I’m modeling CSX in Kentucky in the late 1990’s. My layout has a branch line that runs into the mountains to serve a coalmine (the main attraction on the layout). The branch also has a spur that was going to serve another flood loader, but in order to add variety to the rolling stock, I’d like the spur to serve a different industry. So can anyone point me to an industry that CSX serves in the Appalachian Mountains (other than coal)? This industry has to fit in a relatively small area, about one square foot. Thanks in advance.
How about a lumber yard. A couple of center beam flats unloaded by forklift with a warehouse sturcture. Check out this link here for a listing of walthers lumber buildings:
A lumber yard is a great idea and I’ve considered it, but… I don’t know. It would look kind of odd right next to a coal mine wouldn’t it? I really like the looks of Walther’s Walton & Sons Lumber Company but I don’t know if I have the room for it.
I forgot to mention that this is N scale. The spur is curved and about 20" long. The fact that it is curved might make fitting an industry to it harder.
Is your spur right next to the mine or somewhat separated? Are you planning wilderness around it, or a small residential community, perhaps for mine workers?
For your mine, have you already incorporated the support structures needed for your mine in the plan? A mine would likely recieve quite a bit of machinery and equipment to keep the bores going. I believe often some form of cleansing is done on the coal for sulphur, etc before leaving the mine, so perhpas there would be chemicals that are used that could be delivered to this spur (perhaps, I don’t know the ins and outs of coal mining).
First there is more industries in the Appalachians then coal mines…How about propane dealers? Bulk gas dealers? light industry? Pulpwood yards? Lumber and home improvement companies?
The list goes on to include bulk oil plants,chemical plants,rail to barge trans-loading,power plants etc.
The branch line is elevated 2.5" above the main. The dotted lines are tunnels and the light blue line is the backdrop. This area is mountainous and heavily wooded so I don’t think a propane dealer or oil plant would look right in this case. I like the idea of chemicals or supplies for the mine being delivered to this spur, would this be realistic? What about a gravel company like Walther’s Glacier Gravel to supply ballast to the railroad? Please keep the ideas coming. Thanks in advance.
For a look at what this part of the layout is going to look like, check out the January and February 2000 issues of MR mag. Its the Appalachian Central project layout.
Well, there is a LARGE pulp and paper mill in Covington, VA, one in Big Island, VA, and another in Luke, MD. There were a lot of foundries/forges in years past, hence we now have places named Catherine’s Furnace, Clifton Forge, etc. There also used to be a lot of pulpwood and lumber wood yards around. A few gravel mining operations near rivers. I do not know how far back they go, but big coal powered power plants along rivers abound, too. Charleston, WV has FMC, and Dupont, and a bunch of other stuff, too.
Right now I’m kind of leaning toward the lumber mill idea. I also like the looks of the Glacier Gravel co, but it looks a lot like the coal mine structure so it may look sort of redundant. Also a gravel crusher would take more open hoppers, which might get kind of old after a while. I think that if I tried to model a power station believably it would take up too much space. I’m not exactly sure what a pulpwood loading facility looks like, or what its function is. Can someone explain this to me? Thanks again.
Pulpwood is loaded onto Bulkhead Flat cars(Atlas makes them) All you need is a crane or something to pick up logs and load them onto flat cars, even gondolas if you need to. Another thing. If your using that back side as staging area and not secenicing it what you could do is run it through the backdrop and make it an interchange. thats what I’m going to do with my branchline. There will be a coal mine and a run around for the coal mine so that I can get stuff to the interchange. which will be through the backdrop and halfway around the layout so.
There are plenty of chemical plants in West Virginia. There are also aluminum smelters and mills that took advantage of the TVA hydropower. There is a plant in WV that melts and finishes nickel alloys (like a steel mill but smaller and cleaner, plus nickel doesn’t rust). How about the nuclear complex at Oak Ridge TN? You could just have a receiving spur/siding/yard behind a fence with DOE warning signs and not have to worry about buildings at all except for a guard shack. They receive all sorts of cars: XM, TM, LO, HT, GB & FM (with machinery), and those low/small intermodal containers used for shipping lightly contaminated demolition waste and scrap. (They have been tearing down a lot of buildings since the late 1980s). In a similar vein there are several Army Depots in that area that are akin to giant warehouse complexes. These would handle XM, FM with vehicles, equipment, and HM for the most part.
I am working in the Valley Cement now. In HO it is 48x24" and is a rectangular footprint; I do not see it listed on the Walthers site in N scale.
The bulk storage building, kiln building, rotary kiln and crushing building (my name for it) MUST be in a straight line as they are connected by either conveyors or the kiln. The silos must be opposite the crushing building as they are also connected by a conveyor. The rail loading shed on the silo could be on a curved siding, but the footprint of the plant is pretty well set.
You might think about propane or natural gas loading facility. Both are pulled out of the mountains. Also a grain elevator (they aren’t only in the Midwest), any type of vehicle repair facility, A Joh Deere or Catapiller dealership (Athearn makes flat cards with both already included). The lumber yard is an option.
Interesting ideas… The problem is that this industry will kind of be in the middle of nowhere surrounded by mountains. The horse ranch sounds pretty cool, but it’ll require a lot more space than I have. (I don’t think thoroughbreds are transported by rail much nowadays anyway.)
I never thought of natural gas, thanks for the idea. I’ve always liked the looks of Walther’s North Island Refinery. Funny you should mention a grain elevator and a tractor dealer, I already have both of those planned for my layout (great minds think alike [:D]).
A lot of the industries mentioned are just too big to be located on a single spur wedged in a corner of the layout.
This is sort of a related question. The project layout in MR that I’m following used the extra storage bin from Walther’s New River Mine as something called a slack
and practice pasting photos on backdrops.