GERN Industries Gibson Works...
Nope - no covered hoppers. Open ore cars or gons. Could also be box cars with the Gern in sacks, the way high grade gold ore was shipped out from Cripple Creek to the refinery, or in solution in a tank car. They were around in this area in the late 1800's when Florence was having its oil boom.
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There were also a lot of bulk commodities shipped in boxcars. Grain was an obvious one, but ore, coal, coke....pretty much anything that required protection from the elements and which could be moved in and out of the car using shovels...were common. Some facilities existed for tipping the cars to aid in loading and unloading using mechanical means.

Loading coke using shovels

Loading gold ore concentrate using shovels

Tipping a car to unload grain

Wayne
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Speaking of which, what does GERN ore look like? And after it is processed into a solid form?
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MountainMan Wrote:Speaking of which, what does GERN ore look like? And after it is processed into a solid form?

The ore will vary in colour (color) depending on the location of the mine and it's said those colours may rival that of a prism. This is good news for modellers, as your location's ore colour is likely exactly the same as what you plan to use to represent the ore. Supposedly, the processing (and there are many methods used, depending on the end product desired) may cause the colour to change, but the colour can also be manipulated during the refining process. The mine of my Gibson Works, beneath nearby Lake Erie, produces mainly grey ore, and ships both powdered and granulated flux, along with pelletised varieties. The first two account for most of the weathering on the hoppers, but the raw ore never leaves the premises, as the entire operation is self-contained. Gibson Works also produces a lot of liquid flux products, but apparently no one outside the plant has knowledge of what colours might be involved, and tank car loading appears to be done very neatly, with no visible spillage. Eek

Wayne
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doctorwayne Wrote:
MountainMan Wrote:Speaking of which, what does GERN ore look like? And after it is processed into a solid form?

The ore will vary in colour (color) depending on the location of the mine and it's said those colours may rival that of a prism. This is good news for modellers, as your location's ore colour is likely exactly the same as what you plan to use to represent the ore. Supposedly, the processing (and there are many methods used, depending on the end product desired) may cause the colour to change, but the colour can also be manipulated during the refining process. The mine of my Gibson Works, beneath nearby Lake Erie, produces mainly grey ore, and ships both powdered and granulated flux, along with pelletised varieties. The first two account for most of the weathering on the hoppers, but the raw ore never leaves the premises, as the entire operation is self-contained. Gibson Works also produces a lot of liquid flux products, but apparently no one outside the plant has knowledge of what colours might be involved, and tank car loading appears to be done very neatly, with no visible spillage. Eek

Wayne

That's odd...according to the "GERN Rules", the spillage may be either 3% more or 3% less than usual, but it still has to be there, and the processing factory has to know what color it is when finished, but... 8-)

So basically it's Player's Rules...thanks. I have the perfect ore already on hand, if I don;t use it for the primary resource...but then, I have a rock shop at the Royal Gorge than can give me whatever I want. Thumbsup
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MountainMan Wrote:That's odd...according to the "GERN Rules", the spillage may be either 3% more or 3% less than usual, but it still has to be there, and the processing factory has to know what color it is when finished, but... 8-)

I'm sure that the factory knows, but nobody there is talking. Goldth


MountainMan Wrote:So basically it's Player's Rules...thanks. I have the perfect ore already on hand, if I don;t use it for the primary resource...but then, I have a rock shop at the Royal Gorge than can give me whatever I want. Thumbsup

Yeah, Player's Rules. Thumbsup I wanted GERN to be accessible to anyone interested in it, so other than asking GERN modellers to contact me for suitable numbers for GERN rolling stock (simply to avoid having duplicate numbers), it's pretty much up to each individual to make their GERN suit their needs. Hopefully, it'll add at least 3% more enjoyment to their model railroading.

Wayne
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Works for me. There is some exotic stuff available form the rock shop. Thumbsup
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MountainMan Wrote:....There is some exotic stuff available form the rock shop. Thumbsup

If you plan on using some of it to represent flux ore, I hope that you'll post some photos to show it. At one time, before the layout I have now, I thought about bringing in ore from a mine somewhere else (probably unmodelled), but dropped the idea because a train of ore cars wasn't in the budget. It never occurred to me at the time that ore might have travelled in regular open hoppers (of which I had quite a few). 35
The Gibson Works mine is supposedly under nearby Lake Erie, and that locale was inspired by the salt mines at Goderich, Ont., which extend well out under Lake Huron.

