Empire Valley Railroad lineside industries
What is a railroad without customers? The Empire Valley has a good customer base that has rail traffic ranging from single carloads to entire unit trains. Here's a look at some of those industries, both existing and those under construction.
AutomotiveCurrently Dan is building an Auto Plant near Kingston. It'll be a place for auto racks and those big auto parts boxcars
LPG (Liqufied Petrolem Gas)
At Clifton there is a small LPG (and other bottled gas) distributor. Traffic is composed of tank cars and box cars carring gas cylinders.
Iron and Steel
Liscartan Iron and Steel is so big it has it's own railroad to aid in moving the raw and finished materials in the mill and across the Empire Valley System.
Iron bearing ores, limestone, coke and scrap are brought to the mill at Paterson in unit trains. Finished steel coil, export ingots and slabs are shipped out to other industries.
Iron is produced at the blast furnace. The iron is combined with scrap at the Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) to make steel. Steel ingots cast here are made into slabs and coil.
Here are some new resin casting for some of the vessels needed to handle molten iron and steel.
Valley Steel in Highland fabricates finished steel products for the customer
Energy - Power Plant
The power plant at Newburgh receives unit trains of coal from all coal regions around the U.S. The model power plant is one part of a "loads-in, empties-out" operation on the layout. As the train passes through the power plant and backdrop it re-appears at a coal mine on the other side of the layout. This give an illusion when a train is being pushed through from the coal mine side that the freight cars are being emptied (or loaded)
Looking into the power plant spur:
Loaded coal cars waiting for dumping:
Aggregates (Stone)
At Big Indian, NY is one of two online quarries. Here stone for railroad ballast is loaded into trains for shipment. Recently a new stone loader was built.
At Harriman, NY there is a fuel distributor. Coal is still king here, but other fuels can be found as well.
At Highland Landing, NY there is a coal mine and preparation plant. This coal mine produces metalurgical coal of a high standard that is in great demand for export and regional use. This coal mine is located opposite of the power plant and is part of te "loads-in, empties-out" operation.
Cement
At Ravena, NY the Graham-Stemler Cement plant ships cement and receives raw materials by train.
Paper
Gramaton Paper in Highland, NY makes high value coated paper.
Lumber
At Harriman there is a lumber yard that is served by rail.
Machinery
Action Tool in Harriman, NY manufactures specialized small tools.
Pipe
Flow-Thru pipes in New Paltz, NY makes and ships welded pipe.
Petrochemicals
At New Paltz, NY there sits the Exxon-Mobil Mid-Hudson Distribution center. It is currently being re-configured. (This is a photo of the old configuration at Highland)
Food and Beverage
At Highland, NY Roots Beer makes their famous carbonated line of beverages.
The Empire Valley still operates several freight houses. At one time L.c.L. freight (less then carload) made up a large part of a railroads revenue. Increased competition by trucks greatly cut into this traffic. On the EV these freight houses were converted into regional distribution centers (RDC's) and they continue to provide revenue to the EV and allow business without rail sidings access to the railroad.
Clifton, NJ RDC:
Harriman, NY RDC:
Work is done around-the-clock
