Best Of Interactive Operations Clinic #1 - Industries and Traffic

[wm3798]

Some of us are in the process of refining our layout designs and operating schematics, so I thought it might be a good opportunity for us to do a brain dump of the various industries we're familiar with and the types of traffic they generate.  I was inspired to put this up by a nicely detailed post about the paper industry by our own Puddington over on the Atlas board, which he will hopefully re-post here.

So tell us about the industries you know about to whatever extent you can...  Think of this as WikiRailwire...
If there's enough traffic here, maybe we'll break the threads out to address individual industries.

Lee

[Guilford Guy]

On the road I model there was minimal online traffic, often bridging CP-MEC/Guilford traffic, as well as some local paper traffic.
My Fictious Branch hosts a:
Lumber Yard, inbound Centerbeam's and a rare outbound boxcar.
Plastic Pellet Transfer(modeled after one "Gilfid" serves in Groton MA), inbound covered hoppers.
Warehouse, inbound and outbound boxcars.
Veryfine Juice (modeled after the real plant in Littleton MA), inbound corn syrup tank cars, while plastic pellets, and the products are trucked in and out.
The warehouse track doubles as a team track, and odd commodities roll by in through traffic albeit not often. Bulkheads with Telephone Poles or sewage pipes, or inbound machinery/construction materials, and outbound construction debris.

[cv_acr]

There's a very large plastic pellet transfer facility in the city I live in - the car capacity in the terminal is about 100. It's basically a big rolling warehouse, cars are unloaded as required, and the railway only switches out maybe half a dozen to a dozen cars at a time. It would be an interesting model operation, featuring a sea of identical grey cars and the switching is all cherry picking out specific cars and putting the rest back - exactly the way not to switch a classification yard.

A paper mill is a great source of traffic for a layout. Obviously you have boxcars of paper out, and inbound, depending on the mill, you could have boxcars of old paper for recycling, boxcars of pulp (if they get pulp from a pulping mill instead of pulping logs or woodchips on site - or perhaps to supplement production), raw pulpwood logs or woodchips.

If it's a mill that does their own pulping, sulphuric acid is often used for the chemical pulping process. I think caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) is another option for chemical pulping.

Clays (usually shipped in slurry form since the 1980s) are used for coating the paper (for high-quality printing paper for magazines and books), and chlorine is commonly used to make chlorine dioxide which is used for bleaching.

Some mills might have their own powerhouse as well (fuel oil or coal), or perhaps not - I can think of several northern Ontario examples that were located right next to power dams.


Lumber mills of course ship lumber in flatcars or boxcars, or just boxcars if it's a plywood mill, and woodchips are a potential byproduct to be sold to nearby paper mills. Logs could be shipped in by rail, but would probably be mostly delivered by truck directly from where they were cut, as that would usually be right nearby.

[wm3798]

How was Kaolin shipped before the 1980's?  Dry bulk? PS-2's?  Boxcars full of packages?  Pray tell...
Lee

[Ryan87]

How was Kaolin shipped before the 1980's?  Dry bulk? PS-2's?  Boxcars full of packages?  Pray tell...
Lee

Yes, Yes and Yes... sort of

Kaolin is shipped in two forms Powdered or slurry, slurry is shipped in tankcars (I've seen photo's of Kaolin tanks as old as the late 1960's, the oldest paint schemes on the Atlas cars date from  the 1970's)
Dry Kaolin was shipped loose in Modified Boxcars and Covered hoppers Mostly owned by south eastern roads.

boxcars (note roof hatches)
http://rr-fallenflags.org/scl/scl110117akg.jpg
http://rr-fallenflags.org/sout/cg6280ajs.jpg
http://rr-fallenflags.org/sout/sou26942ach.jpg
http://rr-fallenflags.org/sout/sou26961ald.jpg
http://rr-fallenflags.org/sout/sou34255ach.jpg
http://rr-fallenflags.org/sout/sou34291akg.jpg
http://rr-fallenflags.org/sout/sou34311ach.jpg
http://rr-fallenflags.org/sbd/sbd106674ags.jpg
http://rr-fallenflags.org/acl/acl28863ajs.jpg

covered hoppers
http://rr-fallenflags.org/sout/cg1496aga.jpg
http://rr-fallenflags.org/sout/cg-l929akg.jpg
http://rr-fallenflags.org/sout/sou-lo8138ads.jpg

tank cars
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/acfx/shpx14815ajs.jpg

One thing to remember a mill will only need Kaolin if it produces coated paper (Magazine, Wrapping etc...). A Newsprint mill will have no need for it...

