Non-Agricultural Rural Industry Suggestions?

[Canadian Shortliner]

Hi Guys,

I haven't been online since June because of computer problems, but now I'm back. I got the track laid on the old layout and some cardboard mockups built (sorry, no pictures, my camera won't start up). However, after having it up for a while I decided that the setting is not quite what I want so it's back to the drawing board.

I've always wanted to set the layout in my area (between Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie), but I could never find enough interesting industries that would be plausible on a small switching layout. So, since you guys are pretty knowledgable I figured I'd come here for some suggestions.

So, here are my questions:

1) The kind of town I want to model is small (under 1000 people), so I'm thinking that a small sawmill might be the most plausible. What kind of operations would occur at one in the modern era? What about something like a plywood mill? Would they recieve glue by rail? Would the operations at these be more interesting than just replacing a cut of cars
with another?

2) I was also thinking about a small truck terminal like this one:

http://www.trainweb.org/algoma/Images/Lo...n/pan5.jpg
http://www.trainweb.org/algoma/Images/Lo...n/pan2.jpg

This would be plausible if my town was located on the outskirts of a larger one. What I'm wondering is what kind of operations would these kind of places (not this specific one) provide and would it be enough to be the main industry on the layout?

3) Any other suggestions? Keep in mind this area is not heavily populated and is mainly primary industries with little to no manufacturing. My main requirement is that they can provide enough operations to be the focus of the layout, similar to Jack Hill's Cardboard Mill:

http://oscalewcor.blogspot.com/search/la...OPERATIONS

[Sumpter250]

Non-Agricultural Rural Industry.........
Modern era......
Hmmmmmm.....

A Building Supplies Store / "Lumber Yard"
( not one of the "Big Box" type, but large enough for rail delivery. There's one in Mundelein, Illinois )
There's a small "Plastics manufacturer" within walking distance, Pellets in, Products out.
Small to midsize brick manufacturer.
Small "Custom Furniture" manufacturer.
And, the most ubiquitous of all Non-Agricultural Rural Industries, The Team Track....rail car to truck, transfer point.

If you are talking really "rural"? - - - - There's a track running through it.

Seriously, it is a matter of economics. The more rural the area, the less chance it will be served by rail -- at least in "modern times". Most of the freight would be handled by truck, and it would take a fairly large manufacturer to warrant a rail siding, unless it had already been there for a long time. (as in team track).
That said, It is your world, the more plausible it is, the more believable it is, but .....it IS your world.

[FCIN]

For an interesting little short line serving a small town rural area, you might want to take a look at the now abandoned Union Railroad of Oregon http://www.trainweb.org/highdesertrails/uo.html. The UO's main customer was a sawmill, but also served a grain elevator/feed mill and a couple of other small industries. It was certainly an interesting little operation and one that I had considered modeling at one time, although I don't know where I could have gotten hold of a good running scale size Plymouth loco in HO scale.

Some really good photos on the web site that might inspire you or at least give you some ideas. As for the kind of operations at such a facility in the current time period; probably wouldn't be a lot - but you'd be shipping out finished lumber in box cars or bulkhead and/or center beam flats; wood chips and like the UO some miscellaneous other commodities in and outbound. If they did produce plywood, you could probably justify them receiving glue in tank cars and of course ship out the finished product in box cars.

Here's a simplied drawing of the track arrangement of the UO that a person could base a small layout on:     Of course, even today, you'd probably have a team track located in a small rural town like you mention or even the truck terminal might make for an interesting operation. You could have box cars of various commodities, reefers of produce or meat; perhaps even box cars of beer now and then to keep the townfolk smiling.

Another possible industry that you might find in such an area would be an LP Gas distributor. Very simple to model and would add another interesting car type to your fleet.

Just some ideas that I hope you may find useful, but as Sumper250 says, the more modern, the less likely to have rail service in such a small town.

