An excuse for coil cars

[sirenwerks]

Steel (or aluminum) roofing and siding also seems like a possibility, or a corrugated steel product manufacturer such as a farm bin maker… But any of these get beyond “small to medium” pretty quick.

This idea caught my eye because there is an Armco Avenue in Hillsboro, where I live.  I've located bupkis historical documentation on it, but it's a strong hint that there was a metal building supplier for the many ag businesses and producers in the Valley here.  I think the street name is a leftover though, since the corrugated pipe manufacturer there does not bear the Armco name, or receive anything by rail.

[John]

Great idea, but I am trying to keep away from the sprawling open dirt storage yard sort of industry, I am not going to have that sort of acreage to do it justice.  I am aiming for something that would be contained within a structure(s) and have tall weeds growing around it, and could even be repped as 3D flats of varying depth against the backdrop.  There were industries like Oregon Steel in the Willamette Valley, which was an electric furnace, but I am not looking to be THAT grand.  And by the 70s, aluminum production was on its way out of the NW.

Just put it near the edge of the layout, a couple inches depth of dirt storage yard, and some steel beams or whatever on cribbing .. good to go

[Kentuckian]

Oregon Culvert Company? A building flat with a spur or two and an overhead crane. The occasional tank car for for bitumen coating.

[NtheBasement]

Michigan Seamless Tube in South Lyon comes to mind, but the building is 1/4 mile long.  The rail is now a trail but the factory is still operating.  High res aerial photo from the 40's: https://aadl.org/taxonomy/term/90871

[Wlal13again]

Bristol Pa has a transload facility that handles steel, mostly coil but also structural.  A few tin buildings, flatbeds, overhead crane and a big forklift and you're good. They get coils in coil cars and boxcars and structural on flatcars

[cfritschle]

This idea caught my eye because there is an Armco Avenue in Hillsboro, where I live.  I've located bupkis historical documentation on it, but it's a strong hint that there was a metal building supplier for the many ag businesses and producers in the Valley here.  I think the street name is a leftover though, since the corrugated pipe manufacturer there does not bear the Armco name, or receive anything by rail.

Bryan,

Have you checked the USGS EROS Archive for the Portland area?  https://www.usgs.gov/centers/eros/science/usgs-eros-archive-aerial-photography-aerial-photo-single-frames?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects

While not quite the resolution of Google Maps or Google Earth, by the 1970s they did have some very high resolution color photos.  They are free to download once you create an account.

[sirenwerks]

They get coils in coil cars and boxcars

Coils in box cars? 

[learmoia]

Coils in box cars?

Small/Light ones on a pallet?.. Why not..

Steel Coils could easily fit in a boxcar, but I assume the weight per unit and getting them IN and OUT of the boxcar makes the Coil Car a better freight car for the job.

[milw156]

Small/Light ones on a pallet?.. Why not..

Steel Coils could easily fit in a boxcar, but I assume the weight per unit and getting them IN and OUT of the boxcar makes the Coil Car a better freight car for the job.

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?3,2491850
since the TrainLife link is dead, here is the issue with the article, story begins on page 18  http://magazine.trainlife.com/mrr_1991_4/

[GonzoCRFan]

I don't know how common metal finishing operations are in the PNW, but this place in Pittsburgh was always an interesting prototype.

https://www.steeldynamics.com/The-Techs/Facilities/MetalTech.aspx

Loads in, loads out. The siding in the building only had space for 2 coil cars, so the Allegheny Valley RR used to devote an entire trick to serving the plant. Take 8 cars total, almost 2 hours to empty and re-load the pair, repeat the process 3 more times and call it a night. Easy money for the crew.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/oJL13TXLiNLytXYZA

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I don't know how common metal finishing operations are in the PNW, but this place in Pittsburgh was always an interesting prototype.

https://www.steeldynamics.com/The-Techs/Facilities/MetalTech.aspx

Loads in, loads out. The siding in the building only had space for 2 coil cars, so the Allegheny Valley RR used to devote an entire trick to serving the plant. Take 8 cars total, almost 2 hours to empty and re-load the pair, repeat the process 3 more times and call it a night. Easy money for the crew.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/oJL13TXLiNLytXYZA

That's f'ing metal right there. Damn.

[mu26aeh]

Kloeckner Metals has a facility in York, PA that gets coil cars.  Room for 2-3 inside the facility and 1 or 2 outside (no ability to be unloaded there).  ESPN switches the facility as needed.

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.9790039,-76.6819305,617m/data=!3m1!1e3

This is in @Ed Kapuscinski modeling territory

[wazzou]

ESPN switches the facility as needed.

The Ocho?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Kloeckner Metals has a facility in York, PA that gets coil cars.  Room for 2-3 inside the facility and 1 or 2 outside (no ability to be unloaded there).  ESPN switches the facility as needed.

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.9790039,-76.6819305,617m/data=!3m1!1e3

This is in @Ed Kapuscinski modeling territory

Yep. And that local will be getting cars added to it for it. It'd be located right around where my neighbor's azalea is if you kept going that direction out of Windsor St.

[packers#1]

Kloeckner Metals has a facility in York, PA that gets coil cars.  Room for 2-3 inside the facility and 1 or 2 outside (no ability to be unloaded there).  ESPN switches the facility as needed.

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.9790039,-76.6819305,617m/data=!3m1!1e3

This is in @Ed Kapuscinski modeling territory

I suggested the Greenville SC one up thread too    great minds think alike!