Industrial Parks

Modern industrial parks are appealing to the modeler and railfan on several fronts. First, they pack a lot of action in a small amount of space. Second, the action is ongoing (often for hours) as the local shuttles back and forth doing it's work. This is in contrast to watching a through freight blowing by and disappearing in a few seconds. The switching moves the local employs to switch the various industries is essentially the same as what existed decades ago. That being the case, railfanning a modern industrial park is like being transported back to railroading's golden age. In many cases industrial parks can be safely and un-obtrusively viewed from public streets and sidewalks (still you do need to employ some common sense and show respect for private property). Finally, they make excellent subjects for model railroad themes.

Contrary to some doom and gloom reports, rail served industrial parks with active local switching jobs are nowhere close to being extinct. In fact, in some cities their scope is so massive the larger problem is finding a way to take it all in. Consider this page a resource showing locations with extensive industrial switching and thus a well of ideas for modeling subjects. I'm hoping this will become a community effort where others can bring sites of interest to my attention so I can list them. Finally, thanks to all that have provided information making this page possible.

The quality of free online mapping and imaging has reached the point where it isn't even necessary to visit the site to get great photos. Two very good sources of images are Bing Maps (birdseye view) shown on the left and Google Maps (street view) shown on the right. Use the maps below as a guide and then switch to Bing or Google to treat yourself to a virtual tour.

Interesting park tight against the river with some nice rail/barge interface. Thanks to Jack Keller.

Rhett Graves: "Switched today by Alabama Southern (Watco), though there appears to be some industry-owned switchers in a few of the plants. There's a Reichold Chemicals plant, Nucor Steel, and several other industries in between over about a four mile stretch. There's also a derelict tower at a crossing and some street running.

Rhett Graves: "Switched today by the Arkansas Midland (Pinsley). The major industry is a cottonseed oil mill, but there's plenty of other small industries nearby that support this industry. The spur at the plant comes off one leg of a wye and crosses over one of the other legs of the wye. Lots of multiple spots within the oil mill make for interesting switching and it's neat to watch the crew use the wye to reverse car direction and make run-around moves. More barge-rail transloading here too. This is a compact switching arrangement and very modelgenic. Photos of Rhett's trip to Helena can be found HERE. AM probably has the coolest paint scheme currently running the rails!

With thanks to Dale on the Atlas forum. Anaheim is really loaded with sites. The neat little complex in the first image is particularly well suited for a layout.

With thanks to Trevor Marshall. For more information on the Modesto and Empire Traction Company check out Trevor's article in the October and November 2007 issues of RMC. In addition the line has its own website.

Thanks to Tim K. who points out that the grain elevator belongs to Con-Agra and that there is scrap yard next to it.

With thanks to David Bromage who writes, "One of the newest parks is McClellan Business Park on the former McClellan Air Force Base near Sacramento. It is served by the Sacramento Valley Railroad using two ex-Rarus GP7's. SAV and Rarus are both owned by Patriot Rail. It connects with UP and BNSF. Here is a promo video."

With thanks to Kris Marquardt. This is an interesting (and unusual) example of a rail served industrial park under construction. Additional details and maps can be found here.

With thanks to Tolga E. This is a nice location. Lots going on in a small space.

This is industrial rail fan heaven. The only challenge is where to start. There is just so much to take in. CSX seems to be fairly rail fan friendly if approached cautiously, FEC less so.

Tom K. writes: "Take a look at the site just south of Sample Road and and I-95. The industrial park is served by the FEC from a spur that runs off the north/south main line to the east. The unusual thing is that the tracks parallel the CSX main just west but don't seem to connect. There is a nice mix of industries in the area. The park appears to have some type of metal facility that takes gons, some warehouses that have box cars spotted at them, and some type of industry that receives covered hoppers. When I scroll along using the birdseye feature I have seen all kinds of cars being spotted and even a shot of a loco. working the area.

Click HERE for Port of Palm Beach Photo. I did some railfanning at the port about five or six years ago. The rail guys are as nice as can be. Unfortunately, port security found me to be less charming and asked me to hit the bricks sooner rather than later. If I were to do it again I'd try to get advance permission from the the port PR department. I will say this, as interesting as the port sounds in writing, it's even better in person. The port would make for a GREAT modeling theme. Unlike other port locations, which are too large to model, the Port of Palm Beach is very small. Better yet, it handles a fairly wide variety of commodities from containers to cement to rum. To the west of the port is a vast industrial park.

