I’m looking for prototype industry info (names, locations, and, if possible, commodities shipped) to aid me in setting up off-line originating and receiving customers.
The OPSIG group has links to databases of industries, but these appear to only model industries on the layouts of other model railroaders. While I can see the point of that, I’d prefer my shipments come from and go to real industries.
Anyone know of sources for info like this?
I’d particularly like to have info circa 1960, but can work data from other eras, too. To a certain extent, I have a pretty good awareness of industrial supply chains and regions where things come from, but coming up with precise names and locations is tough. Plus, getting old doesn’t help my memory for such things, which is why a source that lists industries could be really helpful.
It is hard to know how to get a handle on what it is you need – are we going by a particular railroad, or a particular city? but here are some ideas.
First, Ted Schnepf has very usefully reprinted the Shipper’s Directories from a number of midwestern railroads. I have found the C&NW one extremely useful even though I model the 1960s and the directory came out in 1923 (I was later able to secure an original from around 1940). There was surprisingly little change. Town, industry name and product(s) shipped (or received) are all indicated.
If you have access to a good library, then old city directories are also useful for this kind of research – often they list the business the company was in. When used in conjunction with the Shipper’s Directory it becomes even more useful. A city directory is typically double organized, once by street going number by number, and then alphabetical like a normal phone book. Often there is a map that shows rail lines.
Many cities and towns published histories during the 1976 bi-centennial and often those have excellent discussions of the local business history.
I have found typing a city or town name into Google Books has gotten good results – from company advertisements in trade magazines and papers that show what the products are. For example, typing South Milwaukee WI into Google Books came up with a large ad for the old Line Material company. I always knew Line Material made electrical components but the advertisement that Google Books found listed their complete line.
Jeff Wilson’s Industries Along the Tracks series of books (now up to 4 books) often names specific company names, if all you want to know is a “real” name for a company in a given industry.
Don’t know about any other roads, but the PRR used to have a List of Stations and Sidings (CT1000) that might be of interest. It included industry names and locations. Type “PRR CT1000” into Google. The third item down will take you to the Broadwaypennsyrr website’s CT1000. I wouldn’t be surprised if other roads put out something similar.
The OpSIG industry database of 40,000 or so industries is mainly real-life shippers, many compiled from actual waybills. To quote from the site:
" Industries are predominantly actual companies located on prototype railroads, but we also include some industries on model railroads because some users enjoy including them in their routings. These are specifically identified, however, so those who prefer to exclude them can do so."
OK, I was up too late last night reading things and totally missed the part about real industries being included. I was thinking it doesn’t have to be this hard[:^)]
I did grab the IndMan download, along with the txt industry files, and gave it a spin. Problem is that when I open the industry .txt files in IndMan, I get one (1) row of industries, when I’m supposed to see 10,000 or so, right?
Is there a simple answer to that? Or should I come back later when I have more time? I’m a klutz when it comes to these sorts of things. I read in IndMan’s help and it looks like you just open the files and there they are? But they’re not.[:o)]
Mike: Try the Railroad Industry Special Interest Group. They have a website and a quarterly newsletter. I have belonged to it for years and am one of the editors. A good source for what you want.
If you’re modelling a particular railroad (your logo would imply it’s the D&RGW), a good place to start is to find an employee timetable from the era you’re modelling. It will list all the shippers the railroad served at that point in time. Then you can pick out industries that sound promising and start researching to find pictures of the actual industries to see whether modelling them will require scratchbuilding or kitbashing, or if a kit exists that is “close enough” to the actual customer.
After deleting the IndMan and downloading it again, being careful to set permissions correctly, I still can’t get more than one row of any of the region files to show up. Like I noted earlier, there should be roughly 9,999 more files in each of these files, so I’m stuck at this point.
Which is weird. Many years ago, I tried to set-up an earlier version on another computer I used to own and had roughly the same problem. Sounds like a great program for those with the knowledge to get it going. I’m stuck.
I realize I’m drifting away from “Prototype Industry Info” here, but not sure where else to turn to for advice. Anyone know of a good user group or some other source of advice on installing and using IndMan?
Indeed PRR had a list of stations with industries…However,it could be useless at times because (say) at Elkwood there wasn’t any rail served industries left yet the list showed 3 industries.
In fact when I worked on the PRR we had a boxcar for a industry that was no longer rail served and the switch had been removed…
A fast check with the receiver showed he had no idea the switch had been removed!!!
PRR ended paying the transload and truck haulage fee.
Ok here is a factory in Evansville, Indiana, it was first a Republic Aviation factory building P-47’s during WWII after it closed it was bought by Whirlpool Corporation in 1950 and was used into 2010 as a refrigerator factory with rail service used on site. Originally it was served by NYC but after the demise of the NYC it was served by L&N and then the trackage was sold to Indiana Southern that provided service until it closed in June of 2010. They had Coil cars of steel, plastic pellets, liquid foam components, fiberglass insulation, freon, delivered to this site by rail. They also during the Vietman war built stablerizers for F-111 and shipped them to the aircraft manufacturer. They also shipped sub-assembles to Fort Smith, AR where they built side-by-side refrigerators. So if you are looking for a major user of rail service here’s one for you. Hope this helps,