Wayne
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doctorwayne Wrote:
MountainMan Wrote:....There is some exotic stuff available form the rock shop. Thumbsup

If you plan on using some of it to represent flux ore, I hope that you'll post some photos to show it. At one time, before the layout I have now, I thought about bringing in ore from a mine somewhere else (probably unmodelled), but dropped the idea because a train of ore cars wasn't in the budget. It never occurred to me at the time that ore might have travelled in regular open hoppers (of which I had quite a few). 35
The Gibson Works mine is supposedly under nearby Lake Erie, and that locale was inspired by the salt mines at Goderich, Ont., which extend well out under Lake Huron.

Wayne

Be sure others know the choice so if we would like we can model the same style.

WOW, I just ran into this page and I'm loving it. Wayne has been emailing me for years about the goings on at GERN but I didn't know how well the biz has grown. I will for sure be adding a GERN to my layout and now I know it will be in detail. I'm having my layout focused on a quarry and cement plant and was thinking of a asphalt plant too. The asphalt could be GERN pavement. A new improved way to travel. 35% smoother roads. 10% longer lasting tires. The ideas can fly as I think of a red based asphalt because the rocks used or the tar is GERN FLUX or ... HOW FUN!

Has there been many ideas or modeling done of the modern GERN. Fast Forward to 2020 and GERN is a business grown beyond what could have ever been imagined.

Dave
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railbuilderdhd Wrote:.....Has there been many ideas or modeling done of the modern GERN. Fast Forward to 2020 and GERN is a business grown beyond what could have ever been imagined.

Each modeller is free to interpret GERN as best suits their interests. It's meant to be a fun thing (it actually started back in the '50s as a sideshow to a table hockey league that my brother Steven and I created. We each had several teams with made-up names and named players - not real ones. We kept scoring and goaltending statistics, and had playoffs and final series after each "season". One of his star players was a centre named Cookie Gibson, and Steven, always very imaginative, let it be known that Cookie, when not scoring goals, was a "flux magnate", and CEO of GERN Industries.)

Almost all of the GERN-related stuff springs from his fertile (related to fertiliser, I guess) mind. When I started building my current layout, I decided to drag GERN out of that past, as it seemed to me that a GERN processing plant could be a great traffic generator.
There are GERN facilities, both large and small, in several different eras, including, I think, present day. One of the largest is that of Gary S (currently taking a bit of a holiday from model railroading), but even a GERN factory in a 'phone booth could generate dozens of carloads daily if you so choose.
Have fun with it - it'll make your model railroading at least 3% better. The only requirement is, should you choose to create GERN rolling stock, that you contact me for car numbers - this is only to prevent duplicates. The list of cars wearing GILX reporting marks currently totals 113 cars of various types.

Wayne
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Wayne,
I just love GERN and I have since I first ran into this forum many years ago. I'm not sure why I never did stay with the forum here but I'm glad to see my ID was still here and I'm back. I did get mailing of GERN over the years and I've loved those. Who wouldn't want a layout to be 3% bigger. I'm adding GERN to the layout for sure.
I would love to see how Cookie Gibson would can be worked into the who story. I'm sure we will be seeing more of this elusive character for sure.

Dave
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GERN on the NASDAQ

I was reading through the news on my mobile when I came across an article about a company Geron who uses the title GERN as their NASDAQ name.
Given that I am currently getting over the dreaded Flu, the headline did sort of pass me by for a minute, then my befuddled brain said Wait, what was that about GERN?
I scrolled back and sure enough there was the name GERN. Now as I write this thread I cant find the article. Wallbang
Technology can be a cruel mistress.
Anyway, I thought that everyone who appreciates GERN and all that it can do for you, would enjoy knowing that GERN is listed on NASDAQ.
Mark
Fake It till you Make It, then Fake It some More
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Hey folks,

I was just reading through the GERN ind. post for some inspiration on my GERN ind and rolling stock. This got me thinking about modeling GERN locomotive Leasing locomotives. Has anyone done a GERN locomotive at all?

Just idea.

Dave
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No one of which I'm aware, but feel free to follow through on that idea. I had thought about it for my own GERN plant, but all of the tracks for GERN connect directly to the main line, and any plant switcher would need to cross those tracks to get to the other sidings, so the local railroad does all the switching work for GERN at Port Maitland.

Wayne
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Mr Fixit Wrote:GERN on the NASDAQ

I was reading through the news on my mobile when I came across an article about a company Geron who uses the title GERN as their NASDAQ name.
Given that I am currently getting over the dreaded Flu, the headline did sort of pass me by for a minute, then my befuddled brain said Wait, what was that about GERN?
I scrolled back and sure enough there was the name GERN. Now as I write this thread I cant find the article. Wallbang
Technology can be a cruel mistress.
Anyway, I thought that everyone who appreciates GERN and all that it can do for you, would enjoy knowing that GERN is listed on NASDAQ.
Mark

And its stock runs 3% higher than the others!! