L&N Industrial Rail Spur

[FCIN]

On the other hand a food distributor like Sysco sells fresh produce, fresh meat, fresh seafood, as well as institutional sizes of canned goods, and cases of frozen french fries and other frozen products. (...)

No substitute for first hand information Russ! Sysco appears to have far more locations in my part of the country and I've looked at a lot of them on Bing/Google. Some are and some aren't rail served and as you pointed out, many of their facilities are really large. They have a large distribution facility nearby in Louisville and you guessed it - no rail service, although it is located in a large CSX served industrial park. On the other hand I've looked at some of their facilities in other locations not far from here that are rail served.

There are many other such companies in my area performing the same service and again, some may be rail served and some strictly truck served. Examples: Gordon Food Service, Sherwood Food Distributors, Laurel Grocery Company and many more. So I have a wide range of prototype facilities (and company names) that I could base my "Food Distribution Facility" on.

There used to be a rail served food distributor called Institutional Jobbers (based out of Knoxville, TN) nearby and a relative worked there in the warehouse section. I toured the facility with him one evening. On that particular night they had a box car load of various Kellogg cereal's that they were unloading and stocking in the warehouse as they also picked and filled orders for delivery by trucks. He told me that they would get a refrigerator load of meat or poultry now and then along with other assorted commodities, but of course the majority of products came in by truck. We also had a Hardee's distribution facility right here in town that received french fries in reefers, but no other commodities. Just two examples and it all depends on what the facility is and what they actually receive/ship by rail.

As you stated, actual "food processing" facilities seem to be located close to their material source and everything pertaining to the "processing" is handled in one location. These days, so many products that are produced (food and otherwise) often get their raw materials in by rail, but ship nothing out by rail and for many reasons. Delivery times being the biggest consideration.

In Owensboro, KY, we have the one and only Ragu' sauce plant in the US (located on Ragu' Drive naturally) and it is rail served, although I'm not sure what commodities they may be receiving. Track runs inside their structure, so Google aerial and street views aren't much help. Just guessing, I assume that tomato paste might be a logical commodity since tomatoes, although grown around here, don't seem to be a cash crop in that part of the state. But I could wrong about that part. Were I interested in perhaps modeling this facility, then I'd certainly try and find out what sort of rail service they do get and what commodities, rather than just guess or dream up commodities.

A previous posting about soup plants got me interested in looking for such facilities, so right now, I'm looking for locations of Campbell Soup plants to see what sort of rail service they may or may not have. I believe that Campbell Soup started in Brakie's part of the country in Napoleon, Ohio, so perhaps he's actually seen it. It's really not something that I'm interested in including on the layout, but it's more a matter of getting information. Always interested in a possible industry to include on the layout, and at the same time educating myself about what they may or may not ship/receive by rail. UPDATE: See this thread http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic...=24&t=4868

As I mentioned in my previous posting; any time some one suggests such and such an industry, I'd sure like to see examples to get a better idea of what they do ship/receive by rail. Always open to interesting subjects.

Hey there Mark! Thank's very much for the birthday wishes. As for it being late - no big deal. I more or less stopped observing birthdays some time ago as I realized that I was getting closer to the end then the beginning LOL.

I sure hope the health issues sort themselves out in the next few weeks, as it is still preventing me from doing a lot of things on the layout that I want to do. As for the trip to Effingham, I really enjoyed going by there again and seeing what had changed, etc. It was a shame that I didn't have time to hang around and perhaps actually get to photograph or video them working. It's one neat little operation! Hope that perhaps one day in the near future, you'll get the chance to visit Effingham yourself. Long haul from AU to Central Illinois USA.