I’ve done a bit of research on the web and drawn a blank on finding a rail served tooling manufacturing plant or company for my H0 shortline.
The base of the shortline is in PA, and I already have a scrap metal recycling company, and I think it would look good to have a Tooling plant nearby that might take the output from the recycling company or take in metal loads from elsewhere in PA.
Has anyone got any examples of such a company? or do most Tooling companies these days get their raw materials and ship out by road?
There are plants here in the SE that handle a lot with rail–some smaller and some larger. One of the largest is the GE turbine plant in Greenville, SC. You can go on google earth, etc and see the various loads–depending on when the satellite passed. Also, they still use a caboose when running on the mainline.
There’s a little information on one HERE, and even though it was in Canada, the design of the factory is quite common to that used throughout the northeastern U.S.
I made my own version of the plant (not in any way attempting to model the prototype) using a Walthers Vulcan Foundry, along with a LifeLike bottling plant and some left-over Model Die Casting wall sections, with some roofing from a Vollmer roundhouse.
Tool plants would not melt scrap and use the product for tooling. Tool steel is very high quality and expensive. Most tooling is small under two feet square and delivered by pick up trucl.
Rather, most factories ship out scrap. (most likely the scrap bins would be picked up by truck by the local metal recycler which would then ship by rail to steel mills for recycling.)
If it’s a forge or foundry there probably wouldn’t be much scrap as they’d be able to reuse their own scrap metal by melting it down again. But depending on quality required, they;re probably more likely to receive ingots or billets for reprocessing, not local scrap of various alloys and qualities.
I’ve done some more research and coupled with the above, would this seem a resonable operation to run:
Tooling plant receives steel billets in gondola cars, which could then ship out its finished goods by truck or by box car. Any waste, could then be shipped out by truck to the nearby scrap yard, which also receives scrap by rail in gondola cars.
The base of the shortline is in PA, and I already have a scrap metal recycling company, and I think it would look good to have a Tooling plant nearby that might take the output from the recycling company or take in metal loads from elsewhere in PA.
A cold fact…Trucks would be faster especially a trucking line that specializes in shuttle services between plants.
A loaded gon could take two days to travel the same distance.
Time period would be a factor too. Before the interstates, I’m sure it wouldn’t be hard to find tool manufacturers located in big cities like New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Buffalo, Detroit etc. that both received raw materials and shipped out finished products by rail. After about 1960 many of those companies would be likely to build new factories out in the suburbs or outskirts of the metro area, where they would have a large surrounding area to move trucks / trailers to be loaded or unloaded at the plant. If possible the plant would be near a freeway or interstate that could get the trucks on their way without having to fight “downtown” traffic jams.
Stix,Even in the 50s trucks using U.S and State routes would be faster then rail-its the nature of railroading.A car could take up to 4 days to go 100 miles-this would include the time the load was picked up,terminal dwell time and the time the local crew delivered the car…
Even earlier than that, really. If you look at, say, downtown Pittsburgh in 1909 on Shorpy, there are tool and die shop, metal fabricators, and so on that aren’t even close to railroad tracks. Let alone served by them. When your supplier is one mile away, the last mile problem solves itself.
I Model the SP Ojai branch, it served several active tool/die works until the line was abandoned in 1984, the business survive as does some disconnected in plant trackage, not sure what was produced but might have some relation to a nearby oil field or possibly contract work for the Navy, anyhow, they were there in 1927, the year I model.
The last I knew, the PVRR in Westfield, MA does that by backing two or three covered hoppers that contain plastic pellet through a gate right along side a building. You would never know what it is all about.
In the yard, special dry material tanker trucks unload right from the covered hopper using comprised air.
My 1989 SP Western Regional Timetable lists 4.4 miles of the Ventura Branch (formerly the Ojai Branch) not yet abandoned, approximately the distance to the now closed USA Petrochem refinery.
I have been in the tool & die business since the 60s in Dayton, Ohio until 1998. At one time Dayton had over 150 shops, from one man operations to companies employing hundreds. I can’t remember one that needed rail service. There were several foundries and large fabrication operations that used rail service. The structural steel suppliers used rail, as well as the large scrap yards and all of General Motors plants were rail served (all gone now). Few of the industries our model railroads serve would need rail service in the real world. Let’s face it, it’s your empire. If you want to ship widgets by the box car load, do it!
Just a few miles from here, in beautiful downtown Emeryville, CA, there once was a plant that took in vast quantities of scrap metal. It was an electric arc steel mill–great fun to watch from outside. And small, for a steel mill. The output, at least when I was watching it, was re-bar. What a chance to build a string of finger-rack flats!
The site now is occupied by an Ikea store, which is, of course, a great improvement.
I agree with the others. I don’t see a tooling company inputing any scrap metal.
I should perhaps clarify my original post by stating that Bertram’s was not a tool and die company, but one which made industrial tools and machinery: lathes, presses, boring machines, etc.
Nope…All you needed was chauffeurs license and log book…You could drive as long as you wanted 24 or more hours didn’t matter as long as your log book said you got at least 6 hours of sleep in the past 24.
But,ICC started regulating the trucking industry and pushed for better safety and driver compliance to the rules and regulations.
As a example I have a brother-in law that got a job driving a 18 wheeler in 1966-he pass the company’s physical and written road test and received on the job training for 10 days and then he was assigned to his own tractor…His driver instructor told the dispatcher he’s ready.No driving test scores and no real proof he drove a mile just the instructor’s word!
Thanks for all the replies. I’ve made a slight change to the industry I’m going to put on the layout after doing some more research and finding a prototype to model in GA which is a Metal Coaters.
They bring in a couple of Coil Cars to their factory and pre-paint the steel according to the customers needs, and then ship out the painted steel coils in the same cars to the customer.
Given I also have a main line and interchange yard for the shortline planned on my layout, I could set out a waybill like this:
