Taking a break from the layout to ask for opinions in my grocery feedstock industrial area. I have about 8ft of space to fill. Below are some of the structures (with the walthers or toy train heaven structure#) I thought to include on my 80s layout in southern VA. I know that coal is king in VA, but thought to model other indsturies. What other structures (manufacture, walthers#, etc.) would be good for a feedstock/warehouse industry?
Equipped with doors for boxcars or over-the-road trucks, this type of structure can be used for storage at feed mills. Take a look at it at Walther’s website.
At least two forklift trucks along with several stacks of pallets among your structures would complement your scene quite nicely. Include sacks of feed on a few pallets.
Also, I believe that this structure is a part of the 933-3036 Farmers Co-op Grain Elevator kit, if you need a grain elevator for your layout. Since you may want the source for the feed, if you’re sending cars to a mill (such as Centennial Mills).
Since you’ve got plenty of space to fill, rather than using the kits as-is why not consider creatively “opening up” some of the structures and placing them in the background. Most HO industrial structures are far too small to justify significant rail service but much larger ones make it quite logical. The regional grocery warehouse illustrated below spans better than 24" and can take several cars at a time for off-loading, yet was based on a Walthers’ kit with an original footprint of about 8" square.
