What Industries Does your Railroad Cater to?

My Northern Pacific Proto-Lanced layout operates: through freight, local industries and some passenger service. It serves: the railroad itself (Coal, oil, sand and parts for cars and locomotives and general freight) Copper Mining, Logging, Meat Packing, a brewery and a Railroad Express Agency. There are three copper mines served by the line, delivering empty ore cars and picking up loads and delivering mining supplies.

I am very new to operations, although I have been building and running trains on this layout since 1988. I’m finding that keeping the railroad supplied with coal, sand and oil seems to be 50% of my operations. In an interest to learn more about operations and find out if there are other model rails in my area, interested in operations, I joined the OpSIG. Most of the operations in Minnesota appear to be in the Twin Cities, so joining the OpSIG was not much help for me.I probably don’t operate prototypically and am content with that.

Steel Mill

Coke Ovens To Steel Mill

Coal to Coke Plant

Sugar from Sugar Beets

Wood furniture

Paper and Carboard Boxes

Limestone to sttel mill and Granite for aggregate and cut stone

Pianos

wine

fresh fruit and vegtables

Water heater manufacture

Gravel for ballast

Scrap Iron

Oil dealer

Feed and farm supply

Chain link fence mfg. http://lariverrailroads.com/cyclone.html

Dog food mfg. http://lariverrailroads.com/strongheart.html

Lumber supply

Beer Distributor http://lariverrailroads.com/miller.html

And there are three Freight Stations

Awesome choices guys.

Mine will include mining, a transfer station and a steel mill. I’m still deciding on the industries I want to add later when the layout has progressed.

I’m currently tearing down my modern-era current layout, but it served the following industries:

  • Asphalt ready-mix plant (receives bituminous in tank cars)

  • Granite cutter for home decor and counters (receives granite blocks in gons)

  • Commercial cookie bakery (receives bagged chocolate chips and other ingredients in boxcars, corn syrup tanks, flour and sugar in airslide covered hoppers)

  • Building supply yard (receives lumber on centerbeam flats, insulation/drywall/etc and other products in double-door boxcars
    My new layout (still modern-era) will revolve around a large paper mill and have the following traffic:

  • LOTS of pulpwood in gondolas or bulkhead flats

  • Salt cake in large covered hoppers

  • Coal for the powerplant

  • Lime in covered hoppers

  • Corn starch in airslides

  • Chlorine, caustic soda, NaHS, sulfuric acid, liquor, tall oil, turpentine, all in tank cars (list includes inbound loads as well as outbound byproducts)

  • Recycled paper in boxcars (inbound)

  • Scrap paper in an old boxcar (in-plant move)

  • Paper rolls in boxcars (outbound)

I’m nowhere near finished planning for this since I have yet to finish tearing down my old layout, but I’m quite excited for the switching opportunities! This plant will keep a switcher and crew busy full-time.

The layout I hope to build someday will be based on a section of CN’s mainline between Montreal and Toronto, ideally representing (in some compressed form of course!) the stretch from Brockville to Montreal. Although the focus of my interest is the VIA passenger service on the line, the freights are what pay the bills :stuck_out_tongue:

Major industries along that way that I’d like to model(moving from Brockville east):

-CN metals distribution (Brockville)

-Brockchem (includes Invista, Nitrochem, Dyno Nobel - lots of various tanks!)

-Maitland Ultramar terminal (unit tank trains from QC)

-Kriska (general transfer) and pipe loads at Prescott

-Prescott Grain and Greenfield Ethanol (in Johnstown - again more tanks, and grain and corn hoppers)

-CASCO (Canada Starch) Cardinal (tanks and hoppers)

-Not sure of specific industries from there to Cornwall/Coteau, etc…that area may get “very” compressed, only modelling the VIA station at Cornwall and possibly around Coteau Jct. :wink:

The way I’d like to design the layout would have run off to staging at either end (representing points east and points west), as well as the CP interchange at Brockville and maybe even the CSX interchange at Coteau. So that would allow me to run pretty much anything as run-through and interchange freight (lots of autoracks, intermodal, etc.).

