Support Buildings for Large Industries

By Richard K. Daniels

Any large industry, especially an older industry, is made up of multiple buildings serving various purposes. Most industries have common support requirements that can be modeled. The list can get quite long! Jim Brewer's 3,300-square-foot, HO, Norfolk and Western Railroad, Shenandoah Division, includes a scratch built model of the American Viscose Rayon Fiber plant that was located in Front Royal, Virginia. Following are descriptions of some of the support buildings found at the rayon plant along with structures that are common in other industries.

Security Sites
Is there a fence around the property? Are there gates? Then, small guard houses are typically located at these gates. There is usually a security office located at the main entrance. Make sure your little security guards (miniature policemen) are visible at these locations.

Machine Shops
Machines break down; parts wear out. A machine shop is normally part of an industrial complex and it usually rates its own building. This building probably has large windows providing as much light as possible for precise work. Here is the place to put your model drill presses, milling machines, and work benches.

Pipe Shops
Common to most industries are networks of water and air pipes throughout the complex, not to mention any other pipes carrying liquids required in the manufacturing process. A pipe shop installs and maintains these pipes. A pipe shop may have its own building or be combined with other maintenance facilities. Lengths of pipe of all sizes are stored both inside and outside the pipe shop.

Paint Shops
Painting is part of the maintenance of an industrial complex. A paint shop is usually in its own building, apart from other buildings. Fire safety dictates that paint and solvents be stored and used away from the manufacturing process. Many times, small metal sheds or cabinets on legs are located as far as possible from all other buildings and used to store paint and solvents. They are brightly painted, with large warning labels, and are easily modeled.

Electric Shop
Electric motors, switch panels, and processing monitors require electricians and a place for them to work. Again, an electric shop may be combined with other maintenance or have its own building. Spare motors, spools of wire, and electric conduit may be included to indicate the purpose of this building.

Carpentry Shop
It is common for industrial products to be shipped in wooden crates and boxes. Damaged products can quickly cut into a company's profit margin, so care is taken that products are protected from the hazards of transportation. The carpentry shop makes these containers to order to fit the dimensions of the manufactured products. Here, shipments of lumber, nails, and packing are received via rail car or truck and may be stored either inside or outside until needed. A carpentry shop is usually located near or in the industry's shipping department.

Power Plants and Generator Buildings
Does the industry have a large electric requirement? If so, there may be a power plant on site. Some industrial power plants can compete in size with those of a good-sized town. Steam drives electric generators in the generator building, which may be part of or attached to the power plant. Also, many industries require steam, either as part of the process or to drive machinery used in the manufacturing process. A power plant may use coal, oil, or gas in its boilers to generate steam.

Fuel Storage
The storage of these fuels is a very visible part of an industry. Piles of coal and tanks of oil and gas should be located near the power plant along with conveyers for coal or pipes for the other fuels. The rayon plant had five coal-fired furnaces and one oil-fired furnace to provide steam for its electric generators and for manufacturing. It its heyday, the power plant burned up to 1,000 tons of coal a day, shipped in on the N&W. Fuel oil was received in tank cars for the oil-fired boiler.

Pollution Controls
If coal is used, pollution control has been a concern for many years. Ash, as a byproduct, is collected in a bag house, a small, separate building connected to the power plant. This building is made of metal or other non-flammable material. More modern industries have very specialized pollution control equipment that may change the character of the power plant over the years. Huge ash piles along with other waste materials were located across the N&W mainline tracks from the rayon plant.

Vehicle Maintenance Shops
Industrial businesses rely on many types of vehicles, ranging from small electric carts and forklifts to bulldozers and huge trucks. A place for light and heavy repairs is usually necessary unless off-site facilities are available. These facilities may range from a small garage to a building large enough to repair and store an industrial switch engine. Fuel facilities are also necessary for all the vehicles, necessitating fuel pumps and storage tanks. The rayon plant, at various times, had a fireless cooker, a General Electric 44 tonner and a GE 60 tonner. On occasion, the plant leased an N&W diesel.

Water Storage
Water is used in most industrial processes. Industries utilize ponds, streams, rivers, lakes and wells for most of their water needs. Large tanks are used to store this water in case of a reduction of supply. Water is also stored, in case of fire, in a tall tank mounted well above the rest of the industrial facility.

Wastewater may be contaminated from the industrial process. This water is usually processed on-site to remove the contamination and the water is reused. Ponds or open square or round concrete tanks with sprays or mixers are used in the decontamination process. A small building containing pumps and other equipment, along with the associated piping, would be adjacent to the open tanks or ponds.

Safety Stations
Any industrial business is concerned with the safety and health of its employees. A first aid station or office is usually somewhere in the complex; its location well marked both inside the buildings and outside. Sometimes it is part of security or an on-site fire station. Very large industrial sites may have a separate building. An on-site fire station may have minimal equipment or several fire trucks with either a volunteer staff of employees or paid professional firefighters.

Receiving Areas
More related to the manufacturing process is the area for receiving. This building may be part of the main manufacturing structure, but much of the time, it is separate. Large doors and docking areas facilitate the movement of material, along with rail and truck facilities. The building may contain offices and handling facilities to receive raw materials and the other manufacturing necessities, from machinery to toilet paper. Here, incoming items are sorted and sent to the departments that ordered the items or to storage.

Warehouses
A warehouse is used to store raw materials and received items until needed. External holding areas and tanks are part of the warehouse function. The warehouse is usually part of or adjacent to receiving. The American Viscose Rayon Fiber plant used separate buildings for receiving and warehouse storage. Usually, a separate warehouse is used for manufactured products and goods produced by the industry. Again, it may include outside storage areas or tanks. Warehouses are usually quite large and simply constructed with minimal rooftop machinery, piping and stacks.

Shipping Areas
A final support building houses the shipping department. Here, the manufactured product is collected from the production line or from the storage warehouse, packaged, labeled, and sent to the customer, either by rail or truck. As noted earlier, packaging may include large wooden crates manufactured by the carpentry shop. Shipping is a busy place with forklifts carrying outgoing shipments on the rail and truck docks. The rayon plant used two attached buildings for shipping, one for truck and the other for rail shipments.

In Conclusion
With a little effort, your major model industry can be made more realistic by added recognizable structures that complement the functions that go on in most large industrial complexes. Most of these building are small and would fit into an otherwise empty area.

Richard Daniels
Columbia, Maryland
rdaniels2@compuserve.com