Hi all,
I am a UK modeller, and I am really struggling to find detailed information on operational practice for rail-served corn syrup industries? I know Lance Mindheim has made some references to them in his books, but I was hoping for something that went into a bit more depth? If anyone can help me out then that would be fantastic, thank you very much in advance!
Regards
Just out of curiosity, are you talking about the corn syrup manufacturers, or the user's of corn syrup?
I know I found a good source of that information, but as far as receivers of corn syrup loads are concerned, there really isn't a lot of complexity to it from a modelling perspective.
Really all you need is some sort of track level hose hook up. Some companies have external tanks that look kind of like silos, but many just pump out of the rail car as needed.
In the 2010 edition of Model Railroad Planning from Model Railroader magazine there is an article on modeling a corn syrup transloading facility starting on page 68.
The article states that the facility can be tankless, with all the tanks located inside of the facility or with tanks outside. The article states that there are at least six grades of high fructose corn syrup and each must be unloaded using a specific hose and tank to avoid contamination or they have to be cleaned before using another grade. These facilities are usually compact but require a lot of switching to get the graded cars to a specified unloading point.
Bruce
Some pretty good information and photos can be found on Jack Hill's blog here:
http://oscalewcor.blogspot.com/. Jack hasn't updated his blog in a long time and I have no idea what's happened with him.
For a small facility (model railroad size) I've always liked the G&J Bottling Company (Pepsi) in Lexington, KY which you can see in this Google Maps view:
https://goo.gl/maps/fdyu7C8uqFC2. Note that the spur will hold 4 corn syrup tanks, but only two can unload at any one time. This facility gets switched almost daily by R. J. Corman Railroad. Another thing that I always liked about this facility is that it can be a good foreground structure on a shelf layout, since the spur sits some distance from the main structure, that would only need to be modeled just enough to indicate it's there.
Welcome CSX-UK to Big Blue.
Good to see your kicking off your time here with a topic of your own.
Whatever your thoughts about the use of corn sryup in foods and drinks and the possible personal and public health implications, the fact is for modern era modellers, such corn sryup facilities be they transloaders or end user factories, give us intensive track utilization and switching opportunties on a par with classic era loose car railroading.
Thank you bdw9535, I knew I had read an article on corn sryup lodaing facilities and the MRP article was a good one. I think from memory that the facility was a transload only with trucks being used to deliver the product to final users, thats what made it such a modeller friendly, small foot print to high [and very specific] switching requirement layout option.
Lance M. also did a recent shelf layout track plan in MR that included a factory with corn sryup transloading requirements.
I also recall watching a You Tube How Its Made video on the Coca Cola bottling plant in Louisianna, [I think] and they had their corn syrup tank cars inside a purpose built unloading building as part of the bottling plant. It was only a brief screen shot but having read the MRP article numerous times, I knew what I was looking at.
If I get the chance I will see if I can find the clip and post the details.
Mark
Hi all,
Thanks for the really helpful advice, as well as the links FCIN, much appreciated. That has given me a lot of material to go on. I think I have enough to work with now. I plan on having a two track spur, each holding 4 cars. One track will be an unloading spur (four different grades, one at each spot), the other will be a holding track. That should give some decent operational capacity while also being realistic (and not overwhelming the scene). Nearby, I will have a low-relief structure indicating the rear of the industry receiving the corn syrup. I plan to base this structure on the building next to the corn syrup spur seen here: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://goo.gl/maps/fdyu7C8uqFC2">https://goo.gl/maps/fdyu7C8uqFC2</a><!-- m --> (kindly provided by FCIN, thank you again for providing that, very inspirational. I especially like the road cutting across at the end of the spur).
Considering I have a 4 foot by 18" space to work with (plus off-layout fiddle-yard) a corn syrup facility offers some real operational potential in a fairly small space, and can be modelled prototypically without too much artistic license or compression needed (most of the facility being off-layout!)