Loving the ideas and unique industries.

My Toledo Erie Central Railroad’s industrial corridor ships just about anything, as it includes a team track, a warehouse and a (proposed) freight station. But among the rail-served industries it ships the following.

Beer and ale

Brewers’ grains

Barley

Grain (mainly corn, soybeans and wheat)

Scrap metal

Fabricated metal

Coal

Small auto parts (brakes and suspension)

Manufactured goods (to be determined, industry not yet built)

Petroleum products mostly diesel some gasoline. I have an intermodal transfer yard (rail to truck and vice versa) During the summer and Hollidays a tourist line runs.

My modest Citrus Belt serves the following:

one lemon packing house

one packing house for mixed citrus with ice platform and house

Cut flower distributor and packer, good excuse to incorporate express reefers on a layout otherwise devoid of passenger operations

shook-lumber distributor

Dave

I model a seaport city on an island on the Gulf Coast, the end of the line for Santa Fe and several other trunkline railroads, so NO through traffic, unless you count what is interchanged to and from SHIPS.

INBOUND port cargo (from railroad to ships): wheat, cotton, rice, sulfur, flour, sorghum,

INBOUND consumables used by port operations: pallets, paper sacks, burlap bags, dry ice, industrial gases, steel, pilings, stone, diesel fuel, meat, refrigeration chemicals

OUTBOUND port cargo (offloaded from ship to railroad): bananas, coffee, beans, raw cane sugar, oyster shell, ore, jute, seafood

INBOUND to online city industries: meat. produce, food products, appliances, furniture, automobiles, raw tea, beverages, newsprint, utility poles, pipe, electrical wire, building materials, Portland cement, grain, hops, chicle, LCL & express.

OUTBOUND from city industries: packaged tea, beer, LCL & express.

RAILROAD COMPANY SERVICE: ice, diesel fuel, sand, ballast, refrigerator car salt

The Cedar cRapids Industrial Branch (still under construction) is loosely based on part of Cedar Rapids, Iowa and features the CNW, CCP, CRANDIC and Iowa Northern in the 1987-1993 era.

CNW: Quaker Oats (world’s largest cereal mill), Loftus Distributing (wholesale lumber), Paul Jerabek & Sons Distributing (crappy beers), Stickle Enterprises (a little bit of everything and anything), Feder & Sons (junkyard), Iowa Electric Light and Power Co. (pole yard), Roush Products (bakery), Cargill (corn wet-milling operation).

CCP: National Oats (home of 3-Minute Oats), Weyerhauser (cardboard box plant), Vigertone Feeds, Marion Iron Co. (junkyard), Longview Fibre Co. (another box/container plant), Linn Co. COOP (fertilizer), Cargill (soybean plant), Lehigh Cement, Northwestern States Portland Cement.

CRANDIC: Penford Products (starch products), Alter (scrap metal), ADM CornSweetners (corn syrup, corn by-products/feed), Cargill (soybean plant), City Carton (cardboard recycler), Iowa Electric 6th St. power station (coal loads).

Iowa Northern (run-through): grain for Quaker, Cargill, National Oats, ADM, John Deere (loads of tractors out of Waterloo), misc. other traffic to and from Waterloo (bridge traffic for CNW).

NOTE most of these industries will be “off-line” and represented by tracks in staging, however the cars will be handled in transfers between the CNW North Yard and CCP yard, etc.

Heartland Division – CB&Q RR

List of industries.

Locations ……. Industries …… Commodities

Heartland ……… Railway Express ………… Express freight

Heartland ……… CB&Q Freight House ………. LCL Freight

Heartland ………. U S Post Office ………… Mail

Heartland ………. Mittlemann Wholesale …… Inbound food and beverage

Heartland ………. J & G …………………… Inbound building materials; aggregates

Heartland ………… Heartland Power Co. …… Inbound coal

Heartland ………… Reggie’s Junk Yard …… Outbound scrap metal

Valley Heights … Stayle Bread Company …. Inbound flour; Outbound baked goods

Hinterland ……… Hinterland Tannery ……… Inbound hides and acid

Hinterland ……… Shelley Footwear ……… Outbound boots and shoes.

