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Potential Industrial Layout


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Hi there

I have always liked the attached industrial layout plan by Iain Rice published in the old Model Railways Illustrated. Thinking of doing it in 4mm OO finescale with hand made track, possible DDC concepts legacy components. However I do not have much knowledge of industrial railways and wondered what anyone could recommend to read or view on the web to give me an idea of the sorts of buildings that would be on a chemical industry site or could recommend any particular building kits that might suit (Walthers, Faller etc)?

Many thanks

Martin

ICI Small.pdf

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A nice idea and plan Martin. Have a look thorough some layouts on here for some inspiration, there's plenty! Have you looked at the scalescenes downloadable kits, they're great and very "bashable" Not sure if there's any specific for your industries but you might be able to adapt some for your needs. 

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Here is a giant stack of free inspiration http://www.irsociety.co.uk/ (follow the "back numbers" link in the menu on the LHS)

 

If nothing else it will give you some idea of the huge variety of industries that used railways of all shapes and sizes.

 

TBH, I'm not sure Mr Rice was really on the plot with his industry as set out in that article, it all sounds a bit imaginative to me, and it might pay you to focus on one industry that takes your fancy, and study its production processes at the date you favour ......... the very tight arrangement of that layout says 'brewery' or 'biscuit factory' to me, or perhaps best of all, 'chocolate factory'. See here for example https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/misc/cadburys-railway.htm , but Fry's and Rowntree were in on the game too.

 

The traditional chemical factory in many places was the tar distillery, which took waste tar from coal gas making, and distilled it into oodles of fractions for making dyes, disinfectants, fuels etc. https://www.ispatguru.com/coal-tar-and-its-distillation-processes/#:~:text=Distillation of coal tar is carried out mainly,and (iii) separate tar oils in fractionating column. A couple of layouts have been based around this process, and I think it might have been what Mr Rice had half-in-mind. Some good pictures of one here https://stairfootstation.co.uk/memories-of-tar and here's a nice modelhttp://www.bwwmrc.co.uk/exhibitions/StJohn14Oct/tarworks/index.shtml

 

All in all, I prefer chocolate!

 

 

 

 

Edited by Nearholmer
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1 hour ago, Martinnj said:

Does any one know of any good books or articles showing a rail fed tar works?

 

Apart from write-ups of models, I don't, but if you ferret around using google, there is a fair bit on-line.

 

They were pretty much all rail-connected, I think, because gas-works were also mainly rail-connected, which made shifting the feed-stock simple. Its pretty horrible stuff, so into a tank-wagon at one end, and out of it at the other was the least messy way.

 

Here is an aerial photo of a modest one http://www.ryeharbour.net/picture/number345.asp which gives some idea of what filthy, grossly polluting places they were! A lot of the stuff they produced was carcinogenic, including the food colourings.

 

Here's a bigger one https://britainfromabove.org.uk/image/epw007502 Pity the poor souls who lived next door to that, because they stunk to heaven too.

 

And, this guy provides a model-railway-centric view of them http://www.igg.org.uk/rail/12-linind/tardis.htm

 

 

Edited by Nearholmer
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Walthers do a coke oven model. I did their Blast Furnace and Rolling Mill models for a diorama for work.

 

For a Coke Oven you would have raw materials inbound (Coal) and  Finished product and bi- l product out (.Coke and Tar).

 

You could give it a really authentic feel by having a bucket of rotten eggs underneath to provide the aroma

 

https://www.walthers.com/coke-oven-quench-tower-w-larry-quench-cars-ashland-iron-steel-kit-28-x-19-x-14-quot-71-1-x-48-2-x-36cm

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1 hour ago, 9C85 said:

Walthers do a coke oven model. I did their Blast Furnace and Rolling Mill models for a diorama for work.

 

For a Coke Oven you would have raw materials inbound (Coal) and  Finished product and bi- l product out (.Coke and Tar).

 

You could give it a really authentic feel by having a bucket of rotten eggs underneath to provide the aroma

 

https://www.walthers.com/coke-oven-quench-tower-w-larry-quench-cars-ashland-iron-steel-kit-28-x-19-x-14-quot-71-1-x-48-2-x-36cm

You could have fun building the quenching car and cab over boiler locomotive as used at Glasshoughton.

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14 hours ago, Martinnj said:

Hi there

 I like the thought of a tar works sounds an interesting industry. Does any one know of any good books or articles showing a rail fed tar works?

thanks

Martin

A few in this https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/ytdscenes

But lots of other industrial sites https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/industrialinternalwagons  Some of these collections link to more general scene photos elsewhere on the site. 

 

Paul

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Thanks for the links and suggestions liking the tar works idea more and more. Apart from grimy tanks wagons, I guess coal would be delivered to the site and various other materials? Also would the products produced be taken away in various open and covered wagons?

 

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Tar was usually a byproduct from other processes. A small tarmac plant with tar, road stone and sand delivered by rail? Or a small gasworks, Before the 1970s gas was produced locally so every small town had its own gasworks. If a full scale coke ovens is too daunting, there were also much smaller operations producing smokeless products and brickettes which were formed coal slurry from the colliery washers. Again, coal in and product and tar out.

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Tar distillery.

 

In: tar, coal, and I think limestone for some filtering uses.

