North American Industries

krtaylor · Post by **krtaylor** » 31 Aug 2005 12:30

That was kind of my point, actually, but it might have been interesting anyway.

lifeblood · Post by **lifeblood** » 31 Aug 2005 17:21

Dan, that building looks spectacular! You wouldn't, by any chance, want to do the mill/bakehouse in the same style would you? I mean, you do live where Kellogg's has some major factories, I only live in an auto-town. Of course you're busy with lots of other sets, but we don't need it for a while. Don't worry, I'll do the construction phases.

Flamelord, well, I don't have anything to say that Wally hasn't already written. Arctic industries are based on 'Canadian Sheild" and BC interior industries. If you have a problem with them, send concerns here: http://www.ic.gc.ca/. There's nothing stopping you from working on the Tropics scenerio industires, if you want. I've no idea what industries would work there.

Flamelord · Post by **Flamelord** » 31 Aug 2005 20:00

Well, it all sorta made sense when I made it, but Wally's right. I suppose I could do a little research and come up with a replacement for the tropic climate. What area of North America should it represent? Should we go for a climate each for Canada, the U.S. and Mexico?

krtaylor · Post by **krtaylor** » 31 Aug 2005 20:16

I'm not convinced that, for the US set, you really want Mexico. Mexico certainly does have railways, but I don't think it has the same sort of intense rail transport the US does. I'd model the industries, basically, after the Southern Pacific. You'd include some of these things:

- Cattle ranches - produce cattle, goes to stockyards, makes food
- Fruit plantations - fruit goes directly to cities, in reefers. Fruit would be a "behaves like" food.
- Food - from stockyards
- Oil - from wells, to refineries. Up until the 1960s, there was major rail service of crude oil.
- Fuel - from refineries, to somewhere else. Cities? Power plants?
- Passengers and mail work the same as always, but maybe we can make the revenues much higher? Right now, it's very difficult to collect enough mail or passengers to make running a train worthwhile. IRL they had major cities on each coast, to run through-trains, and local traffic just used those, but that doesn't lend itself to TTD.
- Coal. Not the biggest source of it but I know it's there. I don't think it goes anywhere but powerplants, though, so maybe that's boring.
- Minerals, not sure what sort though. Salt? To a salt mill, which makes food?

DanMacK · Post by **DanMacK** » 31 Aug 2005 20:20

Copper is big in the SW US, I say keep the copper mines. Also keep the lumber mills, as Lumber's a really good revenue producer

cornelius · Post by **cornelius** » 31 Aug 2005 21:27

If you're worried about spreading coal too thinly then why not just ditch the power plant in the arctic? Aside from receiving coal it doesn't actually *do* anything and if you're deciding where to send your meagre resources then the industries that have a profitable onward product are going to win over ther power plant every time.

wallyweb · Post by **wallyweb** » 31 Aug 2005 22:39

Hi Flamelord ... I have to agree with krtaylor, you don't want to go into Mexico. Railroading is somewhat thin. However, the southern US, from Florida through to California, is a really good fit for the Tropical Climate.

A suggestion ... do a Google on each of the states along the southern US border and get a feel for the industries that are important to them. Then, with that information hot in your mind, go crazy with a chart, then sit back and see what it looks like. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Flamelord · Post by **Flamelord** » 01 Sep 2005 03:53

Okay, I'll take a chunk of time with google and MSPaint and see what I come up with. I'll probably do it sometime tomorrow.

Here's what I came up with, flowchart tomorrow. It gets late...

Comments, questions, etc. are welcome.

wallyweb · Post by **wallyweb** » 03 Sep 2005 16:55

Flamelord wrote:Okay, I'll take a chunk of time with google and MSPaint and see what I come up with. I'll probably do it sometime tomorrow.

Here's what I came up with, flowchart tomorrow. It gets late...

Comments, questions, etc. are welcome.

Microchip facility ... nice touch ... Texas and California?

Flamelord · Post by **Flamelord** » 03 Sep 2005 17:10

Florida, too.

Is there any way to ensure that the silicon ore - microchip line of industries doesn't show up until 1985?

