Industries - Corn Syrup

[DelawareAndHudson]

After seeing Koos post in Mal's CSX TransFlo thread about his new corn syrup cars, I thought I and others might be able to help him out with info and pictures of corn syrup customers.

 

 

 

Veryfine Juice Bottling Plant - Littleton, Massachusetts

 

http://photos.nerail.org/s/?p=16914

 

 

 

Polar Beverages - Worcester, Massachusetts

 

http://photos.nerail.org/s/?p=175881

 

 

 

Coca-Cola bottling plant in Downey, California

 

http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=pnpfgp54pc7j&lvl=18.94&dir=358.82&sty=o&q=11294%20Patton%20Rd%2C%20Downey%2C%20CA%2090241&form=LMLTCC

 

 

 

Doumak Inc - makers of Marshmallows - Elk Grove Village, Illinois

 

http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=r00vf87p4bh4&lvl=19.85&dir=269.78&sty=o&q=2491%20Estes%20Avenue%2CElk%20Grove%20Village%2C%20IL&form=LMLTCC

 

 

 

Kraft Foods, Kendalville, Indiana - Marshmallow plant.  In the picture below, the Kendallville Terminal RR is switching the Kraft marshmallow plant.  The track to the left is a remnant of the old Pennsy main to Fort Wayne and is now used to hold cars.  The switcher is on the lead into the plant.  There are two tracks that enter the plant.  Near as I can tell, all of the unloading of the corn syrup tank cars and the covered hoppers (granulated sugar?) are unloaded inside.  Easy to model, just push the cars into the building and you're done.  I might add that this is a prototype Inglenook for those of you inclined to appreciate that.

 

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=778869

 

Not the best quality, but here is an aerial view of the Kendallville plant.  You can see covered hoppers and tanks sitting on the stub of the old main and above them, the two tracks entering the plant.  You could easily build this as a 3-2-2 or 5-3-3 Inglenook.

 

http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=qx4vtp7wv01b&lvl=19&dir=270&sty=o&q=155%20W%20Ohio%20St%2C%20Kendallville%2C%20IN%2046755&form=LMLTCC

 

Atlas Forum thread about corn syrup - many useful pictures

 

http://forum.atlasrr.com/forum/topic.asp?ARCHIVE=true&TOPIC_ID=42052

 

 

Hope this gives you some things to work from.  If anyone else has more info or pictures, please post them.

 

 

Jason Cook

New Haven, IN

 

[steve1]

When did corn syrup start being moved by rail? All the cars I've seen have tended to be modern (1980s onwards) and so far too late for me.

 

Thanks

 

steve

[JWB]

Corn syrup is a fairly recent replacement for plain ol sugar. Liquid sugar was shipped by rail at earlier times, but Staley corn syrup tank cars date from at least the 1940s.

[torikoos]

Well thanks very much for this excellent start on this topic, I've got lots to learn about this subject, and it appears there's a ton of variety in the way these cars are loaded/unloaded, open tracks, inside buildings etc etc.

 

Thanks very much.

 

Koos

[DelawareAndHudson]

"Modern" corn syrup cars are just that, modern.  The prototype for the Intermountain Trinity 19,600 gallon car dates to the mid-1990's I believe.  I think the Atlas car's prototype dates to the 1980's.  If you're interested in earlier cars, the Athearn 'shorty' car dates to the late-60's.  They are a very rare sight today however.