With thanks to Joe Brugger who writes: "Blackfoot and Collins are on the UP, along the Railroad's Montana Subdivision that runs from Pocatello, Idaho north to Silver Bow, near Butte. The general pattern of operations is material in support of farming in, and agricultural products out. The areas on the Spot-It pages are switched daily, and twice when needed. The Spot-It pages date to the early 1980's but the majority of the customers are still in business, some now under different names. I last visited about four years ago and they were using either GP38-2 or SD40-2 locomotives. Lots of 57' mechanical reefers, propane cars, anhydrous ammonia, other tank cars and covered hoppers.

Thanks to Ken Ford who writes: There's a fairly new small logistics park that was built near the UP (C&NW)
/ BNSF (BN, CB&Q) crossing; the park is served by a city-owned industrial
that interchanges with both line haul carrier. I believe the current
operator is the Burlington Junction. The BNSF is the diagonal on the left; the interchange with them is on the
north side of the complex (you can see the crossing marks on the pavement
where they snake across. The interchange with the UP is further north (the
little yard just south of 1st Ave). The vast bulk of the traffic is food
products in reefers. They're extending the park to the south, there's a ethanol plant down there
already that is served by the BNSF (I think). I'm not sure if the new
construction that isn't shown on the overhead will be served by the city
railroad or by the BNSF.

Thanks to Joe Mattes who writes: A prime modeling opportunity exists in Fort Wayne, Indiana. NS runs a piece of the old GR&I north from the NS main at a location known as Runnion Interlocking to an industrial park just south of Highway 69. This trackage at one time ran all the way to Grand Rapids, MI but like many industrial leads thru mergers and rationalization has been trimmed back to only a shadow of its former self.

Geno on the Atlas forum writes, "Check out Clark Maritime Center jut outside of Jeffersonville, IN. It's a stand alone operation using a couple of remote control locomotives to serve a large grain to barge transload and several steel industries." Click HERE for link to Port of Indiana and aerial photos.

Thanks to Mark G. for bringing this to our attention and being generous enough to supply maps and photos. He writes: "Looking North to the right is the NECR ex CV mainline to Vermont. First you have Quaboag Transfer which mainly deals with lumber, sheetrock, steel, and pipes. Heading up the line on the bottom right you have a newsprint warehouse. After that heading north and around a curve there is dry ice company that gets tank cars of CO2 and at the end is a plastic pellet transload lot".

Jim L. writes "Check out Mansfield, MA. Specifically, just north of the station on the Northeast Corridor. I think the benefits of this area are these: You have interesting local switching and service to the industries in that industrial area that we call the "Chocolate". You have the small transloading facility in the yard to the west of the tracks where we make up the train to go over to the Chocolate which involves a shoving move through the station so that we can cross over". You also have the opportunity to model catenary, the Acela, and commuter trains.

Barry Karlberg: Home of Progressive Rail, subject of a good article in Model Railroader by Jim Hediger a few years back.

Rhett Graves: "Switched today by the Columbus and Greenville which has an eclectic mix of chop nose GP7's, CF7's, GP38's and GP11's. Now part of the Genessee and Wyoming system. There's Uncle Ben's rice mill, and lPG dealer, a rail-barge transloading facility, a Cooper Tools plant, and a neat small industry that can only receive1-2 boxcars max all within two miles of each others.

Ed Vasser writes: "Don't overlook St. Louis, industrial spurs all over the place! The attached map shows one area of interest - following I-70 and the NS line from just north of the arch out to Earth City. There are numerous industrial parks/rail spurs branching off this line."

Thanks to Stephen S. who writes: Here is a rail served industrial park for your list on the your website. The Tulsa Port of Catoosa is a 2000 acre rail and water served industrial park located just east of Tulsa, OK and is one of the largest and most inland water ports in the U.S.

Here is info from Trains magazine: "Five major terminals handle commodities such as petroleum, chemicals, molasses, fertilizer, steel, grain, and containers. Currently, 50 businesses lease space on the port's 2,000 acres. The port has its own railroad, with two switch engines serving customers on 13 miles of railroad track. BNSF and South Kansas & Oklahoma serve the port directly, providing outside rail connections"

Link: http://trn.trains.com/en/sitecore/content/Home/Railroad%20Reference/Hot%20Spots/2006/07/Tulsa%20Okla.aspx

The port website has a good deal of information on it: http://tulsaport.com/

Here is a pdf from the website showing the location of industries and trackage:

http://tulsaport.com/PDFs/IndustryMap.pdf

Thanks to Brian Sullivan who nominates the Quonset Business Park in North Kingston, Rhode Island. Brian writes, I think I would want to nominate the enter Seaview railroad because it serves at least two parks in the area. Among Google Map coordinates you can plug in to get an idea of the lay of the land is 50 Belver Ave., North Kingston, Rhode Island. And another is Compass Circle, North Kingston, Rhode Island. If you move around the Compass Circle location you can explore Seaview's yard, as well as its interchange with the Providence and Worcester, which runs along the Northeast Corridor.

