Introduction Hi, welcome to another post in my series "Improving Lineside Industry". I'm going to be looking at various routes in Train Sim World and highlighting what we have, and what we could have, in regard to railways that serve the various industries along them. I find these to be very interesting, and I think maximizing opportunities for players to use them in TSW would greatly enhance our game. I've tried to limit any suggestions to what is just about already within the scope of the route, and might just need some extra modelling of scenery, and perhaps a few new wagons. It must be said that I haven't been a fan of railways for very long, and I'm from Australia, so I'd love for you to add your knowledge about these far-flung routes and correct anything I get wrong. I have speculated at times, as information can be hard to come by. (Some of the screenshots here of the in-game map are rather poor-looking as I couldn't do any better with their resolution when zoomed out. Some areas do not have 3D buildings on Google Maps so only some locations will have those images included.) Route In this post, I'll be looking at Sherman Hill: Cheyenne - Laramie. I believe the route is set in 2021. Here is a map of the route as represented in game, numbered with each location that I will be highlighting. Industries Location 1 Mountain Cement Company has a plant just south of Laramie where they produce portland cement powder. Players can currently shunt three-bay covered hoppers of sand and cement between these sidings and the main exchange yard in Laramie proper. Location 2 Martin Marietta is a building materials supplier and operates Granite Canyon Quarry about halfway between Laramie and Cheyenne. Players can currently take sand from here to Laramie but could also be able to bring empty trains in and conduct loading of sand and aggregates with both three-bay covered- or open-top hoppers. Location 3 Dyno Nobel is in the business of explosives and fertiliser production. They have a plant west of Cheyenne where they make either fuses and explosives or ammonium nitrate (their website has conflicting information). Players can currently bring 30,500-gallon tank cars between here and Cheyenne yard, but using the full extent of the sidings, plus interactive loading or unloading the tank cars there, would be welcome additions. Location 4 There are a number of rail-served industries around Cheyenne freight yard. One directly related to the railways is Nortrak, a subsidiary of voestalpine Railway Systems, which is an international company producing a plethora of specialised railway equipment. The Nortrak site here makes items that include concrete rail ties (sleepers), switch (point) motors, frogs, insulators, as well as custom prefabricated sections of trackwork. Players could bring flatcars of construction trains here to be loaded with ties or the prebuilt switch sections. Location 5 Puma Steel and its subsidiary High Plains Steel have a siding where they receive steel and then fabricate it to their customers' needs. Players could arrive here with flatcars and unload via gantry cranes.
Location 6 The Wyoming Tribune Eagle is a newspaper that has a printing facility attached, just northwest of the Union Pacific Railroad Roundhouse. There is a short siding alongside the site, presumably where paper and ink can be delivered. Players could shunt single 50-foot Plate C boxcars from Cheyenne freight yard for unloading. Location 7 The Capital Lumber Company has a siding into their site on the northeast edge of Cheyenne yard. Players could deliver wood here using 73-foot center-beam flatcars. Location 8 There are a number of tanks beside a single siding just off the mainline west of Cheyenne. I was unable to find out what these are, but I'm pretty sure they are not related to the HollyFrontier site. Location 9 West of Cheyenne, the State of Wyoming Department of Revenue Liquor Division has a siding alongside their warehouse. It appears to be used for the transhipment of alcoholic beverages (for whatever reason!). Players could shunt single 50-foot Plate C boxcars for loading and unloading. Location 10 HollyFrontier (HF Sinclair since the time period in which the route is set) is an energy company producing a variety of products. In August 2020, their plant in Cheyenne stopped refining petroleum oil and began a transition to making renewable diesel from soybeans. This was completed in December 2021 (meaning this site was actually not in operation during the period in which the route is set). Players can currently shunt tank cars to and from Cheyenne yard, but it would be good to be able to use the game's interactive loading function too. Conclusion I hope this was interesting. Please feel free to add to this and let me know what I've got wrong, especially if anyone knows anything about Location 8. Thanks for reading!
Tank cars post lac megantic DOT-117s can also be used to load biodiesel basically we can have a scenario that requires a switcher to bring DOT-117s to HF Sinclair and then bring the loaded biodiesel out of the facility. For those that are not familiar with us & Canada, railroad terms Switcher and Switching jobs are the equivalents to a UK Shunter and Shunting job OBB Austria Verschrub Verschrublok and Rangiert Rangierlok DB/SBB
Yeah, I was kinda just saying that the plant wasn't being used for production at the time (but maybe I have the period wrong, I just based it on the dates that the Scenarios are set on). Upon further research, I noticed that there are now about twelve new sidings in the west of the plant where some tanks have been demolished (you can see on it Google Earth's July 2022 imagery, as well as the cleared area on the June 2021 imagery).
I love that idea of being able to load the tanker cars. Just like you can in Oakville when loading tanks full of ethanol
