Planning for Industries

Whilst we all ponder the corporate identity, I have had to move on with other things. Actually, I still have to get hold of the laser decal sheets I need so I can't go forward on the loco front for now, anyway.

I am in the process of planning for the industries that are to be in the town. This has two aspects.

1. Analyse the freight cars that I have to see if
     a) I have the right mix of cars and
     b) that I have some industries for them all to serve.
2. Start planning where the industries will go and what they will look like.

1. Freight Car analysis. As if by chance, this month's Model Railroader - October 2012 has an article about a 1960s freight car roster. In that the author lists  then breakdown of car types and their volumes owned by railroads at the time. I have used this to look at my car mix and came up with the following spreadsheet results:

Total Owned	% of Total	Type	Actual Total	% of Actual Total	Should Have	Difference	Needed
1	2.70%	Covered Hopper	120,000.00	6.27%	2.3	1.3	2.0
0	0.00%	Caboose		0.00%	0.0	0.0	0.0
2	5.41%	Tank Car non- fuel	153,608.00	8.03%	3.0	1.0	1.0
5	13.51%	Reefer	122,000.00	6.38%	2.4	-2.6	0.0
4	10.81%	Gondola	240,000.00	12.55%	4.6	0.6	1.0
10	27.03%	Hopper	436,000.00	22.80%	8.4	-1.6	0.0
15	40.54%	Box Car	706,000.00	36.91%	13.7	-1.3	0.0
0	0.00%	Flat Car	111,000.00	5.80%	2.1	2.1	3.0
0	0.00%	Stock Car	24,018.00	1.26%	0.5	0.5	1.0
37			1,912,626.00				8

This analysis showed that I need another 8 cars to keep the ratios right. I have too many Reefers so I have ignored that one.

I then went through and created a list of all the types of industry that could source or sink loads from these types of cars and used that to construct a list of industries that will be in place at Ellerby.

2. Having decided on a finite - but not final - list of industries, I then proceeded to work out what sort of footprint these industries might have. The idea is that, although it may take me many months to build all of the required structures, I can start of with just place holders. Initially, that will enable me to run the trains and see that I have got it somewhat right.

Here is what the railroad looks like at the moment.

Just for good order's sake, the track in the bottom picture to the right of the structure is currently curved but will be straightened to align with the deck of the freight house.