Idea for new Sub-forums: Railroad-Dependent Industries


IronBeltKen

Lazy Daydreamer
I'm posting this to see if somebody with the power to do so, can create a new forum or two [maybe under "Special Interests"?]. There are several major industries that, even in this modern age, generate huge amounts of railroad freight traffic. Some of them can become the focus of an entire layout.
Here are a few examples that I know of:

Coal Mining
Paper Manufacturing
Iron & Steel*
Petroleum/Chemical Refining
Automobile Manufacturing
Ore Mining

* [my personal favorite :D ]

I've seen some Yahoo newsgroups that focus on special rail-related industries, and I don't intend to compete with them. But with the excellent photo processing architecture here at MRF, combined with the highly structured topic organization, I believe that having some industry-focused subforums would be quite useful and maybe even help attract new members. [I know that trying to post and view photos on the Yahoo 'STEEL' list can be a royal pain, and only registered Yahoo members can view them be re-entering their password! :mad: ]

Let's talk about this...
 
I would add:

Coal Fired Power plants
Grain Elevators
Intermodal

Nice idea, be a way to exchange pictures, how they operate, what type of cars in or out. I am with you Ken :)
 
I'd like to see something like this too.
I've often thought about modeling a car cleaning facility with a small yard
for handling inbounds and outbounds from a local chemical company.
Something on the scale of Oxy or Durez.
Those two companies generate some traffic! :D
 
I'll have the planning people review it, then run it past management. We'll have the finance department take a look at it, and then have the folks in the IT department let me know if it's feasible.

Wait a second, what was I thinking. We don't have any of those... OK, it's done.
 
modelbob said:
I'll have the planning people review it, then run it past management. We'll have the finance department take a look at it, and then have the folks in the IT department let me know if it's feasible.

Wait a second, what was I thinking. We don't have any of those... OK, it's done.

:cool: Muchos gracias Bob! :cool:
 
You're welcome. Should the topic become popular enough, I'll create a separate category with subtopics for coal, steel, lumber etc. But for now, we'll just create new threads for each one and see if any of them take off.
 
modelbob said:
You're welcome. Should the topic become popular enough, I'll create a separate category with subtopics for coal, steel, lumber etc. But for now, we'll just create new threads for each one and see if any of them take off.
Works for me! I'm going to email several of my steel-modeling friends individually to invite them to my new thread, don't want to post any 'global' recruiting messages in anyone else's forum...
 
HaggisKennedy said:
More Garbage trains recently! EPIC-marked containers.

Kennedy
We have one of those rail-served trash mashing facilities here in Jessup, MD. Unfotunately everything is inside a large building, not visible to photogs...
 
Grand idea! I don't know how much net surfing and book reading I have had to do in order to find topics on the industries I've wanted to model. Then I had to try and figure out an economical way to model them. This should turn out to be a great source of info.
 
RexHea said:
Grand idea! I don't know how much net surfing and book reading I have had to do in order to find topics on the industries I've wanted to model. Then I had to try and figure out an economical way to model them. This should turn out to be a great source of info.
Rex, those are my hopes exactly! I've seen lots of fantastic photos online in various places, but didn't have a central repository of their links - this could provide something like that. I still have several dozen prints of indusry in the Detroit area that I shot before I got my digital camera, now I have to find the time to scan them into JPEGs and post them here.

Dave, I really like that EPA link - I guess we see those things from a different perspective than the people who published them <LOL>.
 
Ken - have you tried contacting them, and asking if you can visit and take photos - you'd need to explain why, but if you say it could wind-up as a magazine article or project on the internet, you'd be surprised how many firms like the free publicity. They can only say "No!" at worst
Shortliner(Jack)away up here in the Highlands
 
RexHea said:
Grand idea! I don't know how much net surfing and book reading I have had to do in order to find topics on the industries I've wanted to model. Then I had to try and figure out an economical way to model them. This should turn out to be a great source of info.

Yes, it looks like this will be a popular topic! Some of our best ideas come from forum members, like this one. I just try to listen to what they suggest, and do what I can to make it happen.

By allowing the forum to grow and evolve, it helps provide the members with the information they're looking for, instead of what I think they want, which may or may not be the same thing.

So if any of you have any other topic ideas, speak up!
 
Shortliner2001 said:
Ken - have you tried contacting them, and asking if you can visit and take photos - you'd need to explain why, but if you say it could wind-up as a magazine article or project on the internet, you'd be surprised how many firms like the free publicity. They can only say "No!" at worst
Shortliner(Jack)away up here in the Highlands
Jack, thanks for the input, that would seem like a good idea to reasonable folks like us. ;) But with all the paranoia this side of the pond with terrorism and litigation, companies are no longer as welcoming to outsiders as they were even as recently as 5 years ago. This is especially true of steel mills, where their police have been known to actually accost photographers who weren't even on the property, but across the street in a McDonalds parking lot! :eek:

Industrial photography in this post-9/11 world has become a new 'sport' requiring its own set of special skills [and sometimes teamwork as well].
Luckily, however, I have a few friends who may be willing to share from their extensive photo collections... :cool:
 
I would imagine that trying to photograph a power plant would raise some eyebrows. I didn't get to take any industry photos today, we ended up taking the upper road to Canton, the lower road is all industry laced :(

I may have a possible connection to a power plant, a lady on our local railfan group claims to know the PR people at our power plant in town. Like I don't have 12 dozen projects already on my plate, I will see if she can swing some people. I mainly think we are looking for buildings, trackage and maybe a quick bio of what they do, ferquency of rail traffic? Any other ideas we should be striving for when photographing/researching industries? (I was terrible in jr high and high school on school research stuff)
 
dthurman said:
I would imagine that trying to photograph a power plant would raise some eyebrows. I didn't get to take any industry photos today, we ended up taking the upper road to Canton, the lower road is all industry laced :(

I may have a possible connection to a power plant, a lady on our local railfan group claims to know the PR people at our power plant in town. Like I don't have 12 dozen projects already on my plate, I will see if she can swing some people. I mainly think we are looking for buildings, trackage and maybe a quick bio of what they do, ferquency of rail traffic? Any other ideas we should be striving for when photographing/researching industries? (I was terrible in jr high and high school on school research stuff)

Dave, I've gone on tours with the NMRA-affiliated Railroad/Industry SIG, and they always try to emphasize the railroad-related parts of the operation (loading/unloading machinery, etc.) since that is what we would be most-likely to model.
 
CSX_road_slug said:
Dave, I've gone on tours with the NMRA-affiliated Railroad/Industry SIG, and they always try to emphasize the railroad-related parts of the operation (loading/unloading machinery, etc.) since that is what we would be most-likely to model.

So is that what we want to do? Or should we get a little deeper on what they do, history etc? With more and more people doing web sites for their layouts, making histories and such for their railroads, I wonder if this wouldn't help add to that part of the Model Railroad scheme? Just thinking outloud so to speak ;)
 



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