Industries That Share Unique Combinations of Freight Cars


How big of an industry do you want to go for?

One possibility is an aluminum smelter/refinery.

I've seen aluminum billets shipped on centerbeams, plus larger ingots on bulkhead flatcars with floor risers. Billets and other products can/will also be loaded in boxcars, and other products like powdered alumina are shipped in covered hoppers, as well as raw bauxite ore "could" always come in by hopper. Also, waste products are shipped out in small specialized containers on flatcars. Probably tank cars of chemicals involved in some of the processes as well.

If you want to model something that is one really big industry with wild varieties of freight equipment, paper mills and metal smelting operations are prime candidates for a wild variety of interesting shipments.

Or you just break it down into an "industrial park" type area, with separate industries handling the centerbeams (these are 99% exclusively used for lumber, but as mentioned they also get used for gypsum board (drywall) and aluminum billets) and the hoppers.

Depending on the space you have to play with, a pair of smaller (unrelated) industries may work better than something on such a huge scale.

Selecting two random types of cars and looking for an industry that takes both is kinda tricky, especially when one or both of those cars is so highly specialized.

Transload/team track has also already been mentioned.
 
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Aluminum industry cars

Ingots:


Billets on centerbeams:


(and also in boxcars)

Dross containers on flatcars:


Some covered hoppers marked for "alumina loading only", or owned/leased by aluminum companies:


Plus coils of aluminum sheet could be in covered gondolas and boxcars.
 
cv_acr said:
Keep in mind the ACF 17K gallon car that Atlas made is a pressurized gas car, primarily used for chlorine, sulphur dioxide, etc.
Click to expand...
That's a good point. It can be modified to a non-pressurized car by changing out the fittings on top of the car and adding an outlet on the bottom.

The Atlas ACF family tank cars - the 17k chlorine car, the kaolin tank and the 23k tank - can be kitbashed with each other to get closer to a desired prototype. It might not result in a perfect model, but it's an easy way to get close.
 
When I worked Kaiser in Spokane, I was at Trentwood which is/was a rolling/finish mill. 65 acres under 1 roof. We would get molten Aluminum from the reduction plant in Mead via flatbed truck in a huge cruix (sp?). That would be taken off the truck in dumped into a remelt furnace to reheat and add specific impurities for the different alloys. Running the overhead 200 ton crane was fun, pretty much like cooking but on a bigger scale as you had to stir the pot moving the crane and dolly back and forth. From there the molten stuff would get poured into an ingot mold which moved downward with water spraying on the cooling aluminum. Pretty soon you would have a 20 to 30 ton ingot headed for the hot line. Hot line rolled it thinner into what ever width the ingot was to about 250Ft in length and into a coil for more processing. Aluminum when rolled does not get wider as Steel does, only longer. Sure the mill rolls were slightly dished, something like 0.005 inches across 60 inches but that was only for keeping the metal in the center of the mill. Also aluminum does not change color from ambient to 1250ish degrees - still looks like aluminum. You now have a 250ish foot long chunk of it at about 0.500 inches thick. Goes to various parts of the mill for finish into sheet, can stock and others. Sometimes the hot line would roll down to 1.5 inches thick and that would be sawed ( yes, carbide blades ) into plate for further milling and modification. Aircraft industry used the thick stuff mostly, although other industry used for creating molds and what ever it needed. Can stock was the fun one. The 1/2 thick stuff would go to 4 high ( double stack mills ) to get it down to about 0.125, then to the 5 stand ( five 4 high type mills ) which would get it down to 0.005 to press cans from. You would start with a 30KLb @ 0.125 and end with a 30KLb ingot @ 0.005. Well, they did square up both ends for ease of process so ya lost maybe 8 feet. The 5 stand was a continuous running mill, when new coil was deemed to be added on the end, it would be heliarced on. That could be done as the metal dropped into deep pits to allow for that time. Finish end was also continuous feeding 2 coil take ups one before the other. Loaded on a tray that could hold 10 coils and craned down to the can line ( or where ever ) for further processing.
Geesh didn't mean to write a book, but at 23 years old, this was my first heavy industry j.o.b. and it was a blast, except for the union crap.
Cars into Mead:
covered gons for Bauxite, and other powered stuff for processing.
Box cars .. wood, drum oil and lubricant, various other stuff.
Gons .. slag and other unwanted.
Flatcar .. equipment, various construction items; wood, steel and other friends.
Tank .. mostly used oil and crap going out.
Trentwood:
A lot of the above but tank cars of oil and kerosene coming in.
Finished product in box, on flats, lots of truckload stuff, whatever the customer wanted.

