03-27-2011, 06:34 AM
Very interesting track plan. Really like the look of it and an industrial spur like this would fit most any local in the US. Not sure of the overall dimensions of the bench work footprint, but sure looks very workable. That one siding on what I assume is the staging area (or what could be an interchange) on the left side seems a bit short in length, but still might come in handy.
I fully agree with Reinhard, lay out the track temporarily, make a few structure mockups and test it out before you commit to actually building it. That's the approach that I've been taking with finalizing my track plan and it's shown me where there are potential problems and where a track (or industry) needed to be relocated.
I started with a prototype industrial spur track arrangement that appealed to me and would fit my bench work footprint, but being freelance, I'm picking out industries, from all over the country, that interest me and support my freight car fleet. I can recommend a few industries with operating potential, but ultimately the choice will be yours. Here are a few to consider:
Food Processing Facility: 25k tank cars (vegetable oil), reefers (meat/produce) and box cars with assorted commodities. Here's a good link to such a facility that gives you plenty of ideas for commodities: http://www.familyandson.net/Family_english/home.html. These facilities simply receive bulk shipments of various food items and repackage them as their own brands.
Distribution Warehouse: Box cars with all sorts of commodities that must be placed at specific doors.
Feed mill or as you mentioned a fertilizer plant: Gravity discharge covered hoppers. Note that commodities like feed and fertilizer could also be unloaded on a team or trans-load track using portable auger conveyors. A fertilizer plant (several in my area) would receive ammonium nitrate, potash, and urea to name a few, and the covered hoppers would come from many different roads and parts of the country, including Canada. They often also receive tank cars of ammonia. Fertilizer plants do tend to be seasonal in nature with most shipments in the spring and fall. Feed mills would receive different grades of corn and/or distillers dried grain and what I call model railroad size facilities that only spot one or two cars at a time can be found all over the country.
Team or trans-load track that could receive several different type cars such as box cars, tank cars, bulkhead and centerbeam flat cars (be sure you have room on each side of the track to be able to unload a centerbeam).
Plastics facility: Pneumatic discharge covered hoppers of plastic pellets. These range in size from small operations that only spot one car at a time to larger facilities that may have dozens unloading at any one time.
Soft drink plant that receives corn syrup tank cars. These can be small in size, receiving only a couple of tank cars per day or larger facilities that spot 4 or 5 such cars a day and have a slew of them sitting around waiting to be spotted. Alternately you could have a transload type facility unloading these cars in to trucks for delivery.
One of my personal choices, a small candy manufacturer that would receive Airslide covered hoppers and corn syrup tank cars http://www.chicagoswitching.com/v6/artic...ticleid=15. A larger such facility would also receive cocoa beans in either box cars or gravity discharge covered hoppers http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic...=24&t=4050.
Other small industries such as a produce or meat distributor, that may only handle one car at a time. Lots of such type industries can be found around the country. Check out the Industries Along The Rails forum http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=24. Plenty of ideas there.
Laying out the track plan as you've drawn and testing it out will give you plenty of ideas for other industries. Of course it has one big drawback - once you can actually start running a train and switching the various industries, you might not get anything else done!
I fully agree with Reinhard, lay out the track temporarily, make a few structure mockups and test it out before you commit to actually building it. That's the approach that I've been taking with finalizing my track plan and it's shown me where there are potential problems and where a track (or industry) needed to be relocated.
I started with a prototype industrial spur track arrangement that appealed to me and would fit my bench work footprint, but being freelance, I'm picking out industries, from all over the country, that interest me and support my freight car fleet. I can recommend a few industries with operating potential, but ultimately the choice will be yours. Here are a few to consider:
Food Processing Facility: 25k tank cars (vegetable oil), reefers (meat/produce) and box cars with assorted commodities. Here's a good link to such a facility that gives you plenty of ideas for commodities: http://www.familyandson.net/Family_english/home.html. These facilities simply receive bulk shipments of various food items and repackage them as their own brands.
Distribution Warehouse: Box cars with all sorts of commodities that must be placed at specific doors.
Feed mill or as you mentioned a fertilizer plant: Gravity discharge covered hoppers. Note that commodities like feed and fertilizer could also be unloaded on a team or trans-load track using portable auger conveyors. A fertilizer plant (several in my area) would receive ammonium nitrate, potash, and urea to name a few, and the covered hoppers would come from many different roads and parts of the country, including Canada. They often also receive tank cars of ammonia. Fertilizer plants do tend to be seasonal in nature with most shipments in the spring and fall. Feed mills would receive different grades of corn and/or distillers dried grain and what I call model railroad size facilities that only spot one or two cars at a time can be found all over the country.
Team or trans-load track that could receive several different type cars such as box cars, tank cars, bulkhead and centerbeam flat cars (be sure you have room on each side of the track to be able to unload a centerbeam).
Plastics facility: Pneumatic discharge covered hoppers of plastic pellets. These range in size from small operations that only spot one car at a time to larger facilities that may have dozens unloading at any one time.
Soft drink plant that receives corn syrup tank cars. These can be small in size, receiving only a couple of tank cars per day or larger facilities that spot 4 or 5 such cars a day and have a slew of them sitting around waiting to be spotted. Alternately you could have a transload type facility unloading these cars in to trucks for delivery.
One of my personal choices, a small candy manufacturer that would receive Airslide covered hoppers and corn syrup tank cars http://www.chicagoswitching.com/v6/artic...ticleid=15. A larger such facility would also receive cocoa beans in either box cars or gravity discharge covered hoppers http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic...=24&t=4050.
Other small industries such as a produce or meat distributor, that may only handle one car at a time. Lots of such type industries can be found around the country. Check out the Industries Along The Rails forum http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=24. Plenty of ideas there.
Laying out the track plan as you've drawn and testing it out will give you plenty of ideas for other industries. Of course it has one big drawback - once you can actually start running a train and switching the various industries, you might not get anything else done!
Ed
"Friends don't let friends build Timesavers"
"Friends don't let friends build Timesavers"