[shortliner]

I know you said non-agricultural, but how about a frozen chicken processing plant - chickens are trucked in from all round the district, and processed, packed and shipped in reefers to the local big City distribution area - the number of people employed would be aboutb right for that sort of area, and any small town will often have only one major employer - an alternative along the same lines would be a potato processor, making frozen and packeted potato products

[Brakie]

How about a Pillsbury batch plant? Pillsbury can receive covered hoppers(flour/sugar) and tank cars.

[MasonJar]

Non-ag, modern, rural in Northern Ontario.

I think that logging is out - almost all now handled by truck (in and out) until you reach a significant size or aggregate product from several mills at a single shipping point.

But how about quarry operations? There's a thread going here somewhere with a modern stone quarry that might fit the bill as it includes rail ops. Sand and gravel is a good alternative since to transport it any distance, you need an efficient method such as rail.

Some sort of specialized plant that has received funding to set up in a remote area - like the bakery suggestion, or plastics factory (above).

It might be easier to alter the locale or the era - by being a bit more urban (like southern/southwestern Ontario with towns on the order of 2000-20000) or by backdating a bit (to the 1940s or 50s, i.e. pre-globalization - means that there is more likely to be "one of each" thing railserved in each town - e.g. furniture factory, lumber, coal/bulk goods, etc).


Andrew

[Green_Elite_Cab]

How about an automobile distribution facility?

Before i sound insane, i've seen one in the middle of nowhere in Montana. It was essentially a spur with a Run around on the spur, and maybe an extra track (gotta find it again). The entire run around was flush with the asphalt. The locomotives would pull in with the Auto racks or flat cars (which were loaded with construction and farm equipment), and run around back to the branch it came from. There were about 4 portable ramps that could be rolled around to any particular location, and cars and trucks unloaded.

Automobiles are typically shipped by rail if distances are beyond ~200/250 Miles, and any distance shorter than that is handled by truck. You can model the flow of new automobiles to rural areas. Because this IS a rural distribution center, it doesn't need to be big. The one i found in Montana had a storage lot smaller than the parking for the local shopping mall, and you don't have to model the whole thing.

[odave]

How about a small scrap yard? Here's a midsize example from Pontiac, MI

Or a landscape supplies wholesaler (sand, gravel, rock). Red Lava in Waterford, MI

Note that my examples above aren't in rural areas, but there were some similar, smaller industries in the small town I grew up in.

[ratled]

How about a fuel dealership? Gas and propane for the modern era and coal & oil for an older era. There was probably a transition era for that industry in which you could get a nice combination of products to deliver. Might even be able to have a fuel n feed dealership that can act as a team track and really justify some car action in that spur.

I thought a small mill too but for the modern era it's probably out but it is possible to have an old mill spur now serving a pulp wood or wood chip facility by rail.

The idea or a quarry, sand and gravel or even a cement trans loader are all good choices too

Steve

[Canadian Shortliner]

Thanks for all the suggestions so far.

I have some questions regarding the quarry. I know that it would ship sand and gravel, but could it ship and receive any thing else to make it more interesting (for example, explosives)?

@Supmter250 and FCIN- I know by modeling the modern era it does restrict my industry choices, but the main reason I chose it is because I prefer the newer freight cars. It's also the only era I know since I'm 17. I probably could go as far back as the 80s or even 70s though, since it seems like that was when the modern style cars came into use. I already prefer older diesels and vehicles, and the scenery around here hasn't changed much since then so I wouldn't have a problem with it.

I will definitely be including a team track. I've also seen plenty of places that sell building supplies, propane, and feed all in one spot around here. None are rail served, but I could have a larger one that receives an occasional carload. The reason I wanted to stay away from agricultural industries is because this area doesn't have much farming other than horses, cattle and some vegetables for local markets, but I guess it could warrant a carload of feed every once in a while.

