Soybean Processing Plant

 About ten days ago I operated on a layout with  soybean processing plant. This layout is set in 1957.

Soybeans are a huge and very common crop and a processing plant is an excellent model railroad industry.

Below is a description of the basic procedure for processing soybeans, as well as a short list of Soybean products.

Soybean Processing: Soybeans are cleaned, then dried, cleaned again, cracked, and dehulled. These cracked beans are then conditioned (heated) and rolled into flakes. At this point, the oil is removed from the flakes by a solvent wash in an extractor. The oil is then separated from the solvent mixture. The extracted crude oil is refined, bleached, and deodorized, resulting in clear and odorless soybean oil, suitable for edible and non-edible uses.

Soy Oil: Soybean oil is a highly adaptable product, not only for foods, but also for industrial use as an ingredient in paints, plastics, pharmaceuticals, printing inks, oleochemicals, cleaners, and biofuels.

Soy Meal: After removal of the soybean oil, the remaining defatted flakes are toasted, dried, and ground for use as a protein source for livestock, pets, human food applications, and industrial uses. Soybean meal is the world’s most important source of protein for poultry and livestock.

Soy Flour: Soy flour contains more than 50% protein, and is used in many commercial bakeries.

Soy Hulls: Contain a high level of very digestible fiber and are further processed into fiber bran breads, cereals and snacks; and feedstuffs for the dairy and cattle industries.

The chemical used as the solvent in the soybean processing procedure is “Hexane” and can be delivered in what I call chemical tank cars, I believe they are insulated tank cars.

This model plant needs coal for its power house.

Tank cars of hexane

Boxcars of packaging

And lots of boxcars full of soybeans. 

MTY food grade tank cars must also be routed to the plant for soybean oil.

Each boxcar of beans is weighed before unloading. After unloading these boxcars are cleaned. After cleaning they are Re-weighed before being spotted for loading with one or more of the soy products. Generally the soy flour might be loaded into 100 lb. bags then those are loaded into boxcars. Soy meal might also be bagged.

If either of these products is going to be loaded in bulk the cleaned boxcars need to be coopered first. In this case coopering means the car is inspected, any sharp objects are removed or repaired (Nails or broken boards); holes in the car are repaired; the car is lined with cardboard to inhibit contamination of the cargo.

Soy hulls are used as animal feed and could be bagged or shipped in bulk to nearby feed mills.

Soy oil would be loaded into food grade tank cars for shipment to end users.

The continuous operation of the soybean mill means a constant stream of boxcars of beans are routed inbound during the session. 

The layout I visited used a series of timers to time each process, alarms tell the bean plant switch crew what to spot, pull, or move next. This layout used a 3-1 fast clock, so unloading bean loads took 15 minutes on the timer. There was a dedicated switch engine at the plant, and there was a constant string of cars going in and out of the plant.

Adjacent to the mill is an elevator, a series of silos, that store beans as a buffer tank, to keep the flow into the mill even.

So if you thought about adding an elevator to your layout, a soybean mill is a unique way to accomplish that.