The Virtual Interchange and Shipping Office

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

This is not a new idea as I saw it on one of the other forums but I figure with many of us here from all parts of the Globe it could be rather ammusing to see where are merchandise or raw materials will land up and on who’s siding.

As this is virtual no money will change hands and the following agreement will be in place:

No tarrif barriers
Free Trade only
No monopolizing[:(!]
No Hostile takeovers[:-^]
No empty shipments [:0]

Just trading loads and trying to figure which route is the easiest.

The MESS is now offering the following

Fresh/Frozen Fish Reefer service 30 Loads/week
Coal 60 loads/daily
Gypsom 60 loads/ Week
Pulp 20 loads /week
Timbers 30 loads/week
Processed wood 30 loads /week
Lobster 20 loads /week
Maple Syrup 100,000 gallons( when in season)

MESS is now accepting:

Grapes 20 loads
Wine bottles 10,000 cases
Corks 50 cases
Holiday Makers/tourists 100 /day
Fresh Produce 15 loads/week Fall/ Winter/Spring

MESS also provides access through it’s ice free port at Mulgrave Canso Straits to European Markets. Mulgrave is the closest ice port to Europe and offers competive rates.

2

Interesting idea!

I have not entirely worked out volumes, but the Marlpost sub (southern Ontario) generates these commodities:

Grain
Milk
Passengers
Cattle
Lumber
anything else that can be shipped from the team track

and receives these:

Coal
Ice
Passengers
Cattle (for layover only, as per shipping rules)
just about anything at the team track (the town has a tractor dealer, for example)

Of these, perhaps the lumber, grain, passengers (and maybe cattle, but some processing is required) might be shipped to Europe.

Andrew

3

I have not worked out volumes or even names as this is in final planning for future construction of a pernament layout so, without further ado…

Falls Valley Railroad offers:

Bridge traffic to ports on the mid atlantic coasts with emphasis on Merchandise, Grain export, Meat and Produce, Machinery and Coal. Return Traffic includes imports, Banannas, Fruits, Salt, Cement, Bearings and Machinery as well as overseas merchandise.

Generates:

Distillery, Bottling Plant
Stone quarry
Munitions, AAresnal and Troops to and from installations, forts and bases in area/overseas
Produce and Cider (Apples, Watermelon, Pumpkins etc when in season)
Lumber
Mail and Express
Seafood
Tobacco
Steel and Aluminum
LCL (Both to and from)
Scrap steel and aluminum
Foundry
Charcoal and Brick
Dairy and Milk products
Team Track
TOFC

Requires

Factory parts of various types to support manufactoring
West Coast produce
Meats
Grocery
Building materials
Machinery
Merchandise
Glass and can stock
Pipe and large structural parts
POL (Gas, Oil, Avgas, Bunker Fuel, Coal etc)
Agricultural products
LCL (Both to and from)
Maritime (For support of shipping -example Rope, twine, cabling, chain and canvas etc)
Supporting loads as needed by shippers in above list not necessarily listed here. (Example -sand for the foundry)

4

hi I have to offer from RT Railroad the following
From R&R Distilleries we can produce aprox 4 tankers a day of the following

Vodka
Gin
Rum

We need
Orange Juivce
Limes
Lemmons
will let you know about other items needed and for shipping

RT

5

Good exercise for planing he layout.

Cincinnati, Georgetown & Portsmouth RR, serving Hamilton, Claremont, Brown and Adams counties in southern Ohio. Connecting to the wold via interchange with the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Cincinnati Union Terminal.

Passenger service including trolley service to Cincinnati’s Coney Island Amusement Park and the Camp Allyn and Lake Isabella resorts.

US Mail, Railway Express and team track service.