I guess that this is really only one industry, although they were separated by 15ish miles.

Google maps KACC Trentwood and Mead and you can get an idea of size and track layout.
 
Great explanation of the aluminum smeltering process. Over the years in the aluminum extrusion industry, we received aluminum billet from Columbia Metals somewhere along the WA/OR border via BN to a transload facility nearby in Dallas. We also purchased from Noranda in New Madrid MO until they closed that smelter shortly after I retired. That billet just came by truck since they were relatively close.
 
ctclibby said:
When I worked Kaiser in Spokane, I was at Trentwood which is/was a rolling/finish mill. 65 acres under 1 roof. We would get molten Aluminum from the reduction plant in Mead via flatbed truck in a huge cruix (sp?). That would be taken off the truck in dumped into a remelt furnace to reheat and add specific impurities for the different alloys. Running the overhead 200 ton crane was fun, pretty much like cooking but on a bigger scale as you had to stir the pot moving the crane and dolly back and forth. From there the molten stuff would get poured into an ingot mold which moved downward with water spraying on the cooling aluminum. Pretty soon you would have a 20 to 30 ton ingot headed for the hot line. Hot line rolled it thinner into what ever width the ingot was to about 250Ft in length and into a coil for more processing. Aluminum when rolled does not get wider as Steel does, only longer. Sure the mill rolls were slightly dished, something like 0.005 inches across 60 inches but that was only for keeping the metal in the center of the mill. Also aluminum does not change color from ambient to 1250ish degrees - still looks like aluminum. You now have a 250ish foot long chunk of it at about 0.500 inches thick. Goes to various parts of the mill for finish into sheet, can stock and others. Sometimes the hot line would roll down to 1.5 inches thick and that would be sawed ( yes, carbide blades ) into plate for further milling and modification. Aircraft industry used the thick stuff mostly, although other industry used for creating molds and what ever it needed. Can stock was the fun one. The 1/2 thick stuff would go to 4 high ( double stack mills ) to get it down to about 0.125, then to the 5 stand ( five 4 high type mills ) which would get it down to 0.005 to press cans from. You would start with a 30KLb @ 0.125 and end with a 30KLb ingot @ 0.005. Well, they did square up both ends for ease of process so ya lost maybe 8 feet. The 5 stand was a continuous running mill, when new coil was deemed to be added on the end, it would be heliarced on. That could be done as the metal dropped into deep pits to allow for that time. Finish end was also continuous feeding 2 coil take ups one before the other. Loaded on a tray that could hold 10 coils and craned down to the can line ( or where ever ) for further processing.
Geesh didn't mean to write a book, but at 23 years old, this was my first heavy industry j.o.b. and it was a blast, except for the union crap.
Cars into Mead:
covered gons for Bauxite, and other powered stuff for processing.
Box cars .. wood, drum oil and lubricant, various other stuff.
Gons .. slag and other unwanted.
Flatcar .. equipment, various construction items; wood, steel and other friends.
Tank .. mostly used oil and crap going out.
Trentwood:
A lot of the above but tank cars of oil and kerosene coming in.
Finished product in box, on flats, lots of truckload stuff, whatever the customer wanted.

I guess that this is really only one industry, although they were separated by 15ish miles.

Google maps KACC Trentwood and Mead and you can get an idea of size and track layout.
Click to expand...
This would make a fantastic one industry layout! Something I’ll definitely have to consider for the future.
 
cv_acr said:
How big of an industry do you want to go for?

One possibility is an aluminum smelter/refinery.

I've seen aluminum billets shipped on centerbeams, plus larger ingots on bulkhead flatcars with floor risers. Billets and other products can/will also be loaded in boxcars, and other products like powdered alumina are shipped in covered hoppers, as well as raw bauxite ore "could" always come in by hopper. Also, waste products are shipped out in small specialized containers on flatcars. Probably tank cars of chemicals involved in some of the processes as well.

If you want to model something that is one really big industry with wild varieties of freight equipment, paper mills and metal smelting operations are prime candidates for a wild variety of interesting shipments.