[wm3798]

http://rr-fallenflags.org/acl/acl28863ajs.jpg
Oooh... I feel a project coming on!

Lee

[3rdrail]

At the end of the operation of the mill by St. Joe Forest Products, we were receiving kaolin in "sparger cars". It is loaded in powdered form but unloaded by adding water to form a slurry. Why pay the railroads to transport water when you've got access to a riverfull? (The Chipola, not the Apalachicola).

[Bob Bufkin]

http://rr-fallenflags.org/acl/acl28863ajs.jpg
Oooh... I feel a project coming on!

Lee

I've done 2 cars kinda like that.  One PRR X-31 and a PRR X-29.  Took the round hatches off a covered hopper.  One of the easiest thing's I've ever done.  I've seen these cars used to carry grain to the CV Co-op in my hometown.  They were used before covered hoppers took over this job.  The cars had cardboard tacked inside the doors and to unload they were placed over an open pit, the cardboard removed and the grain or feed was shoveled out into the pit.  Mostly 40' and 50' boxcars, some with the roof hatches, some without.  I believe 2 or 3 cars could be placed on the unloading track.

[wm3798]

Digging this one up from the way back machine... 

http://rr-fallenflags.org/acl/acl28863ajs.jpg

Does anyone make a 40' box like this with the ribs?  How about the lettering?

Or better yet, do any of you southern boys have a freelance road I can borrow so I don't have to split hairs on the prototype? ;D
Lee

[Dave Schneider]

Lee,
Page 46 should give you some ideas. This was a really nice job as I recall.




Best wishes, Dave

[ChrisNH]

a nicely detailed post about the paper industry by our own Puddington over on the Atlas board

Does someone have a link to that?

Chris

[GaryHinshaw]

I was considering starting a new thread to post the following questions, but I came across this tutorial and it seems like the right place, so I'll post it here.

I'm refining plans for a new Tehachapi pike and I want to be sure to include interesting switching opportunities on a pike that is otherwise nothing but a congested single-track mountain sub (which is operationally interesting in its own right - at least to me).  There are two obvious online industries: the packing house district in Edison, just outside Bakersfield, and the giant cement plant at Monolith, just shy of Summit.  What I'd like to know is how those lines are served today. 

I think the packing houses are straightforward, empty reefers in, loads out.  But is it just a single UP local out of Bakersfield, or do other trains serve them?  The cement plant is richer, as it uses coal in the process and obviously ships out cement, but again, I don't know if this is a dedicated local out of Mojave, or something more.  Can anyone recommend sources for ops info like this?

Thanks,
Gary

[Bob Bufkin]

Model Railroader's "Industries Along The Right of Way" (I believe it's up to 4 books now) covers a multitude of industries and includes inbound and outbound traffic, type and years of cars used, etc.  This series is indispensable for your industries.

[sirenwerks]

I think the packing houses are straightforward, empty reefers in, loads out. 

As well as hides (box cars), animal fats (tank cars), and canned meat products (boxcar), plus occasional flats in with cooling and processing equipment and the like.

[Bob Bufkin]

As well as hides (box cars), animal fats (tank cars), and canned meat products (boxcar), plus occasional flats in with cooling and processing equipment and the like.
[/quot
One car overlooked in the meat packing industry is the gondola.  Years back offal (nasty stuff) was shipped out in gons.  Needless to say this stuff splashed all over the place, stunk like hell and pity the poort carman who had to do any work on them.