Please advise me about New England industries

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
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I have room for a small [and I mean small [:)] ] railroad-served industry on my HO layout that’s meant to be a broad representation of New England from roughly mid 1970s to mid 1980s. Actually I could model the bulk of it in low relief.There’s room for a short spur alongside a building of some sort.

I know I could just invent one but I would like to have something that’s typical of the area. After much searching online and on this forum I still can’t work out what it might be [other than a paper mill, of course, and they’re huge] Something that uses chemicals or even corn syrup would be good, because I have tank cars and hoppers that are suitable.

I’d be very grateful for any suggestions.

Mike

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How about a brewery (mostly box cars) or a bottling plant, (corn syrup in, box cars out)? Textile mills were still around up till the early 90’s (before moving south).

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How about a state unemployment agency with a long line - oh sorry - that’s today!![:O]

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You Could build a cranberry bottling/canning plant or a large comercial bakery. Depending on which part of N.E. Potatoes from main to a potato chip factory is another. You could build a plastics molding factory. The list is endless.

Pete

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A lumber mill and reload might also work for you.

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If I recall correctly, in 1977 there was a small agricultural supplier (?) in South Acton, Massachusetts on the B&M that would receive 2-3 shiments per week in 50 ft boxcars. The unloading shed looked like an old roundhouse. Much has probably changed since then, but you can see it on Live Search Maps using the Birds Eye View. The exact location is northeast of the corner of Main & High Streets in South Acton, and the track used to come in at the right rear of the “roundhouse” which is clearly visable. 'Twould make a nice small industry, with a bit of character. Hope this helps,

Richard

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Mike, it could be almost anything. The industries that shout out New England are of course the mills that you mention. How about a fuel dealer? With appropriate signage it would be firmly placed in your region.

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Although New England is relatively small, it’s still obviously divided into different regions, with very different industries. In the north (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont) you’ll find lumber, and perhaps still some granite quarries. Connecticut is almost a suburb of New York City, so most any light manufacturing would do. The coastal areas of Rhode Island, Massachusetts and back up to Maine support fishing, including the popular trade in lobsters.

In your era, the dairy industry was still pretty widespread. Milk was collected from the remote farms and transferred, often by rail, to larger processing facilities. “Hood” was a well-known regional brand for milk products.

If your railroad is on the coast, though, I’d consider a lobster packing facility. Lobsters are kept alive in tanks until they are sold to the consumer, so they might be shipped in reefers from New England to points west. The lobster fishing industry could be represented by a pier with some lobster traps and some nets, or you could add a couple of boats if you’ve got room. The packing facility could be a simple background structure with a couple of loading dock doors, or you could add another dock for the trucks to bring in the lobsters. This would inevitably be a well-weathered structure, as is almost everything on the often-stormy New England coastline after a few years.

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Well, in my neck of the woods (Massachusetts), right on the NEC there was a company called “Vista Chemicals” that got covered hoppers of plastic pellets. They had 4 white plastic pellet silos just like the Walthers kit, and existed for the 1980’s and 1990’s (and maybe the 1970’s). It used to be a “Hercules Powder” factory.

For other companies, there’s lumber yards, box making (Stone Container), trucking terminals, rubber (Plymouth Rubber…in Canton, MA), scrap dealers, etc. All of these existed back then.

Paul A. Cutler III

Weather Or No Go New Haven

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Awwww. You just made my day. I myself live in Acton. The agricultural supplier you are referring to is Erikson Grain. This is a great idea to model, though I would caution that depending on era, this type of company may no longer use rail once its volume goes down or its merchandise changes with the demise of local farming for cookie-cutter suburbs.

Some ideas, a number of which have already been mentioned:

Plastic production - this is becoming more and more common in NE

Food manufacturing/drink manufacturing - numerous examples exist just in Eastern Massachusetts; would use both hoppers and tank cars

Flour processing - although little grain is grown in NE, there are significant flour processing operations in New England

Paper processing - taking bulk paper and processing it into things like cardboard, packaging, etc - smaller paper related operation

Good luck

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Plenty to choose from. I like the sound of food/drink manufacturing. Plastics too. Wish I could fit in the lobsters. Next time, maybe. Leaning towards food and drink at this stage.

