rail served light industry 1980s and early 90s

[bluedepot]

hi everyone

i am after some ideas for a new layout!

i want to model a rail served industry that would just involve a siding or two and possibly a run round loop if needed.

I like cargo waggons, various vans and polybulks if that helps! I have quite a varied selection of air braked wagons already from the 80s and 90s that may be suitable - i am hoping.

I am looking at relatively light industry ideas. I won't have space for a power station, chemical works, steel works etc! I want something that available rtr wagons can serve.

I'm thinking the layout will be a fictional double track secondary main line, edge of town / light industry / scrub type scenery.

as well as a rail served industry possible a freight loop, maybe dmu stabling and light servicing sidings...

anyway... any industry ideas much appreciated!


Tim

[crewearpley40]

maybe a brewery, factory, somewhere that  could utilise the following stock :

VDA / VAA
OCA / OBA
HEA / HBA
MFA

MXV (and other variations of the 16 ton steel wagon), i had a couple of 5 planks i painted and 7 planks repainted grey / black


PCA
PGA
TTA


what you have to think is that a lot of industries have different products/materials going in and out for example a cement works used to have coal going in and ash coming out as well as cement products in tanks, presflos and vans.

another idea : paper mill traffic as follows

VDA / VAA - finished paper products.

OCA / OBA - have been used for logs OBA certainly not sure about OCA but could be justified bringing parts or machinery in.

HEA / HBA / MXV - Coal for the burners and or furnace making paper takes lots of energy.

PCA - chemicals used in the paper-making process.

PGA - could be used for china clay.

TTA - oil for the burners/furnace and or any chemicals depending on the livery of the tanks that  you have.

but settled with what i had / was given ( christmas etc gifts ) and an old plastic kit i repainted and printed nameboards, ballasted around, made a road. sadly it never survived to tell the tale apart from the stock

[woodbury22uk]

If you are tight on space for a factory you could just have a Speedlink served Freight terminal, used for transhipment of goods between road and rail sometimes with intermediate warehousing. Many of these were created using Section 8 grants, and handled just about everything you could think of. The Duncan Transrail terminal in Salford handled chipboard, paper, newsprint, canned goods, grain, timber, bricks, steel, tinplate and loads more. So scope for many types of wagons in just ones and twos.

Rail Express did a feature on the terminal a couple of years back I think.

[crewearpley40]

the creative logistics terminal, duncan street your referring to ?

[woodbury22uk]

the creative logistics terminal, duncan street your referring to ?

That is the one. Was originally Duncan Transrail.

[Newportnobby]

How about a permanent way storage facility with ballast heaps etc?

[Steven B]

The Gilbraith freight terminal at Blackburn could work. It's seen chipboard & MDF imports (Cargo Wagons), steel coil and aggregate.

A China Clay works could provide traffic for Cargo wagons, CDA, Polybulk and silver bullets.

Another option for vans and opens is an MoD stores exchange sidings. There's no need to go to as far as armoured vehicles - plenty of MoD stores travelled around in VGA vans and VAA/VBA opens.

Don't get caught up in the "everything must come and go via rail" loop (unless you want to!). In general only the bulk goods came and went via rail. The number of industries that received raw goods, power source (oil/coal) and sent out finished goods and waste via rail would be very small in number (if ever!).

You'll end up with a more realistic model if you restrict your choice of wagons serving your factory. Anything that doesn't work with our chosen industry could pass by on another frieght train, or be part of the train that shunts your industry as per the speedlink network.

Steven B.

[Bealman]

Could be a power station.... Hornby mag squeezed one into 6'x4'

http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=31933.msg365063#msg365063

[bluedepot]

Thanks for all the replies!

Paper mill and China clay works... i like the idea but I'm not entirely sure what these factories would look like, how much I would need to show and how much would just be stuck on a backscene or imaginary... I'll google some images of them...

speedlink freight terminal, I like the idea because of the wagon variety... I'll have to look at pictures to see if they would involve too much track work though... also most were closed down when speedlink contracted i think.

engineers sidings - I decided against because they don't tend to have much in the way of buildings i think, and unless it's just a tamper sidings, they seem to be quite big as have to accommodate quite long rakes of wagons...

m.o.d sidings... well I was thinking about getting some m.o.d. containers, which were red i think, and running them on the 3 kfa wagons i ordered... so maybe...

power station - I thought about just modeling a single lead junction into a power station, then showing just a small part of the power station itself but have the train disappear through the backscene somehow and into the fiddle yard... I'm not sure how feasible it would be though even if I just ran 24 mgr hoppers...

so I think at the minute a paper mill or speedlink trans-shipment yard are in the lead...

I need to do more research... I don't want to have to model some massive industrial complex in its entirety but at the same time want something interesting.

I got a bit bored with my existing layout and just feel like starting again with something else... I want to avoid parallel running near the front of the layout, use code 55, and ensure level running / level baseboards this time!!!

thanks for all the replies... it's given me a lot of new ideas


Tim

[NeMo]

Surprised nobody's mentioned nuclear flasks yet. All you need is a gantry of some sort for loading the flasks onto flatbed trucks, and beyond that, whatever buildings and security you deem appropriate. The nice thing about nuclear flask trains is they often have big locos on short trains. During the 1980s though they did usually have a single loco and a couple of barrier wagons, whereas contemporary nuclear flask trains seem to have no barrier wagons but a loco at each end.

Cheers, NeMo

Such a train on my layout, 'Avonway'...

[koyli55002]

The book "Modelling the British Rail Era" has several good layout plans - one of which may fit your needs or provide the basis. Plans and some photos of various installations. That, or an old "Freightmaster" book.....

[Buzzard]

Another useful book is "Rail Freight Since 1968 Wagonload" by Paul Shannon.

Good text and photos, even one of Blackburn which was mentioned in an earlier post.

Cannot see a copy online for less than £12.46 (Abe Books) but for what you get that's a good price.  However it's one of a series of four and you might end up looking for the other three, I did.

[scottishlocos]

Tim

Please see my layout thread Auchleven Papermill based on the Auchmuty branch

It closed to rail traffic with the end of speedlink in about 1992/93 traffic upon closure was China Clay in PAA wagons and also the Tiger rail bogie hoppers as well as the odd Cargowaggon for finished paper

As the Tiger rail hoppers are not out in N yet (fingers crossed) you could swap them out for polybulks as they did use them for China Clay

In the late 70s early 80s there was plenty of traffic by rail coal pampas grass caustic soda

As stated above these would have switched to road haulage and you could use some of the vehicles from Oxford Diecast to represent this

Dave

[Western Exile]

Fitzgerald Lighting at Bodmin used rail in the time period you mention. A typical train might be a few VGAs (Farish) or a couple of IZAs (coming soon from Revolution). How about that for a "light" industry? 

[Jerry Howlett]

The remains of the Highworth branch at Swindon.

Its a truncated siding but is still in use today , I believe.

Served a scrap metal dealer lots of in and outs and also shared the "siding" with traffic for the British Leyland now BMC factory.  Lots of modern stuff I would imagine.

Jerry