what one industry would have several different buildings with several sidings....like two buildings or groups of buildings each with their own siding but all part of the same "industry".
Eman: A coaling facility, a gravel plant , lumber plant, mining facility, meat processing plant with accompanying stock yard/pens are some industries that come to mind. Stay cool and run steam....
or even just a general industrial center where all of those things mention above may fit. well maybe not an actual paper mill but a place where goods are exchanged through shippers. For example there are several of these places that are just warehouses that allow both trains and trucks to exchange their items. usually i see many boxcars and center beam cars in these places around my area. So maybe you also need to think in terms of what kind of rolling stock you want to have.
I really don't have much rolling stock...just a few cars to run while I put my layout together so I can really do "anything" then get the rolling stock...
Steel. Chemicals. Foods. Manufacturing. Short answers, but these are all possible to model. You don't even have to build the entire plant, you can model small portions, and pretend the rest of the plant is "off-layout".
From what I have read a paper mill provides for all kinds of inbound and outbound traffic. there is also a thread on here about meat packing plants from the 40's-50's. You will find that they also take lots of different car types.
Cannery (reefers full of fruit, a few cars of steel, some coal, some sugar, and boxcars to haul away the results) Woolens mill: Wool and dye in, boxcars out Any large factory: coiled steel, tires, many boxcars of small parts, a oil car or two go in; auto racks or boxcars come out.
All the above are great suggestions. I'd add assembly plants, which do not have to be as huge as Ford's Rouge Plant. And metal plating plants--my late uncle's plant was pretty small (4 stories by 100' by 40'), yet was served by three tracks in the 1960s. Visit my Railimages album
On the club's new layout we're putting in a concrete plant that makes pipes, box culverts, etc. Cement, sand, gravel and steel in, cast concrete products out. Cheers David
Robb's not so much of a fan of the amber liquidmg: but I am partial to good quality stuff :shade: I used to live in Williamsburg VA where there is a very large Busch brewery - it generated a reasonable amount of traffic and would be straight foward to model. Mapquest can even provide a good hint as to the track plan. As for their products...not really my cup of tea.
Hambruger Patties You can go from farm to grain silo to stockyards to slaughterhouse to shipping (need ice platforms along the way, too) to wholesaler to butcher to home.
Lumber Mill...Logs on Flatcars In/Finished product on Boxcars & flatcar out.....empty hoppers in/loaded with woodchips out
i think that an assembly plant would be a good one, especially something like construction eqipment makers, that would generate a lot of flat car load-outs, would have gondolas, coil cars, boxcars, and possibly flat car loads going in. i say gondolas because at the mfg. plant i work in, our 1/2" and up plate comes in in gondolas that are covered. beast
mmmm...hambruger patties - Delicious with fried unions and served between 2 bums.:angel: But seriously folks... Paper mills are big users of rail. Chips and logs in, Paper and pulp out. Also wood byproducts (turpentine) out in tank cars from some operations.
