Suggestions please

[cheshire lines]

Perhaps a sawmill?

[glencairn]

As the layout is set in North Wales during 1930s, you are in the time of 'The Depression' after the 1929 Wall Street crash. Businesses were struggling.

For you to overcome this here is a suggestion or two.

A New Dam being built 'in the hills beyond'. Requirements -- small platform with a small building for staff to make tea etc. Facilities for lorry drivers to take cement etc. up to the dam. The backscene only needs to be (Welsh) hills and a road disappearing'up and beyond.

I have a video, (yes a video) of such happenings at Killen in Scotland. The small building was a Camping Coach where the lorry drivers made meals and slept overnight. A train would arrive daily with wagons full of cement and supplies required at the dam. The drivers unloaded the cement from rail wagons and onto their road wagons. Deliver the cement, return to the railway yard and repeat everything.

Army Manoeuvres Military Exercises in preparation for war. -- Requirements -- platform(s) with a little fencing. Maybe a little store. A road disappearing in the hilly backscene. Military personnel.

Glencairn

[Mountain Goat]

A colliery (Coal mine). Be aware that deep mines had two seperate shafts, the second was for ventilation and doubled up as an emergency entrance. Even drift mines needed a second entrance or a shaft to allow air to circulate. The earlier mines also had adits to drain the water before pumps were invented (Usually steam powered at first. Hence why there was greater demand in the early years for a steam powered pump then a steam locomotive, so many early locos ended up working pumps instead of hauling waggons). The very early mies were cell mines where miners would hack into the side of a hill following a seam but only go in a short way to form a cell shape. Due to lack of ventilation they would then simply move further along and create another cell a little further along. Whee I live there were quite a few cells like this which some were later reopened when pumps came along and they would also need to make a shaft as a vent etc. A few mines had a large fan instead and these fans were very visible due to their size. It was normal for narrow gauge to be used in mines in general and very rare for any mine to have standard gauge as why make life difficult? A narrow gauge little waggon only needs a small tunnel and can even be pushed by children. Standard gauge wagons can't. Most above ground narrow gauge operations were pulled by horse power as horses had large advantages. You can uncouple a horse and run round a train with out the need for additional run round tracks. They were reliable and could also be used for other purposes. They were relatively cheap to run. The last known horse operation in a UK coal mine was a little surface line which started operation in 1973. I don't know how long it lasted in use like this but I'm guessing it closed in the 1980's when the majority of coal mines shut in these parts.

Other industrial ideas. Paperworks, slateworks, copperworks, sawmill, iron foundry, lead and silver works, small power station (Most towns had one), gas works (Some larger towns had one), a dairy, brickworks (In clay areas, preferably where silica ores were also found, clay quarry, sand quarry, various quarries for various stones and other materials, a lead mine (Which also produced silver), gypsum mine or quarry, silica mine (There used to be a silica mine at the bottom of the hill here and it was worked by the Romans who used the silica to make bricks. It was re-opened around 1700 years later (Approx) as a coal mine... The Romans were the first known to have used railway transportation. Did they need to for mining?), gold mine, iron ore quarry or mine.
How about a wagon and carriage works or a blacksmiths, a cartwright, a wheelwright, a shipwright.... Many blacksmiths turned to make bicycles and a few then turned to motorcycles and then some to cars. There were a great many car manufactures who worked building a few cars a year and usually bought in engines from other larger manufacturers who often made more engines for the small builders then they ever put in their own cars...
Carpenter machine shop, furniature manufactrers, in the very early days specialist iron founderies making cannon and musketballs, steel works, woolen mill, slaughter house, tin works, tin mine, fishery, cockle and pickling factory, gunpowder works (Nobels explosives), MOD establishment, various factories and storage areas for the armed forces which like MOD establishments usually had various interesting buildings, tunnels etc, paint works, chemcal works, peat quarry or peat common, fertilizer works, rubbish waste tips, scrap dealers, coal merchants, scrap yards...... Lots of ideas...

[Bandit Mick]

Thanks to everyone who replied to my question. Special thanks MG for your very detailed list of suggestions.

[Mountain Goat]

You caught me at a time when my brain rose up to the challenge!

[AustralianLMS]

Well done MD

What did you end up going with?

I am at the same stage now. I am now perusing MD's suggestions.

[Bandit Mick]

I think I'll go with a foundry - plenty of goods to move both in and out.

[mijj]

Thanks for asking that question as mine was answered too .
Jim.

[Drevant]

Metcalfe Industrial kits are another alternative.Glencairn

Are they easy to build ? I never built this kind of kit before. Thanks.

[glencairn]

Metcalfe Industrial kits are another alternative.Glencairn

Are they easy to build ? I never built this kind of kit before. Thanks.

I find them fairly straight-forward. Having said that I alter them a little to suit.
I would suggest starting with a small kit. Get the feel of them, then build bigger. Just take your time doing them.

Glencairn