At first it was kind of hard to come up with the important industries from each state; I couldn't find any charts or lists comparing among the industries. So, I ended up finding a list of industries and a really cool map. I was able to select individual resources and see where they were in the U.S. The natural resource industries I selected are all fairly common in the southern part of the U.S. Everything seemed to fit, so I put it together and it worked.

Now I just hope it's usable.

DaleStan · Post by **DaleStan** » 03 Sep 2005 17:29

Yes. (The industry availability callback (22))

jvassie · Post by **jvassie** » 03 Sep 2005 19:10

Just guessing here, isnt tobacco and cotton quite common in the Southern US?

Its looking good! Keep up the good work

James

onodera · Post by **onodera** » 03 Sep 2005 20:48

1. There's no such thing as silicon mine.
Silicon is made out of sand by electrolysis and then cleaned by Siemens process, so we need a quarry instead of a mine.

2. As this is an energy-consuming process, it would be wise to check if a nearest (or any) power plant has produced energy this month. Can such a callback be programmed?

3. If we have a quarry, why not add a concrete production line?

Flamelord · Post by **Flamelord** » 03 Sep 2005 20:57

1. Good, thank you. I was having trouble finding information about how they get silicon out of the ground, and all I was seeing was news about illegal silicon mining operations in other countries.

2. I have no idea.

3. I'm not sure it would be a good idea, I need to fit in tobacco and cotton because jamesvassie is right. (I don't know how I forgot about those two!) Besides, both the tobacco and cotton will ultimately end up as goods, and so many goods production centers (what else would you make concrete?) would get boring.

{Edit in a little while with the new chart}

{It's in my next post}

onodera · Post by **onodera** » 03 Sep 2005 21:14

According to wikipedia, the following industries are the most prevalent in the USA and Canada:
petroleum and natural gas - .5*yep
steel - yep/nope? (at least it is already coded)
motor vehicles - yep (factory)
aerospace - nope (no aluminium)
telecommunications - nope
chemicals - yep
electronics - yep
food processing - yep
consumer goods - yep (cotton, tobacco)
lumber - yep/nope?
mining - yep
transportation equipment - yep (factory)
wood and paper products - yep/nope?
fish products - yep

Yep = included
Nope = not included

Flamelord · Post by **Flamelord** » 03 Sep 2005 21:42

Ah, but my chart is just for the southern border states, and it replaces the industry set of the tropical climate. The other charts are for the arctic replacement and the temperate replacement. I believe everything in that list except telecommunications is in the replacements.

I'm editing the chart into this post instead of the other.

onodera · Post by **onodera** » 03 Sep 2005 22:29

Flamelord wrote:Ah, but my chart is just for the southern border states, and it replaces the industry set of the tropical climate.

Then I'd say it's pretty much complete.

krtaylor · Post by **krtaylor** » 03 Sep 2005 22:32

Very nice chart! Only a couple of comments.

1. I'd say to dump the sugar plantation, this is comparatively small in both volume and economic importance. You don't really get sugar-cane much anywhere in the contiental US, it's more sugar beets I believe.

2. The silicon chain can actually start in 1970, microchips were being manufactured then. It can grow more thereafter, kind of like offshore oil rigs.

3. "Microchips" should be "electronics." You don't often get a whole trainload of microchips, but container-loads of electronics are common. I would say the electronics should go to the ordinary factory to become goods, eliminating the special electronics factory.

4. If possible, you could fix the tobacco and cotton farms to die out over time, as they are doing IRL.

Flamelord · Post by **Flamelord** » 04 Sep 2005 01:03

Sounds good.

1. Will do, makes sense.

2. Sounds good to me.

3. But then where do the chemicals come in, and why does copper get put in twice to the factory (once through the electronics, once in purified form)? The idea was to have a separate chain that can enter around 1985 (well, 1970 now) and only stop at the town.

That way, you'd never be missing any of the things any industries accept, because all of the chain could enter at the same time, instead of the Factory having to wait until 1970 to get electronics.

It could still be electronics, but I really like the idea of a separate facility for the electronics, instead of sending them to a pre-1970 industry.

4. I will if I can.

krtaylor · Post by **krtaylor** » 04 Sep 2005 01:07

Flamelord wrote:Instead of the Factory having to wait until 1970 to get electronics.

But they did. Make it so that's not required, but still produces goods when it's present. Or does it not work that way?

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