02-26-2009, 11:08 AM
If you are looking for a small industry that would feature loads of steel in-scrap metal out, there was a small tank manufacturer that was behind the back fence at the old shop where Carrier -Transicold used to be in So. Central Los Angeles. The office was in front, with an open shop in back. The entire property was probably 100 feet wide and perhaps 400 feet deep. The office was about the size of a 1950's gas station office and the shop behind was probably about the size of a 2 to 2 1/5 car garage only deep enough to fit 3 mill gons inside, two on one track and one on the other. They had two tracks going into the back of the building. I don't know if the company is still in business. Carrier moved out to a new larger facility in the City of Industry in 1991, and I haven't been back to the area in at least 10 years. They manufactured pressure tanks for commercial air compressors, and, I think for propane. I don't remember seeing any diesel fuel tanks there, but they may have manufactured those as well. The tanks were not any that would have an air compressor mounted to. All of the ones I remember seeing were 6-7 feet tall of various diameters. They may have also made tanks for other industrial uses. I'm just not familiar with all of the various tanks that might be used in various industries. The open shop had a steel roof supported by "I" beam posts with an overhead crane inside that would travel full length and full width of the structure. About once or twice a month the Santa Fe, later BNSF would spot 3 gons into the back of the shop, two on one track and one on the other one. These gons would be loaded with various thicknesses of sheet steel, plate steel, and various sizes of angle iron, "I" beam, and channel. There were racks on both sides of the shop area where the various sizes of steel were stored. After a couple of days the railroad would remove two empty gons and leave one. As the workers built the tanks, the cut off scrap metal was loaded into the empty gon. When that gon was full of scrap metal, the railroad would come in and remove the load of scrap and leave three more gons loaded with steel to start the process over again. In front of the building they had a small concrete pad with 4 or 5 tanks of various sizes bolted to it. I think these were examples of their standard product line, but since the tanks were all built by hand, I suspect that they also did custom fabrication. The scrap metal loads hauled out would be bits of plate, sheet, and structural shape steel. No old engine blocks or crushed cars, or the usual stuff found in typical model railroad scrap metal loads. The scrap would seldom be rusted, since we only average 13 inches of rain yearly in Los Angeles, and that usually all falls between the end of October and the end of February. I've often thought it would be a neat little industry to model, and I may "move" it into the city of Vernon so that I can service it with the LAJ when I build my model railroad.