 

Tim Fredrick articles

 

Part 1 - Overview of 1970's-present http://www.trainlife.com/magazines/pages/139/10032/july-2004-page-26

 

Part 2 - Jumbo Corn Syrup Design  http://www.trainlife.com/magazines/pages/140/10122/august-2004-page-44

 

part 3 - more Trinity 19,600  http://www.trainlife.com/magazines/pages/141/10190/september-2004-page-40

 

Part 4 - Trinity 19,600 details  http://www.trainlife.com/magazines/pages/142/10264/october-2004-page-42

 

Part 5 - Trinity 17,600 car  http://www.trainlife.com/magazines/pages/125/9040/november-2004-page-42

 

Part 6 - more Trinity 17,600  http://www.trainlife.com/magazines/pages/126/9102/december-2004-page-32

 

Part 7 - Trinity 17,600 details  http://www.trainlife.com/magazines/pages/127/9174/march-2005-page-32

 

Part 8 -- Corn Syrup Facilities   http://www.trainlife.com/magazines/pages/128/9260/april-2005-page-46

 

 

 

Per the Atlas site, their Trinity 17,600 gallon car was produced between 1984 and 1998.

 

http://www.atlasrr.com/HOFreight/hotrinity1.htm

 

 

Info on the Walthers Funnel Flow car

 

http://www.trainlife.com/magazines/pages/66/4779/october-1991-page-35

 

http://www.trainlife.com/magazines/pages/98/7069/october-1992-page-55

 

 

 

That should give you a good start on things.

 

Jason

 

 

[Tove]

There is a nice article in the 2010 Model railroad planning magazine,to do with the Tate & Lyle corn syrup transloading terminal in Westborough,Mass.

(plus a plan)

Included are photos of the facility,plus some of a similar site (ADM this time) in Farmingham,Mass.

 

Brian.

[trisonic]

One of the interesting things about a corn syrup facility is that there are several gradesof syrup and incoming cars must be spotted at the appropriate "pipe" to a particular tank.

The article in the MR book is very good.

 

Best, Pete.

[shortliner]

After seeing Koos post in Mal's CSX TransFlo thread about his new corn syrup cars, I thought I and others might be able to help him out with info and pictures of corn syrup customers.

 

 

 

Kraft Foods, Kendalville, Indiana - Marshmallow plant.  In the picture below, the Kendallville Terminal RR is switching the Kraft marshmallow plant.  The track to the left is a remnant of the old Pennsy main to Fort Wayne and is now used to hold cars.  The switcher is on the lead into the plant.  There are two tracks that enter the plant.  Near as I can tell, all of the unloading of the corn syrup tank cars and the covered hoppers (granulated sugar?) are unloaded inside.  Easy to model, just push the cars into the building and you're done.  I might add that this is a prototype Inglenook for those of you inclined to appreciate that.

 

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=778869

 

Not the best quality, but here is an aerial view of the Kendallville plant.  You can see covered hoppers and tanks sitting on the stub of the old main and above them, the two tracks entering the plant.  You could easily build this as a 3-2-2 or 5-3-3 Inglenook.

 

http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=qx4vtp7wv01b&lvl=19&dir=270&sty=o&q=155%20W%20Ohio%20St%2C%20Kendallville%2C%20IN%2046755&form=LMLTCC

 

 

 

Hope this gives you some things to work from.  If anyone else has more info or pictures, please post them.

 

 

Jason Cook

New Haven, IN

 

Kendalville Terminal Railroad appears about 2/3 of the way down this page in Carls Small Layout Scrapbook  http://www.carendt.com/scrapbook/page82/index.html

[torikoos]

There is a nice article in the 2010 Model railroad planning magazine,to do with the Tate & Lyle corn syrup transloading terminal in Westborough,Mass.

(plus a plan)

Included are photos of the facility,plus some of a similar site (ADM this time) in Farmingham,Mass.

 

Brian.

I don't have that article I'm afraid, is it downloadable anywhere on a website? I would be curious if it would fit my needs or give me some ideas.

[Glorious NSE]

I think I have a copy, but it's packed in storage at the moment Koos, sorry.

 

Very thought provoking, especially from an 'ops' point of view, and you could certainly do the prototype justice in 6' without it looking contrived.

