# Potato Industries... what is there?



## Stultus (Mar 24, 2014)

Ok, I can find potato field plants & workers (and I have the railcars)... but what downstream industries are there?

I've seen a very small sized potato farm shack but I'd like something bigger. From there, I guess there is just the Walthers 'Universal Food' business. I thought there was something more potato specific - like the french fry or potato chip factory structure? 

Any ideas or links to anything? Otherwise I suppose I'd have to kitbash (which I am NOT good at).


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## cole226 (Feb 8, 2013)

Any factory building could be a potato chip plant. Just hang a sign on it.
Vodka distiller, warehouse distributor.


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## Lehigh74 (Sep 25, 2015)

Some examples.


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

Any staging track.

Because potatoes grown in the area represented by even a huge, basement filling layout, would travel by truck to any industry close enough to also be represented on your layout.

A staging area, though, can be anything you want it to be. Potato chips, starch, processed foods, a vodka distillery, a Five Guys distribution warehouse on the other side of the country, whatever. Point is that you don't need to represent whole industry chains on your layout. It's more realistic not to.


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## ncrc5315 (Jan 25, 2014)

Once harvested, potato's are stored in large warehouses, covered in a layer of dirt, and kept chilled to prevent them from sprouting. I worked on the SLRG for a while, and we would interchange refers of potato's, from the SLC. I haven't been past it for a few years, but there was a McCain's potato processing plant at Grand Island NE, that is switched by rail. According to Apple maps, it is still there. Used to be an Ore-Ida plant.


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## fredvon4 (Dec 15, 2019)

pet peeve...please spell out acronyms.....please


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

fredvon4 said:


> pet peeve...please spell out acronyms.....please


Except that those aren't acronyms. They're railroad reporting marks, a convenient shorthand used by real railroaders to avoid having to write or type the whole name. They are also used on the sides of locomotives and rolling stock to identify ownership. 

In this case, he's referring to the San Luis Central and San Luis & Rio Grande Railroad. The AAR (that's Association of American Railroads -- an industry trade association -- if you've just tuned in) maintains a master list, including fallen flags. Copies of it are widely available on-line.


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## TundraBoy (Nov 5, 2012)

CTValleyRR said:


> Any staging track.
> 
> Because potatoes grown in the area represented by even a huge, basement filling layout, would travel by truck to any industry close enough to also be represented on your layout.
> 
> A staging area, though, can be anything you want it to be. Potato chips, starch, processed foods, a vodka distillery, a Five Guys distribution warehouse on the other side of the country, whatever. Point is that you don't need to represent whole industry chains on your layout. It's more realistic not to.


Correct on how potatoes get to the plant. Specialized potato trucks from the growers operation. Most large potato processing plants i.e. potato chips or the even bigger French fry plants would have rail access. This would, in most cases be for delivery of cooking oil (soya or canola) in tankers. A large plant would require at least two or three tankers of oil per week. Finished goods would be shipped out in trucks or rail intermodal.
In the same vain, a large plant processing soya or canola beans would have much of incoming beans delivered by rail and most of the finished product by rail tanker. They would likely have their own switcher. That might be an interesting operation to model.


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## fredvon4 (Dec 15, 2019)

Excuse my low post count and short 65 years...not RR savvy...just a lowly Army soldier and civil servant most of my life

never road a US train...hundreds of German trips

as I slog through the 200 years worth of rail history and model RR stuff I am frustrated daily by your(generic fer y'all) lack of compassion for an ignorant fellow modeler

I am long time fellow on several gun forums, Airplane forums, motorcycle forums....my total post count since my own BBS system in 1988 is well over a million easily...I have authored about two dozen test reports for ARMY TEST AND EVALUATION COMMAD (ATEC) while a test officer for Operational Test Command (OTC) presented to very high level government decision makers and presented hundreds of briefings to Colonials and Generals...Yes I was a Power Point Commando...a very good one

You/we/I simply do not abuse your/my readers with ACRONYMS....and you can call the short hand something else but dear sir it is indeed an ACRONYM...


