T
he Piedmont Division of the Na- tional Model Railroad Association holds its monthly Tuesday night meeting at the Elks Lodge in Tucker, Georgia, which is not far from my home. On the way there I pass several indus- trial buildings before crossing over some railroad tracks operated by CSX. The largest of these is set on a campus com- plete with a guard house and assorted administration buildings. For years, and in big, bold, red and white letters, I would see the name “Brill” spelled out across the main building facing the street. Furthermore, I always saw a number of trailers or vans parked in front of it, either being loaded or waiting to be loaded, and tractor-trailer trucks were constantly entering or departing the facility. I paid little attention to the plant other than a casual glance. Then one day I saw some freight cars parked next to the left side of the building, al- most inconspicuously. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that this facility was served by rail. Tucker, Georgia, has history as a rail- road town with a number of rail served industries. It is located at the end of the Abbeville Subdivision, which is where the CSX Railroad begins entry to its At-
RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
The unloading dock (top) is located inside the CSM plant grounds (formerly named the H.C. Brill Company) around a long curved portion of the siding. The 55-foot covered hop- pers are used to transport bulk, dry ingredients for making bakery products. A trackmo- bile (above and left) is used to switch and reposition the cars, which are unloaded pneu- matically from outlets under the cars. The siding (below left) has enough room for several hoppers and there is also a drill track/runaround, allowing for more switching options.
lanta Terminal Subdivision, which rolls under the Atlanta Division. Based on in- formation from Frograil Rail Tours (
www.frograil.com) and Wikipedia I learned that this is part of the former Seaboard Air Line Railroad mainline ac- quired by CSX as it evolved over time through mergers and acquisitions. In addition to the CSX Railroad, Norfolk Southern is active in the region as well by virtue of its Piedmont Division which covers Atlanta, Georgia, and has dis- tricts that reach up through South Car- olina and North Carolina to Virginia and Washington, D.C. As I have seen NS trains in the vicinity of Tucker there must be an agreement for track rights or to share track between the railroads. In 2007, with some research on the In-
ternet, I found out a good deal of infor- mation on the H.C. Brill Company. Mov- ing forward to 2013, CSM, a con- glomerate with headquarters in Holland and the parent company/owner of H.C.
Brill, reorganized and replaced the
“Brill” name on the Tucker, Georgia, plant with “CSM.” The nature of the business and medium size of the plant in Tucker, Georgia, lends itself to model- ing or at least gleaning from this indus- trial prototype to enhance realistic oper- ations on a model railroad, especially the track arrangement to the plant from the CSX siding off the main track. The business revolves around the production and manufacture of ingredi- ents for food products. Specifically, CSM is one of the world’s largest wholesale manufacturers of baking ingredients. They market a vast product line which includes
ready-to-use icings, icing
bases, donut glazes, frozen cakes and cookies, brownie batters, cake batters, muffin batters, soft and fruit fillings, and whipped toppings. Their customers range from grocery stores with in-house bakeries, such as Publix, Kroger and re- tail giant Wal-Mart, to restaurants and
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