Interesting, but un-modeled industries

[Londoner]

This is the picture I referred to

http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~duplerd/oh/Aag120.jpg

It's the Anchor Hocking glass factory in Lancaster and the picture was taken in 1982

Glass making was one of the first industries in U.S.A, thogh many early glass factories did not last long. Most glass making that survived was concentrated in West Virginia and New Jersey, though glass factories seem to crop up all over the place.

Ken

[nkp_174]

Ah. That's the other side of the state...3hrs from here...so I won't be able to snap any current photos for you.

[Londoner]

That's alright Conductor.

This is where the photo came from

http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~duplerd/oh/io.html

Cheers
Ken

[bdw9535]

Here are several pics of Durand Glass in Millville NJ. Hope this helps you out.

Bruce            

[Londoner]

How about this, not obvious what it is, no signs to help and as a bonus it's a fallen flag doing the switching

http://eddiesrailroad.blogspot.com/2008/...-spur.html

cheers
Ken

[nkp_174]

That looks like the standard fair corrugated metal building of today...the only way to tell what they do is the sign...and the name won't even tell you half the time!

There is a tool that many of you might like. In the US, ownership records are kept by the local government and are part of the public record. In the State of Ohio (and probably in some other states), you can access them at the County Auditor's office. Many counties have placed this information on the internet. You can check ownership, sale prices, layout of rooms, property information, and even photos! Here is an example from my county...

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.hamiltoncountyauditor.org/realestate/rover30.asp">http://www.hamiltoncountyauditor.org/re ... over30.asp</a><!-- m -->
(to the best of my knowledge, our auditor isn't the retired wrestler )

Here is an example...
The Lunkenheimer company was one of the largest manufacturers of steam locomotive whistles. They still exist, and I believe these to be some fo their buildings:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.hcauditor.org/realestate/SOTF_tab_image.asp?t_nm=image&l_cr=&t_wc=|parcelid=2020032014600&sid=0C025834640A48B7B0D23AA4F9398C98">http://www.hcauditor.org/realestate/SOT ... A4F9398C98</a><!-- m -->
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.hcauditor.org/realestate/SOTF_tab_image.asp?t_nm=image&l_cr=&t_wc=|parcelid=1700007000100&sid=0C025834640A48B7B0D23AA4F9398C98">http://www.hcauditor.org/realestate/SOT ... A4F9398C98</a><!-- m -->
A couple years ago, my dad stopped by their factory and bought a few missing parts for some of his steam locomotive whistles...they still had them in stock!
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://lunkenheimercvc.com/index.htm">http://lunkenheimercvc.com/index.htm</a><!-- m -->

Or check out the world's largest bell factory...the Verdin Co also of Cincinnati...
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.verdin.com/">http://www.verdin.com/</a><!-- m -->
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.hcauditor.org/realestate/agency/hamilton/hamilton_tab_base.asp?t_nm=base&l_cr=&t_wc=|parcelid=0750003018200&sid=0C025834640A48B7B0D23AA4F9398C98">http://www.hcauditor.org/realestate/age ... A4F9398C98</a><!-- m -->

So, going back to my first post...I started this thread after thinking about how cool a locomotive builder would as an industry on a layout...a great excuse to have many distinct locomotives which otherwise would make no sense on your layout...and then having both a bell and whistle manufacturer as well!

Michael

[MasonJar]

...and then having both a bell and whistle manufacturer as well!

Michael

Throw in a kitchen sink manufacturer, and you'd be all set...!

Andrew

[steinjr]

How about this, not obvious what it is, no signs to help and as a bonus it's a fallen flag doing the switching

http://eddiesrailroad.blogspot.com/2008/...-spur.html

cheers
Ken

I looked up the street names given on the web page, and looked around on maps.live.com until I located the tracks and industy. Those tracks and those buildings is in Franklin Park, a suburb of Chicago. Just behind the building that the tracks go into is a short side street called Sandra Street, coming off Franklin Avenue.

