Food processing industries for layouts

[Nick_Burman]

Hello,

 

I'm interested in adding some kind of food-processing industry to a putative layout, however could someone point me to examples? More specifically, I'm looking for ideas for industries which might require a lot of shunting (and possibly generate lots of traffic) and possibly multiple wagons spots. Any ideas?

 

Cheers Nicholas

[phil_sutters]

4 minutes ago, Nick_Burman said:

Hello,

 

I'm interested in adding some kind of food-processing industry to a putative layout, however could someone point me to examples? More specifically, I'm looking for ideas for industries which might require a lot of shunting (and possibly generate lots of traffic) and possibly multiple wagons spots. Any ideas?

 

Cheers Nicholas

You need to indicate the era you are modelling and a general idea of the part of the country, otherwise people will find it hard to make appropriate suggestions. Huntley and Palmers at Reading might be a possibility if that suits your era.

[Nick_Burman]

3 minutes ago, phil_sutters said:

You need to indicate the era you are modelling and a general idea of the part of the country, otherwise people will find it hard to make appropriate suggestions. Huntley and Palmers at Reading might be a possibility if that suits your era.

 

Catch, I wasn't thinking specifically about the UK when I formulated the question. Rather I have a potential layout format in mind (an expanded Walkley Sidings) with the geographical location yet to be decided, and food processing seems a good change from the usual customer choices.  For the time being the mind says "somewhere in the more inhabited parts of the western USA in the 1920's", but this could change... In this case one could change the specific "Huntley & Palmers" to a generic "biscuit factory" (Nabisco?).

 

However, since I mentioned a warmer clime, my mind has turned to something more fruit-based...maybe grape-oriented. For instance, there was one local line in southern France which originated large quantities of vermouths and aperitifs (the Byrrh factory at Thuir near Perpignan), however I'm hard-pressed to imagine whatever inbound loads it might have received (if any) and if it was busy enough to justify a lot of shunting.

 

Cheers Nicholas

 

 

 

 

[DCB]

Thinking UK.. Lima did Palethorpe's Sausages vans.  Pigs in Sausages out. Plenty of shunting, Might upset the vegans, Or Cider as in Bulmers Hereford . Apples in by road delicious golden nectar out in vans, or Beer, Hops in (open wagons?) and alcoholic brown substance out,   Whisky is good, in moderation, lots of people did grain hoppers, class 37s roamed with single bogie hoppers on the GNSR in the 1980s,  However Whisky might upset the abolitionists, and an 00 bogie tank would hold enough to get one pleasantly sozzled. . 

I suppose Russia, Potatoes in in open wagons Vodka out in 100 gallon Tankers, but otherwise you have unbranded vans in and unbranded vans out, Boring.

I suppose you could do wine but its all anonymous vans outbound. Sugar?  Beet in Sugar out

I remember an NG layout in RM in the 1970s where the main traffic source was a Jam Butty mine, but sensible suggestions, nope, I'm right out.

Edited April 27, 2022 by DCB

[RobinofLoxley]

8 hours ago, Nick_Burman said:

 

Catch, I wasn't thinking specifically about the UK when I formulated the question. Rather I have a potential layout format in mind (an expanded Walkley Sidings) with the geographical location yet to be decided, and food processing seems a good change from the usual customer choices.  For the time being the mind says "somewhere in the more inhabited parts of the western USA in the 1920's", but this could change... In this case one could change the specific "Huntley & Palmers" to a generic "biscuit factory" (Nabisco?).

 

However, since I mentioned a warmer clime, my mind has turned to something more fruit-based...maybe grape-oriented. For instance, there was one local line in southern France which originated large quantities of vermouths and aperitifs (the Byrrh factory at Thuir near Perpignan), however I'm hard-pressed to imagine whatever inbound loads it might have received (if any) and if it was busy enough to justify a lot of shunting.

 

Cheers Nicholas

 

 

 

 

If you chose grapes, they would be pressed near to where they were grown and it would be the juice that would be transported, so tankers. Alway assuming that they bothered with grapes. Funny you might think, but todays drinks, especially ciders, are chemical cocktails.