 

This is the one that article refers to:

http://binged.it/1fZ0aCk

 

This is the ADM one also referred to in the article:

http://binged.it/1fi1yyp

 

The gist (working from memory) is that these locations each tranship multiple grades of corn syrup, and to avoid cross-contamination of the product they have certain car spots allocated to certain grades - there's also an 'off spot' track nearby so that they can have cars on-hand for future days, (or later the same day if you can get a switch crew to come back and shuffle them)

 

So that initially "boring" industry with big cuts of seemingly identical cars in reality actually needs each car putting in a specific place, not just swapping a cut of tanks for another near identical cut and going home... 

 

If you were using it as a home layout then replicating the detail of those moves would be acheivable through JMRI ops for example, allocating a specific grade to each incoming car, and pointing that car to a specific spot.

 

And whilst a fleet of just 40' tank cars might seem a bit dull (especially as they tend to be just from one company) Atlas and Intermountain's ones are great models that complement each other well, and they have both done multiple livery variations (including plain jane leasers) on each...

[shortliner]

Koos - if you are stuck - PM me your email and I will go dig

[Alcanman]

I also recall the Model Railroader Planning article and it was as described by Glorious NSE. In particular, the storage building and tanks were relatively small and modelable

 

I also seem to remember that, subsequently, 'Model Railroader' used the article as the basis of a small corn syrup transloading facility included in one of their featured layouts.

I can't remember which layout but it was in the magazine about 2 years ago.

 

Very interesting thread and some great pics.

 

Mal

[bxmoore]

 

I've picked up three Corn Products tank cars, and will hopefully be switching them on Koos's module when he's built it and brings it along to the club.  I may well put a basic unloading facility on my own module.

 

This facility on the video above is but one stub-end track, and is completely do-able on a small module.

 

Brian

[torikoos]

excellent and thanks to all for your help and advise so far. 

I guess the cat's out of the bag, now. For those who know me personally, and know fairly well what I've been up to recently, yes indeed, I am going to build another module.

I'm doing too many things at once :-)   

I'm now sketching a few 'track noodles' on a piece of paper at work (don't tell the boss, oh wait, that would be me here (at least in this office) :-))  and trying out some ideas. 6' is the absolute maximum I want to do, but somehow it's a challenge to me to try it in 3' (with a fiddle yard), and at meets to attach to Wolter Springs, we'll see how it goes.

First a bit more research is needed, and then develop the track plan further. 

 

Koos

[CraigZ]

One of the interesting things about a corn syrup facility is that there are several gradesof syrup and incoming cars must be spotted at the appropriate "pipe" to a particular tank.

The article in the MR book is very good.

 

Best, Pete.

 

 

For the sweetener there are different viscosities - the sweeter the HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) the more fructose present, and the higher the viscosity.  The product is pumped out of the cars into the tanks.  The stuff is pretty temperature sensitive...colder means thicker.  80 degF it gets pretty thick but the viscosity drops dramatically by 115 degF.  Are not the tank cars steam jacketed?

 

Another plant photo - the Coca Cola "syrup plant" in Atlanta.  The tank cars are under a shelter; the pumps are in a dungeon underneath the tracks...a good place to be if you're about 5'4" tall otherwise it's a backbreaker

 

http://binged.it/1fiLSv2

 

And this is the bottling plant on Sullivan Rd in Atlanta.  Two sidings and a trackmobile.

 

http://binged.it/1bby00P

[trisonic]

So far as I understand it, Craig, there is more to it than different viscosities - after all, as you say, if you heat it it becomes more runny.
I have no idea what the difference are - I was referring to a Tate and Lyle facility in the USA, obviously they probably use more different kinds of syrup than say, a Pepsi plant.

Best, Pete.

 

PS In the UK "Tate and Lyle" = "Dominos".

[CraigZ]

So far as I understand it, Craig, there is more to it than different viscosities - after all, as you say, if you heat it it becomes more runny.

I have no idea what the difference are - I was referring to a Tate and Lyle facility in the USA, obviously they probably use more different kinds of syrup than say, a Pepsi plant.

