Industry You Can Model

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

After visiting a facility last week, I’ve thought of another industry not commonly represented, but can ship out and receive nearly any kind of car, would be (of all things) a railcar factory or shop. A railcar plant would receive wheelsets, truck sideframes and parts, couplers, draft gear, pipes, brake shoes, brake parts (cylinders, control valves, linkages, etc.), and, of course, steel and aluminum in bulk, and could ship out (with a bit of modelers license, but not a big stretch) nearly any kind of railcar, even passenger cars if one so desired. New cars would not need any weathering, and fresh paint schemes would be correct. One can also model a large railcar rebuilding and refurbishing plant. Materials in would be similar, along with incoming cars for repair/rework, outgoing loads would be repaired/repainted cars, as well as old wheelsets for machining/refurbishment, old truck sideframes and bolsters, used couplers, old brake shoes and parts, and of course, scrap metal, lots of it sometimes. This would be an ideal place to practice wreck damage on old cheapy junker kits, weather them up real heavy, and park them on the inbound track as wreck rebuild units. You could also take those 10 for a dollar cars (eBay specials), cut them up a bit, doors off of one, ends off another, roof off another, a side out of one, etc., weather them real heavy with a bit of silver on the edges (where they’ve been torched), and let them pose as units under various states of (dis)repair. Don’t forget to park some really ancient cars around, like storage boxcars, old tankers for various chemical storage (or diesel for the shop switcher), and electric winch car pullers are fairly common. A typical shop switcher could be something like a 44 tonner, or even a small 20 tonner of some kind. A modern facility could even have a Trackmobile. Going back, you could use a Mack switcher, or even further, any small yard goat would do. The goat w

2

Interesting idea. Googled American Car Foundry.

http://www.acfindustries.com/acf_information/history.asp

Regards,

3

A car repair shop is very intesting to visit. I remember seeing dozens of boxcar doors stored upright at the Cudahy Car Shops back when the CNW owned it.

When it was in operation, Northern Railcar in Cudahy Wisconsin got freight cars, including lots of autoracks and covered hoppers to repair, passenger cars, mostly privately owned by also the American Orient Express, and locomotives to repair and paint. Their yard was like a railroad museum. I think they had a line of 5 E8s at one time. Their shop switcher was a beautiful EMD SW-1 with a big brass bell up front.

It was owned and operated by the same man who runs the Wisconsin & Southern, whose paint shop does lots of custom work for various railroads, including the UP’s heritage units.

Interestingly both Cudahy Car Shop and Northern Railcar (which were less than a mile from each other) both got autoracks to repair --I am thinking the damage rate on those cars must be high.

Avalon Rail in Milwaukee repairs passenger cars and there is a lot of railfan interest in seeing stuff come and go there. Frequent poster Keith Schmidt has some shots on this website – this is just one of them

http://www.railimages.com/gallery/keithschmidt/afu

Independent Locomotive Service in Bethel MN is a place that tends to get interesting locomotives lined up. Another Keith Schmidt shot (I was there but do not shoot digital like Keith does):

http://www.railimages.com/gallery/keithschmidt/agi

Dave Nelson

4

Kind of like a RIP track on steroids! I like it!

5

My buddy works at such a place in E St. Louis IL, near the Alton and Southern yard, it is a pretty big operation with lots of tracks.

Mike in Tulsa

BNSF Cherokee Sub

6

A full grown railroad car shop might be too much too chew!

However;

  1. Years ago MR did an article on a outfit that cleaned the interoirs of tank cars and covered hoppers located in a wye.

  2. For a while, GE painted new engines at Corry, Pa. The facility looked like a plastic tent.

  3. There was an outfit that did light passenger car repairs south of Warren, Pa. It looked something like a two stall diesel engine house.

  4. At one time there was a tank car repair facility on the Erie at Saegertown, Pa. That looked like an open yard full of tank cars, some with parts missing.

Have fun