 

Out: various sizes of drums/barrels in open wagons, possibly later in closed wagons. At a very large works I think the volumes of outgoing products possibly required class A and Class B tank wagons for various things too.

 

The link to the photo of the nechells site that I posted has a very good selection of wagons on view, but you need to sign-in and view it hi-res to really see what is going on.

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For inspiration, try a Google search for "0 gauge tar works".

Or the Harrogate Gas Works which had its own narrow gauge system. You might consider being the first to model a sewage works. Google the plants at Tinsley or Esholt. ( In particular try the Google images for Gordon Edgar's pictures of Nellie)9A good excuse to build a few of the side tippers from RT Models.

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Intriguing plan.  Like Gordon, I've not seen it before either.  Definite food for thought.  My preference is for a variety of smaller industries/companies spread around the place.  This offers a greater variety of potential traffic and wagon types - plus shunting with some sort of card system.

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1 hour ago, 5050 said:

Intriguing plan.  Like Gordon, I've not seen it before either.  Definite food for thought.  My preference is for a variety of smaller industries/companies spread around the place.  This offers a greater variety of potential traffic and wagon types - plus shunting with some sort of card system.

There was also a larger plan which I quite like too, Iain Rice did them in a pair here is the other one if anyone is interested.

Martin

ICI Big.pdf

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I also like the larger plan too.  It would fit perfectly into my railway room - if it wasn't for the HO American layout already there!

 

Anybody like to buy a 12' x 10' HO Western Maryland layout?

 

BTW, does Iain offer any suggestions for dimensions for both these plans?

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12 hours ago, 5050 said:

I also like the larger plan too.  It would fit perfectly into my railway room - if it wasn't for the HO American layout already there!

 

Anybody like to buy a 12' x 10' HO Western Maryland layout?

 

BTW, does Iain offer any suggestions for dimensions for both these plans?

He did give dimensions but I cannot find the page scan with them on! Sorry

martin

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The Small Layout  or Americans Switching Puzzle he quote a size of  8 foot by 2 foot 3ins.  The Large Layout is draw  as 7 foot by 9 foot , Ian quotes that it could be reduced to 8 foot by 6 foot garden shed size or stretched  to 8 foot by 10 foot.. Have the article from the magazine but do not have the year  

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41 minutes ago, Oceman said:

The Small Layout  or Americans Switching Puzzle he quote a size of  8 foot by 2 foot 3ins.  The Large Layout is draw  as 7 foot by 9 foot , Ian quotes that it could be reduced to 8 foot by 6 foot garden shed size or stretched  to 8 foot by 10 foot.. Have the article from the magazine but do not have the year  

Thanks for that, really helpful to have the dimensions

Martin

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Hi there,

tha is for all the helpful suggestions above, looking to move the plan along and am wondering what is the best way to convert Mr Rice’s plan into a working track plan so I can plan the base board. Is there any software compatible with aMac computer to do this sort of thing?

 

Also Not sure whether to go with PECO code 75 or try my hand at track building? If the latter would track built withcopper clad sleepers or the DCC concept sleepers be appropriate? Any thoughts?

thanks

Martin

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2 hours ago, Martinnj said:

wondering what is the best way to convert Mr Rice’s plan into a working track plan so I can plan the base board

Depends whether or not you wish to build your own track, but the best way to convert Iain’s plans into something workable is to add a very large pinch of salt.

 

If you are prepared to invest in an emulator, you can use something like wine to run Templot on a Mac (which is what I do) but it will take you several hours to learn. It is a very good program and extremely comprehensive, but that also means there is a degree of learning you have to put in before you can use it in anger. Throwing a basic plan together does not take too long, but the fine tuning can take long. Also, there will be lots of places where Iain’s optimism requires you to reconsider how you might do something. If your space is greater than the minimum specified, then it will probably all fit, but you will need to keep your eye on minimum radii.

 

If you are going to use off the shelf track, there seem to be plenty of alternatives about, but whether or not any of them work natively on a Mac I can’t say.

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40 minutes ago, Regularity said:

Depends whether or not you wish to build your own track, but the best way to convert Iain’s plans into something workable is to add a very large pinch of salt.

 

If you are prepared to invest in an emulator, you can use something like wine to run Templot on a Mac (which is what I do) but it will take you several hours to learn. It is a very good program and extremely comprehensive, but that also means there is a degree of learning you have to put in before you can use it in anger. Throwing a basic plan together does not take too long, but the fine tuning can take long. Also, there will be lots of places where Iain’s optimism requires you to reconsider how you might do something. If your space is greater than the minimum specified, then it will probably all fit, but you will need to keep your eye on minimum radii.

 

If you are going to use off the shelf track, there seem to be plenty of alternatives about, but whether or not any of them work natively on a Mac I can’t say.

Thanks for that I will have a look at Templot and see what I think...Martin

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6 hours ago, Oceman said:

The Large Layout is draw  as 7 foot by 9 foot , Ian quotes that it could be reduced to 8 foot by 6 foot garden shed size or stretched  to 8 foot by 10 foot.. Have the article from the magazine but do not have the year 

Did he say what scale these were intended for? The “large” layout looks like a bit of a squeeze in N, leave alone 00.

(And I wonder about the facing single slip, too...)

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