Or you just break it down into an "industrial park" type area, with separate industries handling the centerbeams (these are 99% exclusively used for lumber, but as mentioned they also get used for gypsum board (drywall) and aluminum billets) and the hoppers.

Depending on the space you have to play with, a pair of smaller (unrelated) industries may work better than something on such a huge scale.

Selecting two random types of cars and looking for an industry that takes both is kinda tricky, especially when one or both of those cars is so highly specialized.

Transload/team track has also already been mentioned.
Click to expand...
Going for rather small to medium sized industries. What sparked the question was I have an over abundance of rolling stock and my current micro layout only uses two industries so I thought I could perhaps change one or both of them to industries that utilized multiple freight cars. I couldn’t come up with industries that used hoppers and center beams so I figured maybe someone else could. That particular combination of freight cars is definitely not commonly associated.
 
santafewillie said:
Great explanation of the aluminum smeltering process. Over the years in the aluminum extrusion industry, we received aluminum billet from Columbia Metals somewhere along the WA/OR border via BN to a transload facility nearby in Dallas. We also purchased from Noranda in New Madrid MO until they closed that smelter shortly after I retired. That billet just came by truck since they were relatively close.
Click to expand...

This reminds me of another industry we spot that might fit the OP's bill pretty well:

maps.app.goo.gl

32°54'49.6"N 97°24'09.9"W · 10354 Hicks Field Rd, Fort Worth, TX 76179

10354 Hicks Field Rd, Fort Worth, TX 76179
maps.app.goo.gl maps.app.goo.gl

When we take cars here we have to line them up in the order they will be spotted. It's only one track, and it's kind of like a team track, but there are different customers along the track and some special equipment like a covered loading dock and tank car loading appurtenances. One of the customers receives aluminum billet on either bulkhead or centerbeam flatcars.

Another customer not far from there used to take plastic pellet hoppers and frac sand hoppers on these tracks:

maps.app.goo.gl

32°52'12.4"N 97°21'53.4"W · Saginaw, TX 76179

Saginaw, TX 76179
maps.app.goo.gl maps.app.goo.gl

Now it looks like QC just has more tank cars off-spot in these two tracks and the hoppers are gone. When I worked that job the semi-trucks would pull up next to the hoppers and unload them during the day. We would spot and pull those tracks overnight. You can see tank cars in two straight tracks off the same lead. Those are the tracks where we spot acid tanks for QC.
 
RCH said:
This reminds me of another industry we spot that might fit the OP's bill pretty well:

maps.app.goo.gl

32°54'49.6"N 97°24'09.9"W · 10354 Hicks Field Rd, Fort Worth, TX 76179

10354 Hicks Field Rd, Fort Worth, TX 76179
maps.app.goo.gl maps.app.goo.gl

When we take cars here we have to line them up in the order they will be spotted. It's only one track, and it's kind of like a team track, but there are different customers along the track and some special equipment like a covered loading dock and tank car loading appurtenances. One of the customers receives aluminum billet on either bulkhead or centerbeam flatcars.

Another customer not far from there used to take plastic pellet hoppers and frac sand hoppers on these tracks:

maps.app.goo.gl

32°52'12.4"N 97°21'53.4"W · Saginaw, TX 76179

Saginaw, TX 76179
maps.app.goo.gl maps.app.goo.gl

Now it looks like QC just has more tank cars off-spot in these two tracks and the hoppers are gone. When I worked that job the semi-trucks would pull up next to the hoppers and unload them during the day. We would spot and pull those tracks overnight. You can see tank cars in two straight tracks off the same lead. Those are the tracks where we spot acid tanks for QC.
Click to expand...
Interesting that different customers share the same track! I had thought of doing something similar to this where I would have two different industries sharing the same track but it didn’t seem prototypical to me so I scrapped that idea. Can’t say I know of any actual operations around my area that work this way but it’s definitely intriguing.
 
Hey RCH. As I recall, you work for BNSF. Do they actually still do local switching in the north Ft Worth area? They still did some in the Carrollton area while I was still working at a plant alongside their main through there.
 
GuilfordRailman said:
I was observing my plethora of rolling stock, more than I need for my small layout and I began to wonder about industries that use unique combinations of freight cars. Are there any industries that use both covered hoppers and centerbeam flat cars?
Click to expand...
An oriented strand board mill might use covered hoppers for plastic resins in, and ship out wrapped OSBs on the center beams.

