what are some of your railroad industries?

[pdlethbridge]

The title says it all, I have, so far, a fuel depot, a small industry and a milk station.

[SteamGene]

I don't think a coffee shop would be a train served industry.     
I have two coal tipples on either side of Hannahville.  Basic City has a DuPont plant, a pickle and kraut plant, and a couple more industries whose function aren't established yet.  There is a meat packing plant just east of Sugar Grove, WV, and an industrial complex in Nicksburg, to include an oil dealership. 
Gene

[WGL]

  No pictures!  Seeing is believing.  Unfortunately, Maine is too far for me to go to verify the accuracy of the story.   

  Iron mining is part of my layout.  I have the ore cars & the ore--not plastic but red granules (from a hobby shop) that spill & make a mess.  I just don't have the mine, the mining equipment, & etc..   

[ta152h0]

18000000 gallons of diesel fuel per month at one depot, I believe I heard in AZ. that is a lot of coffee.

[Jim Banner]

My H0 layout set in 1961 has several industries, each with its own car requirements.

Domino's Pizza - tanks of marinara sause, box cars of pizza flour, reefers
                          of pizza toppings in.

Inland Cement - covered hoppers of portland cement, hoppers of sand and gravel.

Meat Packers - stock cars in, reefers out.

Trailer-on-flat-car - general merchandise in and out.

Team Track - flat cars of heavy machinery in and out.

Lumber Yard - flats of lumber, box cars of hardware in.

Stockyard - stock cars of cattle, sheep, pigs out.

Dynamite Factory - covered hoppers of peanut flour, tanks of glycerol and
                  nitric acid in, box cars of dynamite out. 

Junk Yard - gondolas of scrap metal.  A subsidiary of the railroad, home of
                   the wrecking crane when not being used by the railroad.

Furniture Factory - box cars of hardwoods in, box cars of furniture out.

Pot Works - covered hoppers of Kaolin in, box cars of toilets, sinks etc. out.

Wire Rope Industry - gondolas and flats of coil steel in, gondolas and flats
                    of reels of wire rope out.

Coal Mine - boxcars of dynamite it, hoppers of coal out.

Coal Oil Refinery - hoppers of coal in, tank cars of distillates,  hoppers
                    of coke out.

Producer Gas Plant (proposed) - hoppers of coke in.

Ferry Service - all types of cars in and out on exchange with friend's layout.

Hidden Yard #1 - source and destination of many of the trains on the
                       modelled portion of the layout.

Hidden Yard #2 - source and destination of many of the trains on the
                       modelled portion of the layout.

[the Bach-man]

Guys!
Let's keep the kids in mind, please...
the Bach-man

[grumpy]

Mr. Bachman
We are all kids just different ages.
I have on my layout
1. one operating mine and one abandoned
2. a gravel pit
3. a small prairie town with feed mill , grain elevator ,oil depot ., service station, train depot
2 hotels and a lumber yard. Also a number of residences bldgs and a small farm.
4. A small railyard
5. A number of miscellaneous heavy industries.
6. An unloading dock.
7. a single loco repair building
I am using 3 basic railnes , one to service the town ( still dc ) , one to sevice the mining area and a mainline .
Alot of fill ins yet to do along with some landscaping . It is all EZtrack with the excepton of the structures . None of it has been done to satisfy an rivet counter ans is all based on how I see things.
Don

[mitremark]

Grumpy,
Are you running DCC with your EZ Track if so which one?

[BIG BEAR]

     Cool topic,
    I almost forgot to breath reading Jim's list. Is your railroad busy or huge?
 
    Stockyard Wye - 2 stock cars 1-horses, 1- beef cattle

    Freighthouse shipping - 1-2 Boxcars

    Logging - 2 flatcars 1 w/Christmas trees, 1 Empty
               on other side of layout
    Cristmas tree lot -  1 flatcar being unloaded

    Depot - serving Passenger train & Trolley

      Enjoy,
         Barry

[Jim Banner]

Barry, I would say my layout is medium sized.  It occupies most of the basement in a 4-level split.  It started out as a 4' x 10' with 6 industries - dynamite factory, scrap yard, lumber yard, furniture factory, pot works, and tank farm (which I forgot on the list above.)  It slowly grew over the years, but always with operation in mind.  Presently it has four towns, two hidden yards, and a mine.

=========================================================

The Bach-Man mentioned the kids.  Guys and gals, I hope you are not over whelmed by what you read here.  Most layouts grew to what they are today.  Sure, there are some people, like Sheldon for example, who can plan out a whole, large layout, then build it job by job.  First all the bench work, then all the track work, then all the scenery and so forth.  I admire such an approach, but have never followed it with any of my own layouts.  I like to build like the real railroads do.  Start off in one area, service maybe one town and some area around it.  Then if the opportunity comes along, expanding to another town to serve both of them and the area in between.  I like this because it lets me get into all the different job of building a railroad right away.  And I have the fun of doing them all again when my railroad expands.  But most of all, I like to do it this way because I can run trains very quickly.  I often have some of the trackwork down even before finishing the benchwork.  And I like to run trains on it as soon as I can, even if it is only a few feet back and forth.  I know it takes longer this way, particularly when I spend time running trains instead of working on the layout, but hey, I am having fun.

When I first started my present layout back in 1984 (I told you it takes me a long time) I knew what I wanted.  I wanted things for the trains to do.  For me, that meant industries to switch cars in and out of.  And for me, that is still the most fun of running trains.  But I also wanted a continuous loop of track so I could sit back and watch the trains go by whenever I wanted to.  And I still enjoy doing that too.  Nowadays with DCC, I can do both at the same time - have one trains just running around while I switch with another.

Bottom line, you don't have to have a huge layout to have fun.  But it does help if you can build your layout to have the kind of fun you like.

[the Bach-man]

Hi, Jim,
I was concerned with the link I removed, not the depth of detail provided by you and others. Your posts are always most welcome!
Thanks!
the Bach-man

[Santa Fe buff]

My railroad will contain:

Coal - Majority of the route.
Passengers - Amtrak Commuters with the mighty F40PH
Intermodal - it's a BNSF interchange with a mainline mostly concerned with Intermodal services.
General Freight (Manifests) - BNSF runs general freight manifests throughout the area, and sometimes we switch for them.
Oil - Refined diesel for storage tanks (planning on the layout) and come from refinery (off layout).

That's pretty much it...

Josh

[grumpy]

Mitremark.
I am using EZcommand and have experienced no problems. In all honesty I am not a fan of Dynamics because of the fact it is a laser system which is line of sight. .
Don

[boomertom]

As I am doing a shelf layout that is basically a branch in the heart of the Kentucky/Virginia coal fields, mining is the primary industry.

This branch also brings in supplies in lcl freight to a warehouse, a farm supply, a fuel oil dealer and a team track.

There is also an engine servicing area which can be qiute a challenge to switch as it needs fuel, sand, lubricants etc.

[lmackattack]

coal,cement,steel,box car freight/trucking