Thanks to Mike W. who writes: Attached is a map of the Providence and Worcester RR's East Providence Secondary branch, which runs from Valley Falls, RI, through South Attleboro, MA, Pawtucket and East Providence,RI, then back up into Seekonk, MA, before returning. P&W train PR-2 serves this line M-F every week. Up until about 5 years ago, this was actually 2 separate branches, although still worked by PR-2. When looking at Bing or Google Maps, you can follow the old roadbed down to the former junction between the two lines, right near I-195. In about 2007, a new connector was installed that eliminated the old junction, and 3 or 4 dying industries. I have actually railfanned this branch twice recently, and it has a great sense of classic New England mills, scenery, and a very interesting 2 mile stretch of parallel street trackage along the George Bennett Highway. There are 4 active industries (to my knowledge) off of the street trackage area, many which involve multiple grade crossings in order to be switched out. There are several other industries along the rest of the branch, and many along the recently removed trackage which could be included if one wished to model a few years ago. Industries include a plastics plant, several printers and paper product companies, a plywood warehouse, recycling center, bakery, and a scrapyard which brackets I-95 along the MA/RI border.

From most of the pictures and information I've seen, PR-2 usually works the branch push-pull style, with either a pair of GP38s, or sometimes one of the P&W's GE's will be around as well. On one of the days I was there, they only had one loco, a GE B40-8 (#4002), and they switched all the industries trailing-point style. I have included a link below to youtube videos I have uploaded of the train that day working one of the industries, Key Container.

I thought it was very interesting to note the use of a 3 man crew, flagging the multiple crossings, and of course, unlocking and locking the gate to the unloading track. (Also note the severe impatience of many of the drivers waiting for the train to cross the tracks). I thought that it was extremely enlightening to see them take over 8 minutes (without editing) to only pull 4 cars from a spur, considering all the other actions they had to perform in order to pull the cars.

Thanks to Rhett Graves for providing information on this location. An excellent write up on President's Island can be found HERE. Brett writes, "The original track layouts (relatively unchanged) can be found HERE. Zone 1 is president's island. One of the neatest industries on President's Island is the Mid-South Terminal Company. It's a barge/rail transloading facility with some pretty neat trestle work for an industry. They used a SW-1 to switch within the facility up until a few years ago.

Thanks to Rhett Graves who writes: Kansas St./Kentucky St. - Kansas St. used to be a Frisco area while Kentucky St. was the domain of the Missouri Pacific. Today it could be switched by successors BNSF or UP, or this area could be part of the President's Island agreement with CN...more research is needed here. Regardless of who switches it, there's plenty going on: Google Maps revealed Hershey's of Memphis (nothing like a chocolate factory!), Keystone Laboratories, Recycle Solutions, and Applied Industrial Tech as customers with rail service. The tracks run down the middle of the street, so there's street running and potential for unloading trucks right in the middle of the street. There's even a couple of rail crossings at grade and interchange tracks (assuming someone other than CN switches this area). If you use Google Maps, type in "1073 Kansas St., Memphis, TN", and hit the Street View, you'll find yourself at the CN-UP junction. Keystone Laboratories is immediately to the southwest, Hershey's is to the north on the west side of the street, and Recycle Solutions is immediately to the east. Kentucky St. is one street to the east and one of the tracks that runs through Recycle Solutions gets access to Kentucky St. and Applied Industrial Tech. In fact, the old Recycle Solutions used to be the St. Louis and Iron Mountain (pre-MoPac) engine terminal. While the old Frisco tracks continue south from this point, they don't appear to serve anything. A highly modelgenic area, especially for someone who wants to do a bit of custom trackwork. Here's a few links for this one:

http://condrenrails.com/MRP/maps/Frisco-Kansas-Tracks.htm
http://condrenrails.com/MRP/maps/Union%20RY%20map,%201930%27s.jpg

Old City Yard lead - Switched by NS, this old yard lead serves the Commercial Appeal (newspaper), Lasco Fire Protection, Sonoco Recycling and Memphis Recycling Services. This line crosses the infamous Beale St. and is close enough to Sun Studios (where Elvis got his start) that a little fudging on the location could be made for a layout. Not a whole lot going on...a perfect prototype for a small layout. Using Google Maps, type in "495 Union Ave., Memphis, TN" and follow the line from the Commercial Appeal building southeast to KC junction. Bing's bird's eye view even shows an NS GP60 switching the line. Moving it back to the mid-1960s, you'd gain the Southern Ry.'s City Yard and some passenger operations at a make-shift stub-ended terminal. Sounds like fun to me!! Here's a few links:

http://condrenrails.com/MRP/maps/Memphis-map0002.jpg
http://condrenrails.com/MRP/Memphis-Freight-Houses/Memphis-Southern-Freight-House.htm

Thanks to Ralph Parker who points out the intermodal/auto rack facility as well.