Generates
Grain including corn, wheat and soybeans.
Burley tobacco, (500,00 pounds annually)
Cattle and hogs.
Eggs & dairy (1 car load every 2 days)
Grapes (5 vineyards August & September)
Limestone quarried to order
Hops for Cincinnati breweries
Produce (Spring Summer & Fall)
Furniture grade Walnut lumber (2 cars per month)
Apples & pears (August - October)
Manufactured goods from
Bethel Shoe Works
Special Pallet Company
Cincinnati Can Corporation
Cincinnati Milling Machine
National Biscuit Company

Receives
Coal
Misc. Chemicals
Petroleum products
Steel
Heavy equipment
Groceries
Building materials
Manufacturing supplies for Tucker River Barge & Tug Works

6

On the GNE (Gainesville Northeastern) which runs in the North Georgia Mountains, we handle the following commodities:

Inbound:
Passengers (tourists)
Grains (for processing at Nora Mill)
Grains (barley, for beer)
Glass bottles (for wine or beer)
Plastic Pellets (for foam manufacturing)
(a stretch) Steel parts and tires for Kubota
Gasoline and Diesel
Propane

Outbound:
Passengers (tourists)
Coal
Gold (refined ore, ready for manufacturing)
Cotton (baled)
Tobacco
Expanded Foam Products
Lumber
Wood products (plywood, structural beams, etc.)
Pulpwood (logs or woodchips)
Fish (live or refrigerated)
Flour and other milled products
Wine
Beer (microbreweries)
Asbestos (raw material)
Cloth and Textiles
(a stretch) Kubota Tractors and equipment
Gravel, Granite, and cut stone products

Gold shipments are accompanied by armed guard to the point of interchange until picked up by interchange RR crew. Foreign road crews are responsible for their own security needs.

Brad

7

The Iron Belt needs about 30 hoppers of bituminous coal per day, to support coke production. (Sorry Fergie but my iron ore arrives by water so I won’t be needing any of your…er…‘faded red’ MESS ore jennies. [swg])

Allow me another day or two to ask my employees what other commodities are handled by the 'Belt …after all they are paid to know that stuff, right?

8

Consider it done! 30 coal loads/day will be shipped starting Monday.

9

morn to all

The YSL is in east central ILL and could use
anhydrouse ammona spring and fall
fertilizer
sugar beet pulp
dry mollassa
soy bean meal
eletronic parts
gas and diesel fuel
coal 10 cars per week
wood pellets in winter
lumber
we’re mostly a conecting line for Pennsy, NYC, and IC, but we ship
pallets
marine chargers
scrap metal 1-2 cars per week
ag lime
crude oil
beef and pork live 1-2 loads per week
livestock feeds 3 cars per day. bagged or bulk
recycled plastic pellets 2 per week

RT ; could use a load of rum, it’s eggnog time

think thats it for now any way
mike

10

Good morning.

Gloetown Sugar Refinery has ready-for-market sugar, currently refining 10 tons of sugar beets daily equating to 2 tons of sugar. Production will increase with demand.

We will accept shipments of sugar-beet and lumber. We can also take 1 or 2 cars/mth of good condition used cars. Honest Sam is expecting booming business.

We can use 3 loads of coal/day and 2 takers of oil/day.

Happy MRRing

11

LUCT ; the YSL could use a covered hopper load of dried beet pulp a week for the feed mill

mike

12

Mike - You got it, 1st load should arrive on Monday.

Happy MRRing

13

Counter Weight:

Re your: Maritime (For support of shipping -example Rope, twine, cabling, chain and canvas etc)

Have supplier in England, You deal direct with him and we’ll ship FOB

(Example -sand for the foundry)

How much do you require?

I can take 10 loads of Scrap iron /week

Brad: would you like to exchange, this way you won’t have to return empty loads.

I can supply 2 loads per week of wine and beer and in exchange can take two loads of wine and beer.

Fergie

14

Glad to see this idea is taking off. Here is what the Appleton, Rivermoor and Keenville has to offer:

Gravel(including railroad ballast and chip rock), up to 100 cars a week, depending on the capacity of the quarry(The ARK is not accustomed to running unit trains around, but if someone wants Gravel, we can do it!)
Finished milled lumber, about 5-10 cars a week out

The ARK also needs:
Plastic Pellets, about 4 cars a week
Reams of paper, about 10 cars a week
Pulpwood, about 3 cars a week
Coal, about 5 cars a week
Oil, about 2 cars a week in Tank cars.