 

Most typical foods carried, especially in the USA are cereal grains going for industrial (starch, ethanol, glucose) processing; the factories always have railheads even if theyre not in use today. Other produce would be very seasonal. But grain storage facilities are very common across the US. Also potatoes, onions. A bit time sensitive to your 1920's frame as cereal processing was in its infancy but large scale cereal milling was well established, eg kelloggs

[jcm@gwr]

6 hours ago, DCB said:

 

I remember an NG layout in RM in the 1970s where the main traffic source was a Jam Butty mine, but sensible suggestions, nope, I'm right out.

 

Not forgetting the Treacle Mine, and the Broken Biscuit Repair Factory!

[Nick Holliday]

@DCB mentioned sugar beet, and that seems to be an ideal subject. In the UK the Wissington plant in East Anglia brought in around 2,000,000 tons of sugar beet, in a short harvesting season, and produced 300,000 tons of sugar each year, and had its own light railway to serve the factory. It also required an unspecified amount (lots) of coal to process the sugar, and there would have been a vast amount of spent pulp that would be sent away as animal feed. All this mostly travelled by rail, although now it is carried by road. These days the NFU emphasise other byproducts 

The USA, being one of the largest producers of sugar from beet in the world, must have similar complexes, and the variety of  potential byproducts would  suggest a number of different loading points within the plant for each commodity.

[KeithHC]

Was the Campbell’s soup factory at Kings Lynn connected to the rail network.

 

Keith

 

ps. When I looked at the forums this section showed food processing and the next section showed blender…..

Edited April 27, 2022 by KeithHC
Added ps

[Fat Controller]

Quite a few French wine cellars used narrow-gauge lines to take grapes from the 'quai de reception' to the 'cuvage', where the grapes were macerated prior to pressing. The wagons would be manually propelled. 

The Cave at Liergues, to which we belong, was also served by the metre gauge Chemin du fer du Beaujolais; the former station building is still extant.

[TheQ]

Between the wars in Norfolk there was a NG line from a farm to the rivers side to transport sugar beet and other farm produce down to the Wherries.. The locomotive power was a model T ford..

[TheQ]

 

it might be more relevant if you knew their more brightly painted vans..

 

 

 

[Nick_Burman]

15 hours ago, DCB said:

I suppose you could do wine but its all anonymous vans outbound

 

Thanks for the suggestions. As far as wines are concerned, in France at least transportation was far from anonymous. If the destination was Paris, most wine from the south was not bottled locally but rather shipped by the wagonload (in monofoudres, bifoudres and - later - citernes, or single cask tank wagons, double cask tank wagons and ordinary lined metal tank wagons, respectively) to the Halles aux Vins (the wine wholesale market) in Bercy. Once there the wine was bottled and distributed. The wagons were far from anonymous, as they carried their owner's names prominently on their sides; some of the steel tank wagons (made in HO by REE) were quite colourful.

 

Cheers NB

[The Johnster]

On my layout, there is a food processing plant, Ogmore Forest Foods, which is not modlelled, but because it can only be shunted in one direction on a single track branch, the traffic has to come up to the terminus to be run around; it is not neccessary to worry too much about whether the vehicles are loaded or empty.  The backstory is that the place started out as a canning plant, and has, during this post WW2 period, expanded into powdered and refrigerated food for Ministry of Defence contracts. 

 

So, fruit vans, insulated or refridgerated meat, fish, an occasional salt wagon, opens with tarpaulins, and 'ordinary' vans bringing in sheet steel for the canning operation, bags of flour, drums of fat or cooking oil, sugar, and such, or loaded out with the tinned or powdered product.  Nowt wrong with a loaded mineral in and empty out occasionally if the machinery is steam powered, or a fuel oil tank if it isn't; as the plant is not modelled, this can be decided when the train is being made up.

 

Being 'off scene', it contibutes little to opearaion beyond the running around movement and shunting the brake van, but is a good excuse for an increasd variety of goods vehicles.  I employ a similar dodge with a daily train of NPCCS to 'Overseas and Commonwealth', a mail order company warehouse, which is used as a distribution facility and to deal with 'returns', my excuse to run NPCCS on a colliery branch.  Modelled on the layout is a private siding to 'Dimbath Specialist Metal Treatments' a factory in the business of electroplating and galvanising metals, which produces sheet metal in opens in, and vans or sheeted opens containing drums or carboys of the various horrible chemicals used, and of course more vans in which to transport the finished product, which provides plenty of fun as part of the 90 minutes every morning allowed in the WTT to shunt the pickup!