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## ncrc5315 (Jan 25, 2014)

My apologies, old habits die hard, and I will certainly try to keep this in mind for the future. But, actually it is not an Acronym, ALCo, (American Locomotive Company) would be an acronym. SLC and SLRG are reporting marks, there is a difference. Granted if you saw a SLC car, it would probably say San Luis Central on it, same with with San Luis and Rio Grande. As an example, in the following
picture:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=390674
you will notice, that there are no other indications as to who the car belongs to, other than the reporting mark. In the case of the SLC, and the SLRG, the letters match to make one think it could be an acronym, but the car in the picture clearly is not an acronym, (Coors Brewing Company). The same is true for the reporting mark MRS, (Manufactures Railroad Company), TILX, (TrintyRail), AG, (Galveston Railroad), AINX, (TTX Corporation), VUHX, (Wagner Mills), or my personal favorite, AGLX, (Andrews Petroleum). Bonus answer, the X on the end of the reporting mark, indicates the car is privately owned, i.e. not owned by a railroad.


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

fredvon4 said:


> Excuse my low post count and short 65 years...not RR savvy...just a lowly Army soldier and civil servant most of my life
> 
> never road a US train...hundreds of German trips
> 
> ...


Ignorance is cured by reading and understanding, and asking for clarification when necessary. Ignorance isn't a crime, or even a problem, as long as you're learning.

I will / would gladly explain any of those RR reporting marks for you and help a new modeler (ANY new modeler) to overcome a shortage of knowledge. In fact, I did, and clarified the one acronym I used in my post. In point of fact, to be an acronym requires it to be either pronounced as a word, like "NATO" or "OPEC", or to be pronounced as initials, like AAR. Railroad reporting marks aren't typically used that way, they're written in the shorthand and spoken as the railroad's name, so NH would be spoken "New Haven". So no, it isn't an acronym, and insisting that it is doesn't make it so.

Just as I'm sure you didn't run around as a private telling your sergeants and officers to stop using their acronyms, you're off base if you come in here telling an old railroader not to use the patterns of speech he learned out there on the rails.

I'm not judging you by your post count here by any means; most of us judge by the content of the posts, not the number. Some folks here with high post counts haven't posted much of anything related to railroading, model or prototype. But showing up on a new board and telling the old members that they're gonna change their ways because you have a pet peeve isn't how you make yourself a valued contributor.

So come aboard, be welcome, and do what you did in the service -- learn to communicate like the folks who have been around the hobby and the industry for a while. You'll be talking like an old railroader in no time!


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## fredvon4 (Dec 15, 2019)

I accept the polite counsel you two gent are giving and I apologize for my rude grumpy behavior

I am mindful that I am here explicitly to learn about model railroading....

your first reply to my pet peeve was not taken well by me and I overreacted all but hurt

dunce cap on for the weekend

thank guys


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

No harm done. I know I can be preachy when trying to educate!


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## 65446 (Sep 22, 2018)

There is/are makers of organic (competing w/ plastic) silverware, if this pertains.


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## flyboy2610 (Jan 20, 2010)

telltale said:


> There is/are makers of organic (competing w/ plastic) silverware, if this pertains.


My brother-in-law had a television set that had the case made out of biodegradable plastic. It literally fell apart chunk by chunk just sitting in his living room. I'll take metal or real plastic for my silverware, thank you.


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## ncrc5315 (Jan 25, 2014)

flyboy2610 said:


> My brother-in-law had a television set that had the case made out of biodegradable plastic. It literally fell apart chunk by chunk just sitting in his living room. I'll take metal or real plastic for my silverware, thank you.


That is an apple to oranges comparison. I certainly wouldn't want a a non perishable item such as a TV cabinet made out of it, but plastic throw away silverware is an ideal use for biodegradable plastics. The Cargill/DuPont plant at Blair NE, grinds 240,000 bushels of corn a day, for biodegradable plastics. I've been told, that they couldn't meet the straw needs of McDonald's.


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## 65446 (Sep 22, 2018)

ncrc5315, thanks for the support of my organic silverware suggestion. I was about to iterate a similar reply to flyboy..
You toss out organic and plastic eating utensils after one use..
Not so with TVs !!


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## ncrc5315 (Jan 25, 2014)

telltale said:


> ncrc5315, thanks for the support of my organic silverware suggestion. I was about to iterate a similar reply to flyboy..
> You toss out organic and plastic eating utensils after one use..
> Not so with TVs !!


The biodegradable plastic would not be made from organic corn, no way you could afford to do that. Instead, it would be a hybrid, bred to boost the starch content.


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