Texas, and your layout name suggests Wisconsin, north central US. Beer?

    Of course they have beer in Milwaukee AND in Texas,


    [​IMG]

    although this brewery got turned into an art museum.

    By the way, in Galveston, the brewery sold ice to the Sangta Fe, which bdid not have its own dedicated ice plant. It had an icing platform where reefers could be iced from a small ice storage buildingor from an ice car. I wonder if there were ever cross-town/ intown rail movements of ice for company bservice?
     
  12. SOO MILW CNW

    SOO MILW CNW TrainBoard Supporter

    768
    111
    29
    Yes I live in Texas, but was born in Wisconsin. I like to say that I model the Soo, Milw,Cnw in central Wisconsin during 79-92.

    A couple of different people on different forums have suggested breweries. I guess I could say that beer manufacturing requires rail service in the 80's.

    Once again thank you for all the replies.

    Adios, Me
     
  13. RailMix

    RailMix TrainBoard Member

    1,522
    3,821
    60
    Hmm... First jelly and now peanut butter? Sounds like Smuckers is forming a monopoly.:tb-biggrin:
     
  14. HemiAdda2d

    HemiAdda2d Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

    22,007
    27,332
    253
    Why not a large Plywood plant?
    Chips and pulpwood in, centerbeams out.
     
  15. JVolz

    JVolz TrainBoard Member

    87
    0
    12
    What about a paper mill?

    It would fit nicely in Wisconsin, and it would provide a nice variety of cars. You'd have inbound woodchip or pulp log cars, tank cars with chemicals like chlorine, and kaolin for paper coating either also in tanks, or dry in convered hoppers. Outbound loads of paer in boxes. The Walther's Superior Paper mill makes a great starting point, and you can add additional buildings to expand it.

    Here's mine a while ago in progress. I need to take some new photos...


    cr7.jpg cr8.jpg
     
  16. Logtrain

    Logtrain TrainBoard Member

    2,035
    19
    37
    What about a brewery?

    You could do something like Coors does. They have unit coal trains coming in for power. And loaded reefers filled with a whole lot of yumminess going out!

    Or you could also have industiral park with LOTS of various industries.
     
  17. SOO MILW CNW

    SOO MILW CNW TrainBoard Supporter

    768
    111
    29
    Alot of great ideas!!! Hemi had a great idea, plywood mill,,, could be expanded into a complete mill along with a mill work and structured wood divison.

    Also a super large scrap yard,, and have building flat to depict a mill, or a recycling facility. Paper mil does sound nice also,,, I have a mill on the industry section,,, but not nearly big enough. This space could make a very nice mill complex.

    A good freind of mine has what he calls B.I.D.S. Bulk industrial service. There could be outdoor transfer tracks,, and indoor tracks underneath shelter for loading and unloading.

    I will continue to ponder the possibilities.

    Adios , Me
     
  18. friscobob

    friscobob Staff Member

    10,534
    707
    129
    Plus- the Coors brewery in Colorado also has locomotives dedicated to switching out the plant complex. So, if you have a switcher or two that don't quite fit in the SOO or MILW roster, a little paint, some decals, and voila'- a brewery locomotive.

    I also like the paper mill idea- I believe Tad Tadlock (our resident AD&N modeler) could help you out with some ideas in that regard, although I must admit the Walthers paper mill kits are awesome. Georgia-Pacific (formerly Ft. Howard) has a plant here in Muskogee that, besides receiving inbound materials for papermaking, also get unit coal trains from UP and BNSF. Their in-plant switcher is a GP9 (or so it seems from a distance- access to the facility is verboten). I know for a fact Nekoosa Paper in Ashdown, AR had a red RS1 working there for quite a while.

    Considering you're modeling up nort' (as a Wisconsin co-worker calls it), either a brewery or paper mill would work great.

    My nickel's worth (inflation, ya know..... ;) ).
     
  19. katmaan100

    katmaan100 TrainBoard Member

    90
    11
    15
    How about an Assembly plant ( Caterpillar or John Deere ). Materials, Iron, Coal (for foundry ), Partially assembled components, etc, coming in. Complete units going out on rail or on (heaven forbid) truck. Also incomplete part assemblies due to being too large to run on rails.
    Just for thought due to the area being industrial in nature.
     

Share This Page