Beer Distributor - Ontario, CA

[Chew86]

First off - hi everyone, this is my first post here! Just found this site recently and it's a great resource.

I just wanted to share a pretty interesting industry I stumbled upon while in Ontario, CA this past week. I'm a fan of the ubiquitous 50' boxcar and noticed a ton behind this building near the airport. Did some research and the building is occupied by Biagi Bros, who is a beer distributor. There are 13 rail doors and to make things more interesting, the cars are spotted two-wide, up to 26 boxcars spotted at any time (and looks like most of the spots are usually filled).

For those who are more knowledgeable than I am about operations, are they unloading the cars on the far track by going through the cars parked along the wall? It looks that way to me seeing how the cars are parked with the doors exactly in line with each other.

This could make a pretty interesting layout industry, especially for ISL's, based on both the volume of traffic and operational possibilities having to spot cars at certain doors and making sure the doors of the cars are aligned with each other. Plus who doesn't love 26 boxcars full of beer???

Satellite image of the industry: http://binged.it/ZEHtW9

[jwb]

I think it depends on what you're after in a layout. The problem I'd see with this as an industry on a model is that it's just a row of doors in a huge shoebox of a building, with just one car type. Now, Lance Mindheim could certainly sell one more article to MR with this as a theme, but I think it would get old in a hurry as a home layout. I think the challenge for any layout is to provide variety and accommodate inevitable changes of interest over time.

[MountainMan]

OTH, any modern layout is just a big box with doors and the same kind of cars lined up in a row. What would you call a coal mining operation? Auto transporters? Lumber cars? Scrap metal depots? Modern railroads are all about unit trains of identical cars filled with identical products.

If this were my layout, I would go back a few years to boxcar advertising logos and have many different brands of beer cars lined up waiting to be filled with their brand and sent out to those millions of happy Americans. It could even be a bit of a switching puzzle, if Bud is always at Door #3, and Blatz is at Door # 5, and so forth. Have to get the right cars in the right spots to receive the right brand of beer.

[jwb]

But even on a very modern layout, you have other choices, like a transload, which can handle covered hoppers with feed, tank cars, flats and gons with pipe, rebar, or structural steel, centerbeams with lumber (visible loads are a very good thing), boxcars with lumber, etc. I simply wouldn't try to model a coal loadout on an ISL, that's more for a club-size layout that can handle unit trains. You've still got the question of what you want and how it'll keep you interested over time.

[Sumpter250]

First off - hi everyone, this is my first post here! Just found this site recently and it's a great resource.
This could make a pretty interesting layout industry, especially for ISL's, based on both the volume of traffic and operational possibilities having to spot cars at certain doors and making sure the doors of the cars are aligned with each other. Who doesn't love 26 boxcars full of beer???

Chew86 to Big Blue !!
*** jwb Wrote:
I think it depends on what you're after in a layout. The problem I'd see with this as an industry on a model is that it's just a row of doors in a huge shoebox of a building, with just one car type. I think it would get old in a hurry as a home layout.
***MountainMan wrote:
OTH, Modern railroads are all about unit trains of identical cars filled with identical products. If this were my layout, I would go back a few years to boxcar advertising logos and have many different brands of beer cars lined up waiting to be filled with their brand and sent out to those millions of happy Americans. It could even be a bit of a switching puzzle, if Bud is always at Door #3, and Blatz is at Door # 5, and so forth. Have to get the right cars in the right spots to receive the right brand of beer.
***jwb wrote:
You've still got the question of what you want and how it'll keep you interested over time.
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We all have our own likes and dislikes, so there is no "right or wrong". Lets settle down and discuss the How, Why and Where of the industry, and how to model it in the space available
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26 Boxcars full of beer-- -- -- --
Just don't give me a minimum time period for emptying those Box Cars. :o :o

[Chew86]

OTH, any modern layout is just a big box with doors and the same kind of cars lined up in a row. What would you call a coal mining operation? Auto transporters? Lumber cars? Scrap metal depots? Modern railroads are all about unit trains of identical cars filled with identical products.

If this were my layout, I would go back a few years to boxcar advertising logos and have many different brands of beer cars lined up waiting to be filled with their brand and sent out to those millions of happy Americans. It could even be a bit of a switching puzzle, if Bud is always at Door #3, and Blatz is at Door # 5, and so forth. Have to get the right cars in the right spots to receive the right brand of beer.

This was kind of what I was thinking. I'm a big fan of Lance's work and enjoy industries that are operationally interesting as much as visually interesting. The thing that really intrigued me was having two-wide car unloading, which I really haven't seen elsewhere.

One other thing that struck me about this place was that the cars weren't all identical. Boxcars, yes, but it was a very colorful assortment from modern hi-cubes, to 60' beer cars, to patched rust buckets.

[eje]

Welcome to Chew86! Those beverage distributors can be operationally very interesting. Even if the distributor handles products from a single manufacturer, there can be several brands in the product line and a different car spot for each one at any given time. Throw in partially unloaded cars that need to be re-spotted and a beverage distributor can become a challenging switch job. What's not to love about insulated box cars?

