Charleston Heavy Lift Terminal
The terminal is the main shipper on the layout. It both receives and ships high wide loads. These loads are mainly used during the construction of coal, natural gas, and nuclear power plants. The terminal will have two loading area. The first dock is for barges, and will have a large overhead crane. The second dock will be for self loading/unloading heavy lift ships.
The typical loads are: transformers, generators, turbines, reactors and steam generators. About one half the loads are off loaded from the barges and the other half from heavy lift ships.
The loads into and out of the port will be moved by my collection of high/wide cars: schnabel; flat; depressed; and well cars.
All of the high wide shippers are located off of the layout.
Allis Chalmers is located in West Allis, WI. They builds turbines, large transformers, generators, pumps, motors, and large kilns for cement plants. They ship by rail to Dubuque, Iowa, and then by barge to the terminal, or by rail to Milwaukee for shipment by heavy lift ship on Lake Michigan.
B&W has multiple locations and all shipments go by barge to the terminal.
Combustion Engineering builds boilers and steam generators in Chattanooga. They are shipped by barge to the terminal.
GE has multiple locations and most shipments go by barge to the terminal. Sometimes heavy lift ships call at Albany, where the loads are transloaded from Schenectady.
Siemens builds transformers in Nuremberg, Germany, and they arrive at the terminal in heavy lift ships.
Voith make turbines in York, PA. They are shipped by barge to the terminal, after arriving in Baltimore by rail.
Westinghouse has multiple locations and all shipments go by barge to the terminal.
GE builds gas turbines and ships them to Charleston on flat cars, and depressed center flat cars. When the large depressed flat cars are used they are accompanied by GE's caboose. The following view from Bing maps shows the cars waiting to be loaded.
Westinghouse builds generators and ships them to Charleston on flats, depressed, and Schnabel cars. When the Schnabel car is used it is accompanied by a caboose. The following view from Bing maps shows the cars waiting to be loaded.
Master Fabricators builds large pressure vessels and ship them to Charleston on pairs of specialized flat cars. These shipments are accompanied by a caboose. Master Fabricators is a fictional industry. It is modeled after Air Products in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The following view from Bing maps shows a loaded vessel waiting to be shipped.
Inbound loads are supplied to the Naval Yard, with outgoing nuclear fuel loads.
Other Locomotives rebuilds and repairs freight cars, specializing in large flats and schnabel cars.
Incoming tank cars, from multiple JM Huber sites, are unloaded into storage tanks, and then the kaolin slurry is pumped on to a ship that calls at the port. There are two unloading tracks that will hold six tank cars at a time. The dock for this shipper will not be modeled, just the unloading area.
Manufactures package boilers. Incoming loads are steel and boiler tubes. The original company rebuilt the Best Friend, and later built some locomotives for the South Carolina Railroad Company.
Recycles automobiles and ships the scrap out in gondolas.
Pressure treats wood ties and poles with creosote. Narrow gauge tracks are used to move wood around the plant.
Warehouse for cotton and finished cotton which are transferred to containers for export.
Truck to train trans loading pulp wood for shipment to the paper mills in Augusta. One to two cars are handled per day.