LTL

Railroads don't do LTL (actually LCL) any more.  Its all handled by 3rd party companies, they deal with actual shipper and all the railroad does is haul a trailer or container for the 3rd party.  The railroad doesn't necessarily know who or how many shipments are in the trailer/container.

The easy solution is to model an earlier time frame, 1950's or before.  All sorts of switching opportunities that are long gone will be available.

Transload facilities

the website bulktransporter.com has a directory of trans load sites for each state, Mexico and Canada. I know you are looking for small non specific commodities to load but if you click on the directory there is a legend telling you what they service and type of equipment they have available.

my transload is a single track that can hold 3 center beam lumber cars. I unload lumber, there are 2 large propane tanks to off load propane and I have a small pit to dump into. I have seen on a FB site a truck fitted out to load diesel into a tank car direct from tanker trailers. It just comes on site when needed. This was at the Lakeview industrial Park in Minnesota.

I think if you had just a 6” x 12” spot you can create your own small transload. You don’t need large sized buildings, in most places I have seen just a guard shack is enough.

I know this doesn’t direct answer your request but a lot of transload sites are just spaces for a rail car, a truck and not much in permanent equipment. Good luck in your search.

TomO

I can not think of any

I can not think of any transload facilities in the way you are describing, but I know of a couple locally that serve the tanker/covered hopper industry.

The first is RSI Logistics https://www.google.com/maps/place/RSI+Logistics/@33.9182532,-84.235109,602m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m12!1m6!3m5!1s0x88f5a725720a32ed:0x534df891631c33fc!2sRSI+Logistics!8m2!3d33.9183959!4d-84.2343396!3m4!1s0x88f5a725720a32ed:0x534df891631c33fc!8m2!3d33.9183959!4d-84.2343396?hl=en

The other that I can come up with is

https://www.google.com/maps/place/34%C2%B044'16.4%22N+84%C2%B057'51.5%22W/@34.737886,-84.9654507,394m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m14!1m7!3m6!1s0x886074d69cf28e8f:0x258977929542b750!2sDalton,+GA!3b1!8m2!3d34.7698021!4d-84.9702228!3m5!1s0x0:0x0!7e2!8m2!3d34.7378863!4d-84.9643098?hl=en

LTL/LCL

Dave, true: the railroad doesn't care what's in the box, only that it's properly loaded and there's a check in the mail!  I'm more or less concerned with the feasibility of having such a facility on my layout as this facility would be a 3rd party handling local truck freight and assembling it, presumably, into a full railcar load.

I also planned to have a bulk transfer site within the yard itself as well as an area to load/unload containers, the latter borrowing directly from the prototype that operates in the area I'm modeling who experimented with the idea some years back: a few 3- and 5-car spines appeared in the yard one day (EIMSKIP out of Portland, ME) and were offloaded by a vehicular lift (not sure of its actual name).  Around this same timeframe, the railroad also did trials similarly to what I am proposing but it appeared to only be offload freight, only.  Never caught what was on those pallets but it was an interesting operation to see, to say the least!

Thanks for the sites and map views - these will help me get a better picture of what types of loads are coming in.

John

CSX Transflo

The CSX Has a small Transflow south west of Phila on RT 95. It would be an Ingulnuk in design and onliy holds 

35 cars.  CSX web sight for transfol lists all there areas system wide with pictures and products.

                                                                                           Doug

Bulk Transfer

Neil,

Those aerials are pretty typical of what I've been seeing: a paved yard with wide aisle space between tracks for trucks to pull in.  I'm curious about the gravel cars in the second photo and wonder if that's a ballast train being stored temporarily or if that's slated part of the transload operation.

Doug, I started looking into the TRANSFLO site and noted that there's one right here in CT at one of my favorite railfanning locations in North Haven.  I believe I know exactly where this is within the yard so I guess I have a site visit in my future!

Attached are some simple,

Attached are some simple, modern trans load "facilities". They are not elaborate in most cases as they are designed to capture new business to a point where the customer then buys a site, a swtch/track is installed and  the railroad has a new customer.

Barry

Johnny, not sure I see any

Johnny, not sure I see any gravel cars, but in that area, Dalton GA you have both NS and CSX transload. On the map the west side is NS and East is CSX. the whole town is split down the middle with the two railroads ending at he north end of town with a diamond and a small station. (now just a tourist point and train watching location). If you see gravel cars in this second image they are either MOW or stored, I never worked any gravel cars on the Dalton job while working for NS.

Small yet diverse...

