Holland Southwest Building 4

[Brakie]

Those box buildings with little architectural extras are the small industry of today. They are the smallest realistic possible buildings that might be served by rail. The large industries of today that are served by rail are far out of proportion for the space I have available. But I admit I did also fall in love with those white boxes... don't know why
The space requirements are even worse for todays layouts. Compare the the length of good old S1,2,3,4 SW... switchers with todays SD40, Genset etc. Even SW1500 and MP15 are out in some areas (e.g. LA). I did run two Genset together (UP likes to do that). That is an tremendous space killer. Give it a try. You will be astound how short your tracks become.
No chance for a cute brick building with an S1 and two 40' boxcars...

One way to have large industries is by using background buildings along the backdrop.



Evan at the Bucyrus club we had to use buildings along the backdrop.





This steel mill uses one large corner section of the layout as you can see..




Of course IMHO 3-4 large industries that looks like they need rail service beats a dozen smaller one that look like a 40' boxcar would overwhelm the dock area.