Steel Branch ……. Steel Mill ……… Inbound coal, ore, stone, scrap. Outbound steel

Blackhawk ……… Mickey Mills …… Inbound grain, coal. Outbound flour.

Blackhawk …… Heilemann …… Inbound grain, bottles, cartons, cans. Outbound beer

Blackhawk …. Champion Packing. …. Inbound livestock. Outbound hides, meat.

Blackhawk …… Blackhawk Ice ……… Reefers for ice.

Prairie View …… Prairie View Canning …… Outbound canned vegetables

Prairie View …… Prairie View Elevator …… Outbound grain

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My Railroad hauls just about everything.

Awesome industries and customers.

My prototype had :

Grain

Salt (barrels, bags, bulk)

Petroleum products (Gasoline, Diesel fuel, Heating oil)

Coal (Company service for steam locomotives, coal dealers)

Road graders

Livestock (cattle and hogs)

Flour

Turnips/Rutabagas (When in season, late fall to spring)

Farm animal feeds

Furniture (Cabinets, Chests)

At least that’s the part I plan to model.

Steve

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[quote user=“Heartland Division CB&Q”]

Heartland Division – CB&Q RR

List of industries.

Locations ……. Industries …… Commodities

Heartland ……… Railway Express ………… Express freight

Heartland ……… CB&Q Freight House ………. LCL Freight

Heartland ………. U S Post Office ………… Mail

Heartland ………. Mittlemann Wholesale …… Inbound food and beverage

Heartland ………. J & G …………………… Inbound building materials; aggregates

Heartland ………… Heartland Power Co. …… Inbound coal

Heartland ………… Reggie’s Junk Yard …… Outbound scrap metal

Valley Heights … Stayle Bread Company …. Inbound flour; Outbound baked goods

Hinterland ……… Hinterland Tannery ……… Inbound hides and acid

Hinterland ……… Shelley Footwear ……… Outbound boots and shoes.

Steel Branch ……. Steel Mill ……… Inbound coal, ore, stone, scrap. Outbound steel

Blackhawk ……… Mickey Mills …… Inbound grain, coal. Outbound flour.

Blackhawk …… Heilemann …… Inbound grain, bottles, cartons, cans. Outbound beer

Blackhawk …. Champion Packing. …. Inbound livestock. Outbound hides, meat.

Blackhawk …… Blackhawk Ice ……… Reefers for ice.

Prairie View …… Prairie View Canning …… Outbound canned vegetables

Prairie View …&

Awesome guys

My proto freelance 50s era Southern branch (in it’s current incarnation) handles:

Textile mill: cotton, dyes, and coal (for power) in, finished cloth out. This is the primary industry on the layout and the reason for the railroads existence.

Oil Dealor: Basic, rural gas and oil supply gets the occasional tank car.

Lumber Yard. Every small town in the south had at least one.

Depot & Team Track: Whatever happens to be needed.

If I had room to expand, it would include these other typical small town industries from the era:

Oil Mill. These produced cottonseed oil, animal feed, and fertilizer from cottonseed. Some received seed from gins, others ginned and shipped cotton as well.

Small chemical plant: Textiles used a lot of dyes.

Pulpwood loader. Lots of pulpwood moved in the south.

Peach shed(s) and reefer icing. Upstate SC produced more peaches than Georgia and had an annual run somewhat similar to the citrus run in CA.

If I really had a lot of room and wanted to ramp up the ops, by the 60s and 70s, large, mega synthetic fiber plants were booming in the south. These plants were huge and could swallow whole trainloads of cars. I recall an article from RMC a few years back where someone built a rayon plant as the focus of his layout. That plant alone was bigger than most model railroad spaces.