Fergie, I’d like to renew the contract the ARK has with you for three cars of Coal a Week for another year. Does that sound good to you? Also, can we add on a new contract of 2 pulpwood cars a week? The Lumber mill in town gets most of their pulpwood by truck, but they have been looking into getting wood by rail to save some money.

Let me know if any of you need or have anything for me!

Noah

15

Well, seeing as how the local market generates their own wine, I’ll just take the 2 carloads of beer, some of the locals like that “imported” stuff. I can use those carloads of plastic for the foam shop if it’s polystyrene. Better load the cars short, the covered bridge can’t handle fully loaded 100 ton cars, it’s only good for about 75 ton cars. I’m surprised nobody wants that gold! Must be too high a security risk! We’re willing to lease out our armored Pullman should the need arise.

Noah, the coal and logs are on the way. Should be there sometime next week, they’re on the interchange track now awaiting pickup.

Used cars? How about some restorable antiques? We got everything from Model T’s to '70’s musclecars. Some even run!

We generally get our empties from our interchange with the Southern Railway in Gainesville, some are foreign road cars for homeward lading, others are returning home road cars. Needless to say, anytime the chance comes up, we will reload foreign road empties with outbound loads.

Brad

16

Fergie,

Foundry sand 3 car loads/week
I also can use that Maple syrup when ready by LCL
I’ll make 6 boxcars availible for the Maritime cargo per week, They probably will be full of Rum and spirits unless you can think of other cargo inbound to you.

I can give you 4 loads scrap a week, and bridge more from other railroads in this thread.

How many sleepers do you require?

Also, are you willing to accept bridge traffic other wise listed in this post? At this point:

2 carloads Scrap from Inch53

and Masonjar’s Europe traffic not yet specified how many etc…

spirits and rum is availible.

Luct,

2 carloads of lumber
4 carloads of coal

Inch53,

Electronics parts 2 carload in exchange for reloading your marine chargers.
2 carloads of lumber
2 boxcars of bottled rum
2 carloads of coal

I will accept 2 carloads of scrap metal for bridge to Fergie
We will reload those lumber boxcars with pallets
ag lime one CV hopper a week is useful

Twocenterprises,

We can run sleepers south to you by pullman contract how many do you need?
The distillery can give you empty glass bottles, 2 carloads a week.

We would like to use your coal to assist in filling orders listed elsewhere here.
Cotton will be useful for mills

Regarding your gold, we can turn this into a exercise for the military in a special train but dont have anything armored at the moment. Im thinking of burying that armored pullman of yours in a troop train should you be able to supply the GI’s

Bukwrm,

Express and LCL is availible (1 express, 2 LCL twice a week)
We would like to take shoes, pallets, cans and biscuts.

We can send

Coal
Chemical via bridge
Steel coil (1-2 per week)
Excess shipping inventory can be sent to you for your Tu

17

CW - Thanks a bunch, looking forward to the shipments.

Happy MRRing

18

Ken: We can supply iron ore in several types and grades. The DS&SE can also custom mix on the dock for your particular needs.

Noah: Not to cut into Fergies business, MUCH, but the DS&SE can ship coal at a considerable savings from our dock, since it moves most of the way by lake carrier.

Fergie: You can ship that coal by cannaler to our dock and trans ship by rail. We’ll work something out.

Our dock can also handle package frieght and and bulk cargo. There is lifting capicity to 50 tons for machinary. Connections are made with railroads in Duluth- Superior, Marquete Mich. and several other places south.

Give the Duluth Superior & Southeastern for all your shipping needs.

19

howdy all
I just decided some thing.

I need to make me a score card on who gets what and who’s shipping what

back in laters
mike

20

The score card?

I just have a notepad on the hard disk related to my railroad. Once a industry is satisfied inbound and out… I mark it off on the print out.

The really hairy part is dealing with all the virtual trains, for example my coal turn is already at capacity with all the loads going off line and will need to run a second turn during the week to handle domestic needs.

Worst case scenario I either get it off a different railroad and bridge it or some other line will get the coal business. =)