Halstead Brick Co.

 On AIR1, located in the area of the layout I called “Athol” was the Halstead Brick Co. this was one of the few fairly nice, and complete models on the layout. Halstead Brick had a nice company office, a coal trestle for receiving loads of coal and coke in 50 ton hoppers. There was a couple beehive kilns and a long spur for loading pallet-ized brick into boxcars. Finally there was ground cover(!) and ballast, something not common to AIR1, which was mostly painted plywood and Kraft paper and plaster cloth mountains painted green.

Halstead Brick manufactured two colors of brick, yellow/tan and red. There were a lot of pallets of brick, and I think a fork lift as well. 

In addition there was a team spot on the lead to the brick yard where pulp wood was loaded onto pulpwood racks.

This industry was located in an odd spot, on the inside of a curve at the closed end of a peninsula. When the local was switching Athol he had to cross the main to get to Halstead Brick, but in general this was a good industry. I was very happy with its play-value, and liked it very much. 

In the time between layouts I have acquired additional brick kilns, and on AIR2 I hope to re-build Halstead Brick about twice to three times its original size.

Tony Koester seems to have been the one to get this ball rolling on his Allegheny Midland layout. There is also a section in one of Jeff Wilson’s books, “Industries along the tracks -4”, published by Kalmbach. I strongly urge you to check these booklets out. They offer a GREAT deal of bang for the buck, from my perspective. 

When I plan an industry I really do subscribe to the theory of “Good Enough”. When researching an industry for the railroad, I don’t need to KNOW how to make bricks, I only need to know how to present a model that simulates the process, hopefully believably. Remember it’s not a documentary model about a Brick Factory, it’s a model railroad with a brick factory on it.

Wilson’s books provide you with just enough information to be dangerous! Along with a number of exceptional ideas. 

So Halstead Brick is going to be a good model of a medium sized brick yard, that will generate enough car loadings to be interesting, and believable.

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