As for the quarry and cement plant suggestions, that reminded me of a branch that used to run to Manitoulin Island until the early 90s. It served a cement transload dock, beer store, warehouse, and several fuel distributors. That might be another reason to consider a new era. What kind of operations would be found at a quarry? I know about the sand and gravel loading, but could there be other things shipped or received?

I've also thought about going to an urban location as well and I‘m not opposed to it, but would prefer to stay rural.

@MasonJar- Actually, from what I can see from satellite imagery, most sawmills here are still rail served and only the smaller ones ship by truck. I guess what I meant by small was more like medium- big enough to justify rail service but not massive.

@Green_Elite Cab- Don't worry, I don't think you're insane. I've seen similar facilities in rural areas of southern Ontario. However, I don't really think that would be plausible here since the population is too low. There are only five cities, only one of which has a population over 100 000, and all but two are separated by at least 4 hour drives.

Anyways, so far what I'm thinking of is either a small industrial spur on the outskirts of a larger town serving a truck terminal and team track/lumberyard/feed mill/LPG distributor, or a small town at the end of a branch with a sawmill, team track, and some other industry which I still haven't decided on.

[bsmall]

How about a "pellet fuel" plant. They are popping up where ever any kind of forestry is being done.

Inputs

• wood chips by rail and truck.
  
• binding resins by covered hoppers and truck

Outputs

• bagged pellets by boxcar and truck
  
• bulk pellets by covered hooper. The pellets are produced with non toxic materials and can be shipped in grain hoppers.

[ratled]

This sounds like a good read for you since it has quarry and lumber ops in it - and a few others. <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.amazon.com/Model-Railroaders-Guide-Industries-Tracks/dp/0890247714/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1312423472&sr=8-3">http://www.amazon.com/Model-Railroaders ... 472&sr=8-3</a><!-- m --> Cheaper than getting from the source too if they ship up north.

A plausible scenario if you really want add more RR than you can show is to have a med/lg size mill "just over the hill" that has it's own loco on a private branch line that would interchange with your RR. It could bring several full loads - box, centerbeam, woodchip. "down" (from a short blind staging area in a hill or behind some trees) to your road, set them out on a run around, pick up some empties your RR left out the other day and return to the mill (staging). Your RR's next train would bring more some empties for the mill and and pick up the full ones to continue on it's journey somewhere else in the world. This would let you have a larger mill that needed RR service without having to give up the real estate or make models of it.

Done right it could give you another RR model (Canfor?), another train to run and that train could give you 10-15 real time interaction with the spotting of cars, picking up empties, and shuffling car cards. If you really want to add to the interaction, you could say you mill run still uses a caboose/shoving platform and you would have to get that from the end of the full load cars to the end of the empty cars.

This would also allow to model some older locos that you may not seen in your modern era

Anyway, just a thought
Steve

[shortliner]

Okay - I know that it isn't your part of the world but take a look at the Alaska RR APU spur in Anchorage - you aren't going to get much more rural than that

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.alaskarails.org/maps/Anchorage.gif">http://www.alaskarails.org/maps/Anchorage.gif</a><!-- m --> look at how the APU spur was in 1996 - at the bottom of this map
And how it is now <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.alaskarails.org/industries/APU.HTML">http://www.alaskarails.org/industries/APU.HTML</a><!-- m --> after contracting - may give you some idea for small semi-rural industriers. There are links to some photos too

[Canadian Shortliner]

@bsmall- Good idea! I've heard talk about similar operations possibly opening up here but never thought about them being rail served. I think I'll use that instead of a sawmill. Do you have any pictures or know the location of a railserved one? I can't seem to find much more info on them.

@ratled- I see that there's a feed and fertilizer place along that line. It seems like Alaska has even less agriculture than the area I'm modeling so I guess that makes a feed distibutor a bit more plausible for my layout.

[MountainMan]

Rural "non-agricultural" potentially rail-served industries, time frame unspecified...

Mining.

Quarrying.

Ranching.

Logging.

Boneyards.

Tourism.