So many excellent suggestions. It’s all helpful and I’m very grateful. I really had no idea 'til now.

Mike

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I miss read your post when I typed this…

To answer your REAL question… I would recommend a propane dealer. They are commonplace and can be modeled in a small area. Also interesting would be a lumber yard or transload facility which could accept just about anything.

My original post:

I can comment on Northern New England…

In that time period there were numerous paper mills. The primary raw export was and is lumber products. One could argue we also export jobs and educated young people but thats another story.

Dragon Cement, a cement maker with a rail served barge transload a few miles away.

Power plants, thinking the one in Bow NH accept unit trains of coal. THere used to be a lot more. For instance, the White Mountain Power company in Meredith NH (or thereabouts).

There are quite a number of rail served lumber yards and building supply businesses.

Propane is heavy. THere is a terminal in Newington NH. Numerous distributers.

Plastics go to a number of manufacturers. I dont think there are any manufacturers of plastics in northern new england, but I could be wrong.

One cool industry is Highliner Seafood, they accept loads of frozen fish. I also see frozen food reefers going north into Maine. I do not know whether they are coming or going with loads…

Another one of my favorites is the Portsmouth naval shipyard. I don’t know how it worked in the 80s but they occasionally ship out spent nuclear fuel. Kinda cool.

The ship yard in Bath, ME, accepts loads. There is rail right to the docks but now I think most of it is steel going to a facility a few miles away. easy to model, just a fenced in area with a spur and a lot of steel piled up in rows.

Historically there were a number of breweries. While I do not know of any except the bud plant in manchester NH now, it would not be a stretch to have a rail served brewery. For instance, Frank Jones Ale in Portsmouth, NH.

For references to current industries th

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Paper mills

Textile Mills

Aggragate, sand & gravel yards

Cement

Forestry & lumber

Dairy

Beverage makers

Toiletries (Gillette)

Shoe factories

Fisheries

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New England is full of factories and mills. Handsome Brick buildings, couple of stories tall. Pitched slate roofs. Big windows to let in the sun. Rail spur runs right along side the building. Loading dock at box car floor height. Roof over the loading dock to keep stuff dry when it rains. Bunch of big loading doors into the building. Tall brick smoke stack. Often had the name of the company set in the brick. They came in all sizes, small medium and large.

These factories made tools, machinery, firearms, textiles, table ware, furniture, appliances, radios and TV’s, aircraft engines, shoes and shoe machinery, stereo viewers, electric motors, watches and clocks, pots and pans, instruments, auto and aircraft parts, fasteners, hardware, just about anything. In the old days they received raw materials and shipped finished product by rail. In the 1960’s trucks took over most/all of the shipping. Then as the textile and shoe business moved south or went out of business, high tech firms moved into the solid brick buildings. DEC and Wang and Data General and Polaroid and Prime and Raytheon and General Radio (later Genrad) and Teradyne and others.

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Crowe Rope in Warren ME was another company that received plastic pellets in covered hoppers. They made all kinds of nylon, dacron and other kinds of synthetic rope; but went out of business in the 1990s.

Others have suggested paper mills and the Dragon cement plant in Thomastom, ME. These are probably too large for your limited space unless you just show a warehouse or loading/shipping facility. There are some photos of Dragon Cement (aka Walthers Valley Cement plus other buildings) on our club website: http://www.railwayvillage.org/modelrr2.html

You could select almost any DPM building that has a loading dock and fits your space. For a more modern look, the Pikestuff metal buildings would also be appropriate for any time from the mid-1960s to the present. ALso, take a look at the Walthers background buildings. They assume the bulk of the building is behind the layout, so a large industry could be modeled in about a 2" depth.

http://www.walthers.com/exec/search?category=Structure&scale=H&manu=walthers&item=&keywords=background&words=restrict&instock=Q&split=60&Submit=Search

They are not the only company making background buildings, but it may give some ideas.

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Again, thankyou very much for all the helpful suggestions. This forum is a goldmine of information.

Mike