Seattle ranks up there with Miami and Orlando as far as shear volume of industrial switching sites and charm. Great location for rail marine interface and some street running. I'm surprised more don't model it.

Thanks to Mike Pebesma who writes: Brampton offers a number of industrial spurs running from the north and south side of Canadian National's Halton Subdivision in Brampton, Bramalea and Malton. There are a number of tracks serving factories, warehouses, chemical companies, a glass plant and a shingle manufacturer. Although a number of industries have pulled up rail or see infrequent service, there are still a fair number remaining to keep a railfan busy and in the past couple of years some new sidings have been installed. The CN Halton sub off of which these spurs run is also a busy mainline from Toronto to Windsor/Detroit and Sarnia/Port Huron MI, and on to Chicago. The line also sees several Via passenger trains daily and GO Transit commuter trains during morning and evening rush hours.

With thanks to Mathieu Tremblay: "...CN's Saint-Jude spur in Saint-Hyacinthe, about 40 miles east of Montréal on the south shore of the St. Lawrence river. This spur was originally a part of a line between the US border at Noyan, QC, and a point near Sorel, Qc, on the south shore of the St. Lawrence, which was build at the beginning of the 20th century by a company called the Québec, Montréal and Southern. This company was subsequently absorbed into the Delaware & Hudson system. It was to be a part of a proposed line to Québec City that never materialized (mainly because there were already two lines between Montréal and Québec City at the time, the GTR and the Intercolonial). It was sold to the CNR in the 1930's and most of it was soon ripped apart, for lack of traffic. Was is left today is a 1.8 mile-long spur that crosses the TransCanada highway (highway 20) at grade. Yes. That is a 60 mph limit highway with 2 lanes in each direction. The trains cross it very carefully, as you can no doubt guess. There are stop signs for the trains on either side of the Xing. I think this would be very interesting to model.

On the north side of highway 20 are two feed mills (Saint-Hyacinthe is a very active agricultural town) that receive cars every weekday.

On the south side are a transport company with two spurs : one to a warehouse, the other to a lumber transload yard. There is a warehouse of some sort with 4 different spots (I know you love these a lot!). And there is a food-product distributor that has a spur leading inside their warehouse.

These industries are switched by CN train 517 based in Saint-Hyacinthe yard, a small but pretty active yard that is located where CN's Drummondville and Sherbrooke subdivisions join into a double-track main line that stays double-tracked all the way to Montréal. CN 517 also switches the feed mills at Sainte-Rosalie, the next town going eastward."

Show respect for personal property and avoid situations where the employees of a particular business are uncomfortable with your presence. When in doubt as to whether you can be in a specific spot, ask. If security asks you to leave, do so without arguing. If somebody asks what you are doing, tell them. In many cases just putting the person at ease has resulted in them providing me with valuable railfanning or site information. Regardless of how weedy the rails may look, employ the old adage of 'stop, look, and listen' before crossing the rails. Walk beside the rails, not down the middle of the tracks. Be aware of vehicular traffic. Many industrial parks are safe and you can have a relaxing, enjoyable day free from worry of being a crime victim. Tattered structures and graffiti don't necessarily correlate with a dangerous location, particularly in a business district. Nonetheless, be aware of your surroundings and who else is in the general vicinity. As a general rule, the safest time is during the work week during business hours where you will blend in with the hustle and bustle of normal business activity. Before you venture out, let somebody else know where you are going and roughly when you will be back.

Plan your trips so as to make the best use of your time. Print out maps of the site and do a 'virtual' flyover of the area so you know what you are looking for and don't waste time. Make a list of specific photos you want before the trip and mark the locations on a map. Try to make contact with local railfans or friendly railroaders to determine when you are most likely to find a train. Take LOTS of photos. When in doubt, take the picture! With digital photography there is no cost to taking as many images as you want. When you get home, immediately back up your files before you do anything else.

Be proactive! Get off the couch, turn off the computer and visit some of these sites. They may not be there forever. If you avoid an overnight stay, the cost of a long day trip can be very reasonable. Get a good night of rest, catch a 6am flight, railfan all day, and then head home at sunset. The cost will be comparable to that of a single model locomotive.