faraway Wrote:I could not find a prototype of a dedicated HFCS plant.

I know this isn't going to thrill you, but here are two Google views of Corn Products International http://www.cornproducts.com/ plants that I located:
Stockton, CA http://maps.google.com/?ll=37.911032,-12...7&t=h&z=17 and
Winston-Salem, NC http://maps.google.com/?ll=36.032993,-80...3&t=h&z=18. Pretty big facilities to say the least. Looks like they do the whole operation at these facilities - mill the corn to produce the corn starch - then process the corn starch to get both liquid and granular corn sugar. Corn starch would also be shipped out along with corn oil and corn gluten feed, based on the products that Corn Products has on their web site.

I suppose your facility could do the same thing, but on a much smaller scale - receive the corn in gravity discharge covered hoppers, then ship out corn starch in the P/D hoppers, corn oil in tanks like the one in your photo and the HFCS in corn syrup tanks.

FCIN Wrote:... Pretty big facilities to say the least. ...

Ed, thanks for the fast answer. Absolute big facilities.. I did find lots of photos of huge installation covering the hole process from grain to the end products. My idea is that the little old grain service has been specialized to do the single step from starch to HFCS only. It is far to small to compete with the giant plants of Corn Products International and other global players. May be they tried to survive in a niche market only.

If you want corn syrup tank cars on your layout, there are other alternatives. One is simply an unloading facility -- if HFCS is made out in the boonies, it does have to be shipped to metropolitan areas. You can see corn syrup tank cars in many manifest freights, and it's then routed to transloads where it's pumped into tank trucks for delivery to bakeries and so forth. Here is one that was located on the site of the old SP freight house at River Station Yard in Los Angeles:[attachment=11062][attachment=11061][attachment=11060][attachment=11059][attachment=11058]
This is long gone -- the transfer is now (or was, haven't checked lately) out of town at Aurant Yard. The actual building is pretty small, as you can see, and much better suited to an ISL.

jwb Wrote:If you want corn syrup tank cars on your layout,....

Thank you for the corn syrup background and the photos.
I did start with the wish to have pressure differential hoppers instead of the grain hoppers and keep the current grain service buildings (may be modified).
When I searched for goods that use pressure differential hoppers corn starch was one possibility. Searching for use of corn starch lead me to HFCS. That sounds good to me because I have also ADM tank cars and a "corn starch to HFCS plant" might be using old buildings earlier used for grain service.

In other words I am searching for new use of the existing building (may be modified) that explains why pressure differential hoppers and tank cars are serving it in 2005 or later.

Reinhard, I was at the Western Prototype Modeler's meet in San Bernardino, Ca on Saturday. I met a new vendor who has a product line that might interest you. He has brick sheets laser cut in bass wood. The grain shows on the "naked" sheets but as he demonstrated with acrylic washes, as soon as you apply the washes in the various colors, the grain disappears as well as any blemishes in the wood. He also has security bars for windows in a flexible material that can be bent to simulate an attempted break in, or it just flexes if bumped instead of breaking. He has some really neat stuff and is developing more products as he thinks of them. He also does custom laser work if you have a prototype building that you would like that isn't available otherwise, and his laser can cut virtually any shape.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://monstermodelworks.com/">http://monstermodelworks.com/</a><!-- m -->

Russ Bellinis Wrote:Reinhard, I was at the Western Prototype Modeler's meet in San Bernardino, Ca on Saturday. I met a new vendor who has a product line that might interest you....

Russ, that looks very good. He is offering all the details necessary to do old brick walls. Thank you, a very valuable link

That is my freelanced tank unit from the bakery and a scratch build loading dock to load into tank cars with some weather protection to be used for e.g. food, corn syrup etc.

Very nice Reinhard, got the big business, industrial look to it.

Gosh Reinhard! You work fast! That certainly makes for an interesting facility and sure makes me think of similar tank car facilities that I've run across such as this Coca-Cola plant in northwest Orlando, FL, where corn syrup tanks are being unloaded:[attachment=11063]I purchased one of those Walther's Magic Pan bakery kits myself - mainly because of the silos and the fact that the structure can be assembled in different configurations and it could also be used for other industries. Still haven't decided on what the silo's will be used with, but we shall see. Too darn many ideas out there!

Nice work!

faraway Wrote:Russ, that looks very good. He is offering all the details necessary to do old brick walls. Thank you, a very valuable link

I thought that you would like his stuff. His brick sheets are the best rendition of brick that I have ever seen!

Reinhard, that's a neat way to get some tank cars into the mix.

Ed, great shot of the Coca Cola facility. The tanks and piping would be cool to model.

Nice work! You work so fast with such excellent results.

Here's another shot of the Orlando Coke syrup unloading station in case there are some details you'd like to integrate, like the downspouts.

As a counterpoint to the Coca-Cola unloading facilities, here is the way Shasta Beverages gets corn syrup into their building...

Those are some great detail photos fellows! I won't be the least bit surprised to see Reinhard's loading shed reappear looking like the one at the Coca-Cola plant! In fact, the view in Paulman's photo bears a striking resemblance to Reinhard's scene. Makes for one very interesting structure and similar ones can be found where covered hoppers are unloaded. The simple unloading spot at the Shasta plant is very typical of facilities that receive corn syrup and other liquids and can be found next to those nice "shoebox" structures all over the country.

A stranger at the east industry.


and another one pulls the late local into the yard.