I’m in the process of figuring out what my industries will be. Aside from Mining and Logging what you find in the West Virginia/Virginia are? So far I have a Coal mine, a Saw mill, log loading place, LPG/Propane dealer, a warehouse, a junkyard and a Lumber yard. I was thinking of maybe having a brewery, But I still have another 2 spurs with nothing for them to serve. I’m from michigan so I don’t know alot of what is down there aside from what I already listed. The space Isn’t too big and so I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on something that I could model?
Morgantown, WV hosted several glass plants.
Nick
A good reason to model what you know. But - crabs, oysters, fin fish, beer, paper products, chicken, pork and ham, Ford trucks, computers, rock. Is this enough?
Gene
Got a good list started. I live near the WV capital of Charleston where you can find a FMC plant and some other small plants, and in Parkersburg you have a Dupont plant, in Ravenswood you have an Alumiunum processing plant; Pechenna rolled products (that is the best spelling I can give you, pronounced how that is spelled, plant is actually spelled different) that hosts Union Carbide products, SDR plastics and Hartley Oil and Trucking. Just to name a few locals. Hope this helps!
-beegle55
If you go to tidewater Virginia, you can even model a plant that builds perambulating air bases. Bit large for a layout, though. (Ever have a nightmare about trying to model a Nimitz class carrier under construction?)
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Still along the coast you also have an oil refinery, cars (Volvo), shipbuilding (as noted), LOTS of military stuff of all ilks (Hampton Roads used to be target #1 for the bad guys), and power plants. Also a bit further to the West but still well within Virginia, you have large air handling and finned coil manufacture, transformers, boiler parts, steel, heavy truck manufacturing (Volvo), plastic tape and wrap, railroad bearings (specialty steel), pharmaceuticals, tobacco products, and of course agriculture.
Small space? How about a moonshine operation?!![:D]
A rail served moonshine operation? Thats some serious shine!
A rail served moonshine operation would be possible. My wife’s grandmother had a still hidden beneath the pig sty. There was no give away aroma when the shine was being distilled. Make it big enough and when you ship the pigs, you ship the shine.
BTW, I don’t think aircraft carriers “peramulate.”
Gene
West Virginia is at the southern end of Appalachia. Given that and its mountainous terrain there isn’t a lot of major industry. I suppose you could conceivably add a small furniture manufacturer as there are a lot of hardwood forests. Hurricane is a chemical center with some nasty stuff made there. You could also consider a tobbaco warehouse or drying operation. More modern plants would be a small producer of plastic parts with a silo or two of pellets.
Along the Western Maryland’s Thomas Sub (Ridgely, WV to Elkins and beyond) there was a variety of industries. Of course a lot will depend on the era you’re modeling. Some of the major industries into the 1960’s and early 70’s included tanneries, charcoal production (Kingsford had a huge facility in Parsons, I believe), pulpwood and wood chips were byproducts of the loging and lumber industry that were shipped to paper mills both on and off line. There was also glass-making (refined sand and chemicals in, plate glass out) (PPG had a plant in Cumberland into the early 80’s) and Kelly Springfield made tires there into the 1980’s.
The Westvaco paper mill at Luke, Maryland, just across the river from WV, still is a major rail user, getting pulp and wood chips in, as well as various chemicals, kaolin slurry and fuel oil, and shipping out a variety of paper products.
West Virginia is very rich in natural resources, so you can figure to ship out anything from gravel and stone products to chemicals. It’s not just coal, although there are still huge volumes of that shipping out every day.
Lee
Jim here from Elkins, Randolph County. We also have Kingsford Charcoal
Factory, Pepsi Cola Factory, Armstrong Flooring Factory right near here. They are rebuilding the rail yard with new rail bridge, rail ties and also will have 2 Shays on display and running starting this summer as a tourist attraction with a modernization of our Rail Museum. Also of some interest is my neighbor who runs the tourist train from Belington to other points South and East through some really most beautiful rugged torrain. The Engines are F7’s. We also have Golf Courses, White Water Rafting and some of the best deer hunting and trout streams East of the Mississippi.
Speaking of Belington… I spent a lovely day there back in February when my daughter had a band concert at WVU. She rehearsed all day, and I went and chased trains…
Check out the video….
Lee
OOPS, forgot about the truly American Car, and only American car mostly built in the US nowadays, the Toyota Factory, sorry Chevy you’re mostly built in Mexico, not “like a rock anymore, not American”.
Nice video thanks!
If there’s trees, there’s probably paper manufacturing. These are usually serviced by the RR. Printing plants too. They come in all different sizes.
A long, winding observation from the region… may be of help, may bore you to tears. [swg]
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Your coal mine should probably be past a mountain ridge, and on a hilly plateau, since the rich coals seams are not on the mountainous Allegheny Ridge, but rather on the hilly Allegheny Plateau. A lot of the challenge and drama of the classic coal RRs - N&W, C&O and their forebears - had to do with getting over the ridge hump and past that to the coal fields beyond. There’s no significant coal on the eastern side of the Ridge.
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Just another geographical note: the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Ridge are two separate ridge lines within the Appalachian system, with the Shenandoah Valley in between. Both ridges were engineering challenges to RR builders, and there’s a lot of history there, with interesting grades, tunnels (Alleghany Tunnel west of Covington, Va), switchbacks and the like. The RRs often snake around the narrow meanders of rivers in order to break through the mountains up and over to the coal fields on the Plateau. Classic Allegheny railroading. To have these snaking lines adds running length for a small MR area! Check out the RR lines on a topo map of the region - DeLormes (sp?) - or Google Maps.
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Used to be an iron industry in west-central Va til the mid nineteenth century, until better deposits were found in the upper Midwest. Va place names like Clifton Forge, Longdale Furnace and Iron Gate attest to this. So, if you are earlier in history, or if you like to freelance…
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Paper Mills. Paper mills are really significant in the area. Lots of rail traffic, and one of your best bets. There is a huge Westvaco plant in Covington, Va, look it up on Google Maps. It’s the biggest employer in Alleghany County, replacing the railroad (C&O) that once dominated the region. Interestingly, w
Hi Jay,
Check out Berkley Springs!! It has a glass and sand operation.
Bob
On a more serious note from my previous post - I once had a photo of a N&W 2-8-8-2 switching the Bassett Furniture Company - large, low brick buildings (The closest one had a sign, BASSETT MIRROR Co., painted on it, while the others had furniture company signs in the same style.)
Not only a good prototype industry, but proof that N&W wasn’t shy about using Y’s for road switchers.
Chuck
Garbage is big business in Virginia (hauling it from NY & New England). See the trains every day. Near where I live there are a couple of brick factories; also a mom and pop propane station which always seems to have 1 or 2 tank cars; and there’s a very very picturesque newspaper plant on the Potomac River in Alexandria; the last of its kind. Boxcars pull up right pierside and the big rolls are unloaded; on the same spur is a large coal plant that sees lots of activity and even uses a caboose for backing movements.
Also nearby in Alexandria is an asphalt plant and a gravel plant; side by side. The asphalt plant uses one of those ugly Santa Fe F units that were converted to cab unit; can’t recall the designation.