Here is a bird's eye view of the area: http://tinyurl.com/bwdlg5

I then went a looking for local chambers of commerce, web pages etc, to see what industries were located in the area, and also looked up the businesses located on Sandra Street, Wolf Street, Franklin Avenue and Addison Avenue in Franklin Park, IL on maps.google.com.

I still haven't identified the building the tracks go into, but the building behind it is an electronics company Garvin Industries, 3700 Sandra Street, to the left of the tracks is Graph-Pak Corporation, 11250 Addison Ave.

Funny coincidence, btw - while doing family history research, I learned a few months ago that I at some time had relatives in this area - an older sister of my paternal grandfather emigrated from Norway in 1903 and settled in the Franklin Park/Schiller Park area. Looking at the map, I also realize this area is fairly close to Mount Prospect, where an older brother of my maternal grandmother lived for many years.

Guess this must be an area where quite a few Scandinvian immigrants from the early 1900s settled down.

Grin,
Stein

[MountainMan]

What about the large-scale coke ovens that were an integral part of the early steel industry?

[nkp_174]

Funny coincidence, btw - while doing family history research, I learned a few months ago that I at some time had relatives in this area - an older sister of my paternal grandfather emigrated from Norway in 1903 and settled in the Franklin Park/Schiller Park area. Looking at the map, I also realize this area is fairly close to Mount Prospect, where an older brother of my maternal grandmother lived for many years.

Guess this must be an area where quite a few Scandinvian immigrants from the early 1900s settled down.

Grin,
Stein

There is a good reason as to why the Minnesota football team is called the "Vikings". Many of the largest Lutheran church organizations in the US are located up there as well. I do believe that there are also such populations in Wisconsin, northern Michigan, and so Chicago would make sense as well.

While I think I have seen coke ovens on a layout or two, I've never seen the sort of typical 1870s operation with 4-wheel cars and ovens that would be really cool.

Michael

[MountainMan]

All in all, this would make quite a layout industry for the right person. I imagine these were busy places in their heyday.

[EM-1]

My home town was the home of the old Thew Shovel, a company that not only made a large internationaly used digging and heavy construction equipment, but also had a line of heavy Motor cranes, similar to some available from Walthers. When the family decided to retire, it was sold to Koehring. They used to get in box cars with small and medium parts and hardware, large diesel engines, hydraulic pumps, flats and gondolas of heavy castings, milled shapes for booms, and I believe may even have recieved raw metals to do their own specialty castings. Some of their moto-cranes had one engine for the vehicle frame, and another heavy diesel for the crane mechanism. I have seen their products in Brasil, Lybia, and Trinidad. They shipped finished products, replacement parts, and gondolas of scraps from their machining processes. On a number of occasions, I saw in-plant switching being done by a crane similar to the powered crane Walthers used to sell. They also had at least one 6 wheel drive moto-crane fitted with knuckle couplers.

We also had a shipyard that built ore boats and even a number of naval ships ranging up to 1000'. Recieved lots of heavy sheet steel, huge diesel engines, motors, generators, bearings, electronic equipment, and probably only shipped out machining scrap.

At the mouth of the river, we had a coal facility that loaded lake boats with West Virginia coal from an elevating rotary car dumper. Across the slip from this, there were a set of bucket gantry cranes that emptied iron ore and taconite from the boats. Both facilities were torn down in the 1980s.

Also had an auto plant that recieved dozens of Box cars per day, and shipped out finished double racks of Vans and triple racks of passenger cars.

[Brakie]

EM-1 said:Also had an auto plant that recieved dozens of Box cars per day, and shipped out finished double racks of Vans and triple racks of passenger cars.
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Another auto based industry is a mixing pool..Here they trans load vehicles from rail to truck for shipment to dealers.
Of course these are large industries but,one can model the unloading area and a small part of the storage area while the other lots are "off layout"..