Roseburg Forest Products in Ruston (Simsboro) LA makes those those laminated particle board products. Lots of resins in those boards.

Particleboard | Roseburg

www.roseburg.com www.roseburg.com

If you zoom using the satellite view, you can see plastic/resin pellet hoppers on the spur. If you switch to street view, you can see empty bulkhead flats. I guess they use the same spur for inbound and outbound. I would use two spurs, hoppers are unloaded outside and into tall tanks. Centerbeams go inside the building. The hoppers are the plastic pellet kind, not the grain kind, if that level of accuracy matters to you.

www.google.com

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.
www.google.com www.google.com
 
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Doughless said:
An oriented strand board mill might use covered hoppers for plastic resins in, and ship out wrapped OSBs on the center beams.

Roseburg Forest Products in Ruston (Simsboro) LA makes those those laminated particle board products. Lots of resins in those boards.

Particleboard | Roseburg

www.roseburg.com www.roseburg.com

If you zoom using the satellite view, you can see plastic/resin pellet hoppers on the spur. If you switch to street view, you can see empty bulkhead flats. I guess they use the same spur for inbound and outbound. I would use two spurs, hoppers are unloaded outside and into tall tanks. Centerbeams go inside the building. The hoppers are the plastic pellet kind, not the grain kind, if that level of accuracy matters to you.

www.google.com

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.
www.google.com www.google.com
Click to expand...
Interesting! I’ll take a look at the links in a bit, thanks.
 
santafewillie said:
Hey RCH. As I recall, you work for BNSF. Do they actually still do local switching in the north Ft Worth area? They still did some in the Carrollton area while I was still working at a plant alongside their main through there.
Click to expand...
Oh yes, still several industry jobs working from the stockyards to Saginaw. Only a couple daylight jobs, though. Most work overnight to pull and spot the cars while the businesses are closed. I spent several years working those jobs at night. I just stay on the road these days.

Once Amtrak migrated from the UP Dallas Sub to the DFW Sub (former Burlington-Rock Island that TRE runs on now) the end was near for the Irving Turn, which was the local that left North Yard with cars for Irving then returned with cars for North Yard. They would also switch a lumber customer in Hurst on the way to Irving. But once Amtrak started running there really was not much time for freight service like that. Instead a job would go to the lumber customer and return to North Yard. The other traffic between Fort Worth and Irving then started being moved via Tulsa (sounds crazy, I know!).

I don't work that Irving side so I'm not sure what they run anymore, but I know they had a switch job there in the mornings that worked from Irving up to pretty close to Belt Line Road north of 635. As far as I know there's no switching that goes on east of the old Frisco in Irving. All those industries are worked by DGNO and possibly UP. The majority of the traffic I remember on the Madill Sub was unit aggregate trains from quarries in Oklahoma to plants in Celina, Frisco, Irving and Alvarado, but there are several mixed freights there, too. Some freight continues from Irving to Houston via the DFW Sub through Dallas to Waxahachie and Teague.

BNSF does still have a strong presence on the former Santa Fe Dallas Sub between Cleburne and Duncanville. That's where the DART light rail picks up the former Santa Fe right-of-way. There is a steel mill, cement kilns, an auto facility and numerous other customers along the route.

KCS owns the portion of the territory north of the old Santa Fe Dallas yard (now the DART yard) that was located north of Tower 19 all the way to Zacha Junction near Garland and continuing on to Metro near Krum (the former Dalton Junction and end of the Santa Fe Dallas Sub.). I don't know how many customers KCS has on the route anymore, but they still run a daily transfer job between Wylie and Alliance. We used to exchange intermodal cars with them at Metro (the pig dance) but that ended when they opened their Wylie intermodal facility.
 
GuilfordRailman said:
Well…not very much at all but when you’re layout is a micro-layout like mine, space is limited.
Click to expand...

South African one man exhaust repair shop, and I've actually used one.

johannesburg-south-africa-september-small-informal-hawker-repairing-vehicle-exhausts-street-ur...jpg




But I think I'll avoid this bloke.

12047171_955823141130608_1819954916406744735_n.jpg

12063491_955823177797271_1966452314819124888_n.jpg
 
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