A few weeks ago there was a post about industries to model. Today I was talking to someone who described the general process of barley malting. (How, as a man, did I not already know this? I’m ashamed.) It occurred to me: this might be a great industry to model because it would include incoming cars of raw barley, outgoing cars of malted barley, a fairly large water supply of some sort, a fairly large electricity draw, water towers, smokestacks to disburse heat (?), and constant activity. Plus, I could add a brewery to my layout later on as my empire expands, with a big neon “Anheuser-Busch” on the building that would include further variety of operation and rolling stock.
What I find strange is that I have not seen this mentioned in any of my reading to date. Does anyone have knowledge of the process / facilities required for this operation on a medium to large scale, and is it a fertile industry for modeling? Or is it not often modeled because there is some major drawback?
Or is it modeled constantly and I’ve just missed it?
For a fairly detailed treatment of breweries, including photos of malting plants, check the Kalmbach publication “Industries Along the Tracks 2”. Lots of details on the process, and plenty of photos. A good start, anyway.
Rahr Malting Companies produces and distributes malt and industry related brewing supplies. The Shakopee, Minnesota site serves as the headquarters for the Rahr Malting Companies. It annually produces 24 million bushels (370,000 mt) of malt, making it the largest single site malt producer in the world. The storage capacity consists of 300 bins with a total storage capacity of 8 million bushels.
Maybe no one else is interested but. . . if someone from Minnesota reads this board, could you PM me or reply if you have any details?
I’m kind of from that area…I’m east of the TC area, but growing up I’d drive through Shakopee 3-4 times a year and pass this place. I’m sorry I don’t have any information other than there is a lot of rail traffic in that town. There’s a yard outside of the town I know that usually a lot of activity from what I remember passing it.
Learn something new everyday! I did’nt know there were companies that did that. Always thought like everyone else that most breweries did that themselves. Interesting!
I can’t remember the name, but there is one in Milwaukee, also. UP (CNW) hauls 5-10 blocks down to A-H in St. Louis on an almost daily basis on the Proviso-Mitchell train from the train lists I’ve seen of it. GATX single bay Airslide hoppers seems to be the prefered type of car. I can dig out the old trainlist and get back.
If you go to CPRail’s business site, they have (had? it’s been a while) a section where they list online malting co., about 12 sites by 5 companies. Most railroads have a setction on online businesses, CSX giving the most info., including car capacities. It’s great for planning offline industries.