 

Best, Pete.

 

PS In the UK "Tate and Lyle" = "Dominos".

Correct...I vaguely alluded to it when I mentioned the higher fructose content not only being thicker, but sweeter.  The presence of the differing sugar amounts also impacts how the product is processed.  I have a dairy customer that processes yoghurt.  They make regular and low calorie versions - the 'regular' uses a mix of cane sugar and HFCS.  The low cal uses artificial sweeteners; the way each behaves in the processing equipment (pumps, valves, mixers, etc) varies quite a bit because of the sugar or lack thereof.

 

I learn the weirdest stuff in my work...

[alastairb]

I also recall the Model Railroader Planning article and it was as described by Glorious NSE. In particular, the storage building and tanks were relatively small and modelable

 

I also seem to remember that, subsequently, 'Model Railroader' used the article as the basis of a small corn syrup transloading facility included in one of their featured layouts.

I can't remember which layout but it was in the magazine about 2 years ago.

 

Very interesting thread and some great pics.

 

Mal

It was the Bay Junction project layout that was in the MR from Jan - Jun 2011. The article on building the Corn Syrup facility was in the April 2011 issue. The kit bashed model was based on Walthers McGraw Oil Tanks and a Pikestuff office building

 

Hope this helps

[torikoos]

Just a public thanks to both Brian's here, each of them supplying some articles that will futher help me with this project.

 

I've sketched about 6 different track plans now, but I find it difficult to choose my approach.  One part of me wants the trackplan so that the center track is in the center along the length, so that it can be added to a modular set up , such as RS Tower and NMRA-BR spec, but I also quite like tracks under a slight angle , making it look a little less 'stiff' , or somewhat more off set towards the front, providing a bit more space for spurs and/or scenery...

decisions ......

[Glorious NSE]

Are you thinking in terms of it being an "endscene" module (i.e. - with only one modular end) - if so, don't worry about a through track...?

[torikoos]

Are you thinking in terms of it being an "endscene" module (i.e. - with only one modular end) - if so, don't worry about a through track...?

 That would be another option I was contemplating, and might possibly be the best way forward, particularly if at some stage it would follow wolter springs as in the last meet. I had a rough sketch of one such idea.  I think I'll play along with that one a bit more :-)

[Glorious NSE]

Certainly would enable you to do it more justice in just 3', and even in the smallest modular setup you could use two dead end modules...

[trisonic]

It was the Bay Junction project layout that was in the MR from Jan - Jun 2011. The article on building the Corn Syrup facility was in the April 2011 issue. The kit bashed model was based on Walthers McGraw Oil Tanks and a Pikestuff office building

 

Hope this helps

That may be true but the best article I've seen is in  "Model Railroad Planning 20 10". Page 68 is headed "A Modern Industry for a Compact Space" and contains detailed photos of the Tate & Lyle facility in Westborough, Mass., and is six pages long. It also contains some photos of the Cargill HFCS plant in Framingham.

 

Actually I'm very glad I've been reminded of this!

 

Best, Pete.

[DelawareAndHudson]

A.E. Staley/Tate & Lyle in Westborough, MA. - Doesn't get much simpler than this.  Pikestuff building and some piping.  

 

http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=r1bgt99125qm&lvl=19.66&dir=358.8&sty=o&q=30%20Walkup%20Dr%20Westborough%20MA&form=LMLTCC

 

 

 

Here is the Cargill HFCS plant in Framingham, MA.  

 

http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=r1c9dh91dmbb&lvl=19.54&dir=4.28&sty=b&q=155%20Fountain%20St%2C%20Framingham%2C%20MA%2001702&form=LMLTCC

 

 

Jason Cook

New Haven, IN

[DelawareAndHudson]

Found this tread about another Tate & Lyle bulk distribution point.  This one is in North Carolina.

 

http://railroadfan.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=26935

 

 

Has pictures of the facility plus aerial view.

 

 

Jason Cook