# Small time industry



## [email protected] (Sep 2, 2015)

Hello,

I am a first time modeler and am using a track plan from Atlas called "simplicity and great plains." It has a "Y" spur inside one end of the oval and a long single spur inside the other end. I am thinking of having some sort of rock crushing facility at the "Y" spur and maybe a corn syrup transload station at the single straight spur. Does anyone know of where I can view prototypes of these kind of small time industries? Or maybe others who have modeled the same thing? The layout would be set around 1980 or so? All suggestions would help, even if is something different than what I mentioned; maybe a different industry.


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## tkruger (Jan 18, 2009)

I have often used Google's image search. I just type in what I am looking for and hit enter. Eventually I get what I want.


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

Neither of those industries is what I would call "small time". Unless you're leaving the main buildings of the industry off of the layout, rock crushers tend to be in large quarries, and corn syrup manufacturing requires lots of tanks, boilers, and piping.

I would use Google Images and see what comes up.


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

The industries that used railroads have changed dramatically over
the years. By 1980, many of them had closed and moved to
Mexico or China. Others changed to shipping by truck. So you
don't have the wide choice of industries that you would if
your 'time present' was say the late 40s or 50s.

My layout uses that early era and as a result I have a stock yard,
refrigerator icing platform, wholesale meat company, a power plant,
a grocery distributor, a metals distributor, a large building supplies,
lumber, sand and gravel yard and a 'less than carload' freight 
station. Maybe you could get some ideas from them.

It adds to your switching operations to have freight businesses
that sell to each other so you have a place to spot or pickup
a car and another place to spot it. For example, the Meat plant
sells to the Grocer warehouse. The electrical distributor sells
to the power plant. The building supplies sells to the construction
company. They all have loading platforms. None of these take
up much space, they are all known as small industries.

Don


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## [email protected] (Sep 2, 2015)

*Cookie cutter layout*

Hey thanks Don for the encouragement! I have two locomotives already: both are built between 1973 and 1984. Do you think I could still get away with using some of the "small industries" you mentioned within this time frame...like 1973? Or would I need to model earlier (have to use different locomotives)?


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## Cycleops (Dec 6, 2014)

Atlas certainly know how to charge for their track plans, over $300! With just seven points.


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

[email protected] said:


> Hey thanks Don for the encouragement! I have two locomotives already: both are built between 1973 and 1984. Do you think I could still get away with using some of the "small industries" you mentioned within this time frame...like 1973? Or would I need to model earlier (have to use different locomotives)?


As is said so often here on the Forum, It's your railroad. You can 'wing it' the
way that pleases you. I have several 'no nos' populating my 50s/60s layout
and no one but me notices.

But, yes, you could likely get away with a mixed era effects. Some of my
industries would still be using railroads in the 80s. The Grocery Distributor,
the Meat products plant, the Home Builders supplies, lumber yard and 
it's sand a gravel section. (We have a large contractors supplier that
receives several box cars of construction materials weekly.)
You could also have an Oil distributor, a Construction
Co., Junk yard, Flour mill, Grain shipper, a metals distributor, Printing plant
(they recieve huge rolls of paper). Our local Times Union daily newspaper
has a siding where they receive box cars loaded with huge rolls of paper.
About the only thing that likely would be out of place would the the
'less than carload' freight terminal. They were all gone by the 80s, tho
there was one in every small city before then.

Don


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## tkruger (Jan 18, 2009)

I have the same set of building being multiple different places. Basically the small siding is in three towns. Each is 1 lap around the mainline from the last. I used a set of generic warehouse buildings for the businesses. You see the back of the building as the front faces a direction that is not normally viable to the layout viewer. This works out well since the company make the front of the building look good to the customer.

For that matter the large yard is on lap 1, the entrance to the round house lap two and a closed down car shop on lab 3 just to make different lines have different towns. 

Just another way to pack more operations into less space. Finally how else can I say my train can stretch 1/4 of the way to the next town .


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## grashley (Aug 27, 2015)

It's your layout - Do whatever you like. 

Certain thing do look strange - an old 4-4-0 pulling 85 ft heavyweight passenger cars or a modern diesel pulling 1900's passenger cars. 

Many 1940's buildings still sit beside the rails of today. If people do not like what you build, they do not need to see it again! DO IT YOUR WAY!


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## tkruger (Jan 18, 2009)

One thing to consider with buildings is that some towns just do not change that much over the years. Look at a farming town built in the 50's with state of the art warehouses by the tracks. The core of the town will have houses from earlier for the first people there to modern times as people moved in. Main Street may be from the 50's with a WalMart from 2015 five miles away. None of this is out of context. Now with this the train going through is accurate as long as it is not newer than the latest building .


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

Cycleops said:


> Atlas certainly know how to charge for their track plans, over $300! With just seven points.


$300?!? I'll design a custom one for half that!


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## jeleak (Dec 14, 2015)

grashley said:


> It's your layout - Do whatever you like.
> 
> Certain thing do look strange - an old 4-4-0 pulling 85 ft heavyweight passenger cars or a modern diesel pulling 1900's passenger cars.
> 
> Many 1940's buildings still sit beside the rails of today. If people do not like what you build, they do not need to see it again! DO IT YOUR WAY!


I know a few people have already said this, but I wanted to give you a thumbs up :smilie_daumenpos: too often the uninformed or hesitant people request info and certain "experts" will say it has to be done exactly the way the prefer. When that is simply not the case. For example a saltwater forum I am a member of people ask on how to stack their rocks and "experts" daily say to do it exactly the way they want and its purely a matter aesthetics. :goofball:


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