That's exactly what I'm looking for!  Small, flexible operations designed to extend service beyond rails.  I'm very curious about that tiny shack that looks like it has some storage capacity but really seems like you but a boxcar on one side and a truck on the other then just move goods between them.

John

I think that is exactly what

I think that is exactly what it is. Probably a rented space, great industry for the "there's a prototype for it somewhere"

Here’s a few more I have used

Here’s a few more I have used as inspiration including flatcar ramps and basic boxcar ramps.  As stated nothing fancy at many of these!  With portable/mobile equipment you could justify many car types in any gravel lot “facility” with a track 

http://northshorerailroad.com/TeamTracks.html

jeff

LTL

There in lies the problem and why the rail freight consolidators dried up for the most part, replaced by trucking companies. 

Ok, you get 1600,  50 lb LTL loads and bundle them into one boxcar.  The loads go to 50 different places.  Where are you going to send the boxcar?  Once you get the boxcar there, you need a facility to get the stuff out of the car and then deliver it to the various individual shipment consignees.  Back in the day when the railroads handled LCL, they had the infrastructure to do that.  Not so much today.  

At some point somebody figured out that load stuff into a truck, hauling it to the railroad, unloading the truck, loading a boxcar, shipping the boxcar, unloading the boxcar, loading a truck, and then delivering the truck to the final destination was more cumbersome than loading stuff into a truck and taking the truck to the destination (by road or rail).  It was easier to send 20 trucks with 2 tons than one boxcar with 40 tons.

Johnny, that box/reefer

Johnny, that box/reefer transload structure is located on the Effingham Terminal Railroad in Effingham, IL.

The building has just enough room to operate a fork lift to and from a rail car to a truck.

I have used "trans load facilities" on several short line I have worked for and they are all simple and quick...nothing fancy and often just a level spot to unload a car with truck access.

Here's a couple more from my time on the Wisconsin Northern years ago. We were handling steel scrap from a local scrap yard, off rail.

Barry

Intermodal

Most shortline intermodal ramps serve a very specific, high volume service and can connect with some existing intermodal network.  That's why there are so few of them.  Very few can generate the volumes needed.

Barry, would love to pick

Barry, would love to pick your brain over your shortline days - it's all that local action over cruddy track that gets me going.

True, Dave and I suspect that's exactly what happened with Pan Am's attempt in my town (Plainville).  Tried it for a few weeks then realized it was likely more trouble than it's worth.  Still, the opportunity to bring in a banged-up old spine car with a handful of mixed 20' and 40' boxes is good enough reason for me to go that route

Great Stuff Here

Im freelancing the San Luis and Rio Grande set in the modern day but that still uses team track concept, but also takes intermodal -- its a way of generating traffic on the layout. The pics in this thread are wonderful and have given me some great ideas

TIM

SLRG

intermodal yards are not team tracks

How about this? The Depew, Lancaster & Western in Batavia NY

This might be what you're looking for. Below are a couple of websites that may have the information you need. If not you can use it as a starting point for addidtional research.

http://www.gvtrail.com/depew-lancaster--western.html

http://www.railfanguides.us/ny/batavia/index.htm

The DL&W operates on former NYC tracks in downtown Batavia NY on their property is a transloading warehouse that serves a few local businesses.

Twin Cities and Western

The Twin Cities and Western has pages for their transload sites, for most of the sites if you click on the aerial view it will take you to google maps.  The Montevideo site in particular looks to have an elevator for grain loading, a conveyor for grain unloading, a ramp, and container crane, in addition to all the stuff that can be done with portable equipment.

Transloading Facility

everett railroad.com under the link freight service shows a couple examples of a transloading facility. Both examples are very simple operations. Barry shows one of their sites in the first photo. Just in front of the bulkhead flat car there is a concrete loading dock. There is a small engine house just to the left when looking at the picture. Thier other transloading site located in the yard has very simple gates at the entrance and a conveyer for loading trucks. Both are gravel lots. Hope this helps.

Canton Railroad

Drone Views of Canton Railroad's Boston Street Bulk Terminal

Last year I had the opportunity to take some photographs with my drone of the Canton Railroad's Boston Street Bulk Terminal in Baltimore, MD.  I agree that it's a great prototype to model.

Transload facilities

Here's a very simple example

Here's a very simple example from the Huntsville and Madison County Railroad in Huntsville, AL. There's a small yard at the north end of the line near the connection to NS. It's very compact. The track next to the road appears to be used for transloading some type of commodity (maybe plastic pellets?) as there are often trucks pulled up next to the covered hoppers on that track.

Could make for an interesting small layout all by itself, especially if you instituted operating rules about how long road crossings could be blocked.