Edited April 27, 2022 by The Johnster

[Nick_Burman]

Cheers all,

 

So far the following suggestions have come to light:

 

- Biscuits;

- Sausages (meat packing);

- Cider;

- Beer (and brewing in general);

- Whiskey (and other distilled alcoholic beverages);

- Beet Sugar;

- Cereals milling;

- Canned goods (Campbell's, etc...);

- Wines, Vermouths, etc...

 

There were suggestions such as onions, potatoes and cereals, but these were raw material out operations, not food processing as such.

 

Another criteria I forgot to add was the possibility of the industry to generate the occasional expedited load - in its US format the layout would be partially electrified, mostly for passenger service using interurban cars (general freight would be moved mostly with steam locomotives). However I envisage the electric cars being used to occasionally haul one or two boxcars or refrigerators which needed moving ASAP.

 

Cheers Nicholas

 

[RobinofLoxley]

If the US, you can also think about lumber and pulp and paper, if you have an appropriate setting. Huge businesses.

[Nick_Burman]

30 minutes ago, RobinofLoxley said:

If the US, you can also think about lumber and pulp and paper, if you have an appropriate setting. Huge businesses.

 

Not food! :-)

 

Cheers Nicholas

[eastglosmog]

No mention of chocolate traffic to and from Cadbury's Bourneville yet?

http://www.railaroundbirmingham.co.uk/Stations/cadbury.php

[D9020 Nimbus]

For the US, the Kalmbach books Industries along the tracks by Jeff Wilson provide the type of information you're be looking for, including the types of freight car used in different eras. Volumes 2 and 3 are the most relevant, including canning, breweries and the like.

 

The 2014 issue of Model Railroad Planning contains an article on switching the Post Cereals plant in Michigan, albeit in a later era than you’re interested in.

[298]

On 26/04/2022 at 23:25, Nick_Burman said:

Hello,

 

I'm interested in adding some kind of food-processing industry to a putative layout, however could someone point me to examples? More specifically, I'm looking for ideas for industries which might require a lot of shunting (and possibly generate lots of traffic) and possibly multiple wagons spots. Any ideas?

 

Cheers Nicholas

 

On 27/04/2022 at 00:13, Nick_Burman said:

 

Catch, I wasn't thinking specifically about the UK when I formulated the question. Rather I have a potential layout format in mind (an expanded Walkley Sidings) with the geographical location yet to be decided, and food processing seems a good change from the usual customer choices.  For the time being the mind says "somewhere in the more inhabited parts of the western USA in the 1920's", but this could change... In this case one could change the specific "Huntley & Palmers" to a generic "biscuit factory" (Nabisco?).

 

However, since I mentioned a warmer clime, my mind has turned to something more fruit-based...maybe grape-oriented. For instance, there was one local line in southern France which originated large quantities of vermouths and aperitifs (the Byrrh factory at Thuir near Perpignan), however I'm hard-pressed to imagine whatever inbound loads it might have received (if any) and if it was busy enough to justify a lot of shunting.

 

Cheers Nicholas

 

 

 

 

 

I've already been there and done that with a western US Interurban, what you loose with not having a variety of traffic (basically outbound cars of fruit in iced reefers and the occasional inbound of ice and packing boxes you can make up with other general industries and passenger cars serving the city. Amongst others Avocados from Fallbrook CA is sometimes mentioned as an inspiration.

 

Generally speaking, shipping raw foodstuffs nationally has happened for 100 years in the US but mass manufacturing is more recent and still centered around populations, my employers who have been in this field for the last 60 years or so have about 30 factories in the US but only four in the UK that are alot larger.

[25901]

On 28/04/2022 at 07:36, eastglosmog said:

No mention of chocolate traffic to and from Cadbury's Bourneville yet?

http://www.railaroundbirmingham.co.uk/Stations/cadbury.php

Or Rowntree's Of York

[eastglosmog]

Matthews Flour Mill, Shipton-under-Wychwood.  Built beside the OWW in 1912, specifically for rail access.  There used to be a siding where the lorries now stand.

[Oldddudders]

ISTR the Craig & Mertonford, freelance model Scots NG line of blessed memory 6 decades ago, had Peter Allan's Processing Plant. Builder Philip Hancock owned up to never quite identifying what was processed!