No room for grain silos or oil refinery?

That is a great idea! Thanks for sharing

Great find.

Ed Reutling once told me there's a prototype for just about everything. After perusing Google Maps (http://maps.google.com) and Historic Aerials (http://www.historicaerials.com), I've found he's right.

There's a little railroad in Sulpher Springs, Texas that pumps out covered hoppers into bulk truck trailers with portable pumps. Wish I had my camera to snap a few shots when I saw it last summer. To the best of my knowledge, this was going on on their mainline; no siding required. Here's a link to their (Blacklands RR) webpage describing some of the transloading they do or have done:

http://74.53.186.71

On an aside, I discovered this railroad while trying to take my wife's grandmother to church. I saw a few old Geeps and a steam engine parked near on old railroad station. I wrongfully assumed it was a museum. I was greeted by a railroad employee who explained the steam engine was a customer's on the way to a scrap yard and that this was not a museum.

J White

I've been searching for even smaller ways to model an industry.

Here's a few things I found:

A Conveyor Belt for moving bulk loads:

Here's a Screw Conveyor:

Loading Pulpwood:

Fuel:

Or maybe Water:

I expect most of us just don't have the room for a large complex.  Personally, I don't care much for using "flats", but if it's something that you HAVE to have and there's no other way then it is what it is.

I don't have room for even a decent sized engine servicing facility so I'm thinking of using a tankcar for fuel, another for water, a covered hopper for sand, and an open hopper for coal, just need a single track to store them on.

If someone makes Hiel or Butler Bulk Truck trailers and hoses, I would certainly consider them. I would put them to work.

Wartime era milk tanker trucks would also be welcome.

There was a Stone facility that took hopper cars of gravel to baseball stone sizes and there were a pile across the several acre property. I would haul some 12,000 pounds on a old 50's dodge flat out of there.

Here is another idea. If you operate a coal fired industry, dont forget to install chutes to load fly ash into the gondola. There was a public track that would take a center beam flat with a forklift and flatbed trailer to shuttle to local lumber yard.

It does not take much room to make things happen.