the MRH Forum

Industries for Northern Maine--seeking ideas... Dream and design
Reply
Prolific poster 1,660 posts IrishRover Prolific poster 1,660 posts
IrishRover

I have started serious planning for my North Central Railroad, running in Northern Maine in the 1920’s.

I am looking for a few industries for 1920’s northern Maine, not right on the coast.  I have limited space, so I want only a couple of them.  At one (or more) of them, some raw materials arrive on the North Central, a 2 foot gauge line.  I h0pe to have a variety of different cars in use.  Hoppers, of course, are easy to justify; some factories use coal in abundance.

I was contemplating a furniture factory as one of them; I’m not sure what else would take a variety of cars.  I may model an extension to the factory going up—that would mean that frequent flat-=car loads of machines are needed, loads of brick and slate, and more.

I want to run tank cars, flats, gondolas, and of course the common, but boring, box cars.  Reefers are not a requirement, though some might get unloaded at the team track.

There is a town close by, so a team track, of course, is to be expected, and a freight station.  There will also be a passenger station in town that serves both narrow and standard gauge.  This being the 1920’s there might also be a streetcar line that passes by—quite possibly will be.  If so, the team track and freight station will be under the wire, as Maine had traction freight.

I currently have no operation experience, but want to be sure the industries are something that can become more challenging as time goes on.  What else might be a good one for running a variety of cars?

There will be some parts of the scenery that are out of convenient reach for operation, but fine for scenery, so at least one of them can be modeled in some depth.  There will also be a town in the “dead area” that can not be easily reached for switching.

There will be some hills—this IS Maine…allowing some track to be will hidden.

This is rough—more thoughts will be following…
Reply 0
Bernd MRH Author 5,625 posts
Bernd

Potato Warehouse

The Bangor & Maine used to run potato trains out of the Aroostook Valley. Pulp wood comes to mind also. Plywood factory. Did they have plywood in the '20s already?

Also found this.

"Maine's main industries center around timber: paper, lumber, and other wood products top their output. (Maine is the #1 exporter of toothpicks!)
Maine also produces many leather goods, textiles, electronics, and remains a bastion of shipbuilding.
Aside from industrial output, agriculture is an important part of Maine's output; eggs, dairy products, blueberries, maple syrup and maple sugar lead the list of Maine's farm products. Maine produces 25% of all blueberries in the North American continent."

I'm sure that info is more for modern products, especially electronics. So perhaps a cold warehouse for those refer cars. Now a toothpick factory would be an interesting thing to model.

Ship building=heavy machinery going in or passing through on flat cars. A prop on a flat car comes to mind.

Mmmm that leaves gondolas and tank cars. Ship yard would need lube oil or other petroleum products perhaps. Gas for gas stations. Gondolas could carry ship parts.

Just some things off the top of my head for now.

Bernd

New York, Vermont & Northern Rwy. - Route of the Black Diamonds - NCSWIC
Reply 0
Bernd MRH Author 5,625 posts
Bernd

More info

Out of curiosity I did a Google search to see what's out there and came up with a site that might just answer your questions. It's 6 pages of Maine info from 1870 to 1920. I think it's worth a read. I know I learned some thing about Maine. Have fun.

Bernd

Oh ya the link - http://www.mainememory.net/sitebuilder/site/905/page/1316/display?page=1

New York, Vermont & Northern Rwy. - Route of the Black Diamonds - NCSWIC
Reply 0
Logger01 Prolific poster 1,786 posts
Logger01

Tannery

Many lumbering operations thought of tree bark as a nuisance but others considered it a profitable byproduct used for the production of tannin for the tanning of leather. Maine had and still does have tanneries scattered around the state. Operationally tan bark was often stripped in the field and loaded into gondolas or staked flats for transportation directly to the tannery or to a separation facility.

I tried to find a reference to a Northern Maine tannery which was operational in the 1920's with no avail. So instead I turn again to one of my favorite logging lines the Little River Railroad which in the same time period logged (savaged) most of what is now the South West section of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The tannery can be seen in the left of the image below from the Little River Railroad Museum collection. In the bottom center of the image is the covered railroad bridge which connected the tannery spur to the junction of the Little River mainline (running up the right side of the river) and the Southern track from Maryville and Knoxville (running off the bottom right of the picture). Between the tracks at the Y junction is the Terminal, and above slightly to the terminal is the West end turntable. A lot of scenery and operation crammed into a small area.

Additional Tannery images.

Ken K

gSkidder.GIF 
Reply 0
Reply