[faraway]

Hi and welcome Chew86,
this is a building with loading docks for 8 50' cars. You are looking for a building even 50% longer...


that might be as long as this one. It becomes hard to take a photo :o

[Brakie]

MM wrote:OTH, any modern layout is just a big box with doors and the same kind of cars lined up in a row.
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Actually that's not exactly true..A plastic company can receive covered hoppers of plastic pellets,tank cars loaded with plasticizer and boxcars for loading.. A scrap rubber reclaim company can receive boxcars of scrap rubber,tank cars of specialized oil and empty hopper cars for loading rubber pellets.A lumber yard can receive boxcars of roofing,siding,lumber,sinks,doors,tile and other home improvement items plus bulkhead flat cars of lumber and centerbeams.Bakeries can rececive covered hoppers,tankcars and few boxcars.

The list of single car shippers and receivers is endless..

As I mention before there's far more to modern railroads then most modelers think or been led to believe by so called "experts"..

[Brakie]

First welcome chew86.
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For those who are more knowledgeable than I am about operations, are they unloading the cars on the far track by going through the cars parked along the wall? It looks that way to me seeing how the cars are parked with the doors exactly in line with each other.
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Yes,there is a dock plate that fits between cars and locks in place in place..

Some of the double sidings has a door line "spotting" mark-usually painted on the side of the rail-as a guide for spotting the car.You spot the door of the boxcar inside the "spotting" mark.

[lajry]

Here's 3 images of the Los Angeles Produce Terminal on the Los Angeles Junction Ry. There were 12 spurs serving the main building holding 3 cars each. The ones not next to the docks were unloaded using bridge plates. The Switching Map is from Charlie Slater ex-LAJ/ATSF conductor & modeler. The terminal is no more but will be modeling the 12 spur version on my LAJ layout.

           

[MountainMan]

MM wrote:OTH, any modern layout is just a big box with doors and the same kind of cars lined up in a row.
---------------------------------------------
Actually that's not exactly true..A plastic company can receive covered hoppers of plastic pellets,tank cars loaded with plasticizer and boxcars for loading.. A scrap rubber reclaim company can receive boxcars of scrap rubber,tank cars of specialized oil and empty hopper cars for loading rubber pellets.A lumber yard can receive boxcars of roofing,siding,lumber,sinks,doors,tile and other home improvement items plus bulkhead flat cars of lumber and centerbeams.Bakeries can rececive covered hoppers,tankcars and few boxcars.

The list of single car shippers and receivers is endless..

As I mention before there's far more to modern railroads then most modelers think or been led to believe by so called "experts"..

While this is true about the rolling stock, modern factories/physical plants/buildings/warehouses are just big boxes with pretty much zero character.

Blame it on the Bauhaus school of architecture and company bean counters, but we no longer go to the trouble, effort and expense of creating industrial buildings that make a statement the way we used to do.

That's why I shy away from the modern era - the trains have to take on the total burden of catching and holding the viewer's attention, as the buildings for the most part lack any visual appeal whatsoever.

This is the modern Anheiser-Busch brewery here in Colorado - it could be anything, but it looks more like a cement works or a heavy industry than a brewery.


And here is an old brewery:

[Brakie]

While this is true about the rolling stock, modern factories/physical plants/buildings/warehouses are just big boxes with pretty much zero character.
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Absolutely..You have two types modern concrete box buildings or the older sheet metal type like this one:

[Mike Kieran]

MM wrote:OTH, any modern layout is just a big box with doors and the same kind of cars lined up in a row.
---------------------------------------------
Actually that's not exactly true..A plastic company can receive covered hoppers of plastic pellets,tank cars loaded with plasticizer and boxcars for loading.. A scrap rubber reclaim company can receive boxcars of scrap rubber,tank cars of specialized oil and empty hopper cars for loading rubber pellets.A lumber yard can receive boxcars of roofing,siding,lumber,sinks,doors,tile and other home improvement items plus bulkhead flat cars of lumber and centerbeams.Bakeries can rececive covered hoppers,tankcars and few boxcars.

The list of single car shippers and receivers is endless..

As I mention before there's far more to modern railroads then most modelers think or been led to believe by so called "experts"..

While this is true about the rolling stock, modern factories/physical plants/buildings/warehouses are just big boxes with pretty much zero character.

Blame it on the Bauhaus school of architecture and company bean counters, but we no longer go to the trouble, effort and expense of creating industrial buildings that make a statement the way we used to do.

That's why I shy away from the modern era - the trains have to take on the total burden of catching and holding the viewer's attention, as the buildings for the most part lack any visual appeal whatsoever.

This is the modern Anheiser-Busch brewery here in Colorado - it could be anything, but it looks more like a cement works or a heavy industry than a brewery.


And here is an old brewery:

Isn't it Ironic that Germans were usually the architects who designed the old elaborate structures and then designed minimalist boxes. I believe that we can still design box structures to be visually interesting. We just have to add the details to them. Boxes, palettes, graffiti, guy's playing cards on a box, signs, etc. Add in rooftop details like refrigeration units, dust collectors, skylights, windows at the tops of the walls, and other assorted minutiae to break up the boxiness of the structure.

As far as a beer distributor, I would opt instead for a grocery distributor. That way you have a mix of box cars, RBLs, Reefers, as well as tank cars and covered hoppers (sometimes grocery store chains have their own brand that they package themselves).

[Brakie]

As far as a beer distributor, I would opt instead for a grocery distributor.
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Mike,Excellent idea..I might opt for a distributor of tobacco and alcohol beverages but,I like boxcars.

Another thought would be a frozen food manufacturer or pet food manufacturer.