Steel Fabrication Plant at Rheem
Wednesday, June 11, 2008 at 1:19AM The BNSF Stockton Sub line runs along side Giant Hwy in Richmond. The first siding east of Richmond CA is found here and is named Rheem. Trains will occasionally get track warrants as far west as Rheem and be held a mile shy of Richmond due to other movements in the yard so it is not uncommon to catch two trains here or even three if there is a light engine move in the mix.
I am interested in modeling the steel fabrication plant located about halfway along the siding. This post is in part to remind me that the plant receives both boxcars and coil steel cars. There is a sliding door on each side of the building that allows the cars to be moved through the plant for loading or unloading. The building itself is about 120 feet long (just under 10 inches for an N scale version). That means about two and a half cars fit inside the building.
On this particular day, there were five BNSF cars waiting for collection by the BNSF local. Space between the building and the cyclone wire security gate is limited and two cars were tied up outside the fence. The plant typically receives newer boxcars and a variety of coil steel cars.
I like the way the spur drops sharply down beside the siding. The main is the track on the right.
What’s on the other side of the building?
The google maps view below shows the spur branching to the left of the main line, passing through the building and making a very sharp left hand turn to a small yard parallel with the main building. I have recently seen several box cars extending around the sharp curve on the weekend when the plant is not operating and the large railroad doors are closed. I doubt that locomotives are allowed into the building so there may be a tractor to move cars around the trackage at the back. (The map below is interactive. You can zoom in further and drag the map around to look at the details. You can also switch to a map view or open a larger google map.)
A model of the plant would be easy to construct and the pass through track is appealing. I plan to locate a plant based on this prototype on my Richmond Belt Line. Here’s the plan view of the RBL section where the plant will be located. The model would be part of the fictitious but plausible Henseley Industrial Park. The prototype steel plant is located about a mile north of the area that is the basis for the industrial park, so it’s not a huge stretch to put the steel plant on the RBL instead of the BNSF.
And below is the 3D rendering. The plant is reached via a switching lead unlike the prototype which relies on BNSF access from their siding. No matter though. What I want to capture is the spur and pass through track.
I have limited space for the yard tracks on the other side of the plant so they’ll go un-modeled. It will add enough interest though, to switch cars located on the far side of the building using a handle of suitable cars such as gons, flatcars or box cars.
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Cool Design...
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