"All along the southbound odyssey the train pulls out at Kankakee
And rolls along past houses, farms and fields
Passin’ trains that have no names and freight yards full of old black men
And the graveyards of the rusted automobiles"
That stanza of my favorite railroad song ends with my favorite line of that song. I think of it every time I see a scrapyard of old cars and trucks. How could I not model that?
I model 1958 and I think a scrap line is most appropriate for a roundhouse of that era.
One place I have seen scrap railroad equipment is Naporano Iron and Metal in Newark, New Jersey. I have seen them scrap everything from boxcars, containers, locomotives, buses, subway cars, if it is big these folks can scap it. They ship out and receive by rail. They are currently served by Conrail Shared Assets.
arulo guthries city of New Orleans is a great song, true country.
here’s an update To answer a few questions.
insly ships outbound loads of processed scrap to Middletown’s very own AK steel (via NS), who takes inbound loads of scrap, and ships outbound loads of finished coils. Those steel coils are shipped to the auto plant in Indiana Via the indiana and Ohio.
the scrapyard has a small security shack and a wooden fence. It has an old clawbucket crane thing (the machine that replaced steam shovels) to load the gons. there is An acess road for the trucks that send in scrap.
On some occasions. Something big like an old transformer is shipped in by rail on a 4 truck flatcar.
the crane thing has replaced the house engine. (Too big for a corner of a 4x8) however, The crane moves the Gons now. The plant is switched by an sw1500, or one of the Alcos, as the 1500 is used for the new largest customer, a feed mill that takes boxcars.
Oh, and an old jet fuel tank from model power holds the oils.
insly’s : logically constructed for a logical world.
Scrap yards are a great way to use left over stuff instead of throwing them out.
With limited space the art of compression comes into play. The idea is that you create the illiusion of what is being modeled. If you look at a scrap yard with a siding you assume it is justified or it wouldn’t be there. Conversely some of the industries modeled in reality don’t have enough track and we “look” the other way. Once again if it looks good to the modler then it’s OK.
Just my 
Bob
There used to be a railroad car scrap yard in the southwest quadrant of the intersection of Highway 65 (Now Sheridan Lincoln Blvd, since Lincoln Bypass built to the west). On the west side of the property was a line of old Western Pacific boxcars (5 or 6) apparently used for storage. The east side was bounded by the railroad tracks. There was one spur that ran parallel to the railroad into a car burner. The car burner was a metal building which looked like it was made from scrap sheets. Non metal parts were burned off the cars in it. I saw it in operation at night once. It was spectacular with flames shooting out from every joint.
Now this is a scene that you won’t see very often; a Big Boy going to the scrap yard. I have a small scrap yard on my layout (under construction now) but it wouldn’t handle this ‘piece of junk’.
-Bob
I just looked at the area on Google Earth. Was mistaken about location. Actually one intersection north at Chamberlain Road. The site was cleaned up before 1993. However the remains of a siding and apparently two spurs can be seen in 2015. It occupied an area of approximately 250’ x 1000’. There has been a landscape materials company on part of the site since 2006-07
scrapyards i got one on my model railroad but its a dead end as far as generating cargo its kinda more end of the line place to just store junk really i use S or O scale roll off bins for small trash and they generate more of a load then my scrapyard does
it takes up space too if my scrap yard didnt have a loading dock it wouldnt be on my layout it would be scrapped im still considering it to make room for my candle facility to grow bigger.
most of my loads are either generated by my mine or the steel mill or the wax grinder and candle melting tower and molds
about 99% of my loads is wax for making the candles
but its how you run your facilitys who knows maybe its more profittable for you then it is to me
I wanted a scrap/salvage yard a little different to others here in the U.K…
Charlie Marston’s Salvage Yard
David
Love those salvage yards and scrap yards, David.
Rich
There are no more scrap yards in modern times, there are recycling centers.
I agree with the posts that said the average model railroad scrapyard is too small to be railroad served. If you want to be somewhat realistic, have it at the edge of the layout so that the majority is an unmodeled section. Have it fenced in to prevent theft (which give the additional operating interest of opening/closing a gate during switching). There are different types of scrap that would be shipped, which would give modeling differences in the loads: your basic loose ferrous or baled product being shipped in gons going to a steel mill. High-end materials like brass and copper would be shipped in boxcars to specific smelters.
Off course there is always Rule 1.
David
LOL. But, a very valid point.
Rich
Hello All,
Great question…
To clarify; a “Scrap Yard” is a reclamation business, where a “Bone Yard” is a permanent or temporary storage yard?
I ask because on my coal-branch loop pike there are several “Bone Yards”.
These scenes probably contain the same detritus, with the equipment to manage the materials along with sidings to dump and load train cars, similar to a commercial operation.
In my travels: north on Colorado Hwy 85 from Denver to Greely; parallel to the SP line, along the way there are many rail served “Bone Yards” and “Transfer Yards”.
Modeling similar scenes to reclamation businesses is another option.
Hope this helps.
There have been variations on this topic in the MR forum. Example: March 2017 “Who has a major HO Scrapyard.” If this topic was started by a letter to MR, there would be the suggestion of the chapter in one of the “Industries Along the Tracks” books (no longer available from Kalmbach Media ) of of previous articles in MR (back issues availble from/accessible for Trains.com members)
