hi,
I am in the process of building a 3x6 n scale layout in modern era. I have a space in the bottom right corner that has a small spur for an industry. The size of the space is about 4x9 inches. I cant decide what industry to put there. Maybe a junk yard? I already have a grain elevator and small factory.
Thanks for any suggestions.
tim
A junk yard sounds good. Might also try a propane dealer.
There aren’t very many “modern” industries that small that would still use rail today. I might consider a plastics plant receiving covered hoppers of plastic pellets, A fruit or vegetable processing plant that would ship frozen foods or possibly a car rebuilder who handles minor railroad car repairs. That way you could justify dropping just about any kind of car there.
Why not cover the area with ballast, add a tower or a small office, and make it an interchange yard?
when i worked in upper manhatten in ny city there was a rock salt distributor across the harlem river that received rock salt from a mine in upstate ny. there was a large pile of salt. several conveyor belts from under the cars were used to load trucks or to add to the large pile of salt which was about 40’ high, 50’ wide and about 200’ or more long. this pile was covered with different colored tarps and weighed down with old tires. conrail switched several cars there each day including all summer. covered hoppers and cylindrical hoppers were used and these cars were so rusted (weathered) they looked like they should be scrapped. i have an area on my layout where i am going to model this industry.
I agree with Altofan, but would also suggest a Team track. You don’t always need to be too specific, a spur can add interest even if you aren’t sure exactly what goes there. It can also be a small transloading facility.
You are modeling the same size and scale layout as I am, good luck and try to keep us posted. I would be curious how it’s coming along. A quick hint, you can do a lot in this space in N scale but its easy to go overboard too if you try to do too much. I learned that from my first, larger HO layout.
Hi Tim,
In addition to those industries mentioned there are three more in my locale that come to mind.
!. Crown Cork & Seal… a can manufacturer they receive metal by rail and also ship by rail and truck.
Cives Steel… They receive raw steel and make steel beams They have a rolling crane on the outside that carries and stacks the beams Walthers make such a crane but for another purpose.
Trex… They make "artificial wood from plastic and wood.
Southeastern Container makes liter bottles for Coke distributors. This has been mentione and is similar to your grain silos.
Good luck and look forward to some pictures.
Bob
Yes, you’re right.
What you need to ask yourself is whether you’d rather have enough traffic to support realistic operation, or if you’d rather model a very realistic industry.
What area of the country are you modeling? This dictates what types of industries you could put there. For example, a New England layout is very unlikely to have a coal mine. And West Virginia doesn’t have many grain elevators.
I’d go with an interchange, a team track (commonly known as a transload facility nowadays, although not to be confused with an intermodel facility), a pulpwood loading facility, or a scrapyard. You could also model an “aisleside” industry, where you just drop off the cars on the spur and they’re switched in the industry (not modeled) by the company itself (using a trackmobile, front-end loader, or a small switcher). This doesn’t have any advantages over an interchange though.
Just a few things to think about.
Basically what I do, I drop off the cars and the unmodeled industries are on their own after that. You don’t need to see everything. Good ideas Ty.
Depending on the time frame that you are modeling, you might consider a small Ethanol plant?
The lengh of usable track space is only about 8-9 inches so it couldn’t be big.
I am hopping that by the end of the week I will have some pistures of the layout.
tim
n:
I like the plastic-plant idea. There’s a plastic-pipe factory in Erie, accessed by all that remains of Dock Junction. It’s not that big at all, and it has an outdoor storage yard full of new pipe. Plastic pellets are delivered in big covered hoppers.
Another good idea is a simple transfer station for some bulk material. There are a few towns around here with a small set of silos. One facility I know of handles bulk silica sand, and has nothing but the silos and a winch car positioner. The sand is received in short covered hoppers. I’ve heard of others nearby that handled fertilizer for blasting at a mine, or well drilling mud. If you want, you can have an office trailer, but the sand depot has none. I think IHC had some small silos that would work.
Sometimes you don’t even need that. Erie has a transfer station for…something, I don’t know what, but I think it’s shipped in covered hoppers…maybe salt? It’s just a spur along the Allegheny & Eastern and a portable “Lionel Coal Conveyor” in a gravel lot. That’s it. You could fence the area off and put in some ground unloading pipes for tank cars, to pump the juice to some off-table location. MR had a writeup once about a corn syrup depot that was just that, but using a disused, elevated station platform.
A simple truck-dump coal loader, or one using a coal pile and front-end loader,
Guys,8-9" in N Scale isn’t much space for a rail served industry allowing for clearance points…
I would model a non rail served industry using a Pikes Stuff building.
As a example.
B:
I get the impression he had 8-9" clear on the spur, though, which should be enough for a couple fifty foot cars…not really roomy, but if you can manage a rail-served industry, it does give you another place to switch, which is nice.
Here’s some aerial photos of the places I mentioned above, courtesy of Google’s orbital death ray satellite photo archive:
Clockwise from upper left - Meadville sand silos (I think there used to be only the 2 identical ones), 84 Lumber spur, plastic pipe plant, Corry silos (I think these were the drilling-mud ones shown in MR or RMC), Erie mystery terminal on Allegheny & Eastern.
I think these could definitely be fit, perhaps with some moderate selective compression or beyond-table imagineering.