Put Your Model Railroad to Work Hauling Freight

Industry gives your model railroad purpuse

Grain elevators fit into almost any model railroad theme

To maintain a hobbyist’s interest, a model railroad layout must be about more than watching a toy train chasing its tail around an oval of track. Prototype railroads exist for a purpose: to move freight and passengers from one point to another. A model railroad designed to simulate the same purpose will be much more interesting, and more likely to remain an active part of a hobbyist’s leisure time activities. To simulate the movement of freight, a model railroad must have freight producers and freight consumers; in other words: Industry. But how do you decide what industry to model on your layout? Grain elevators can fit in just about any model railroad theme. Anywhere there is a flat patch of land, farmers will try to grow crops on it. And every region of the country is in need of a constant source of grain to feed its citizens. And when it comes to grain elevators, Armour’s Warehouse in Seneca, Illinois, the largest and oldest of the remaining grain elevators on the Illinois and Michigan Canal, provides an unmistakable silhouette. Grain elevators such as this one served as an “intermediary industry” between producers and consumers. They were storage facilities for grain brought by local farmers for shipment to large “terminal” elevators in major cities, which shipped to bakeries or packagers for smaller wholesale or retail quantities. Our Armour’s Warehouse Free Plans page offers high-resolution downloadable plans that can be printed out to any scale, giving the model railroader everything he needs for a scratch-building project that will make his or her model railroad layout stand out from the crowd.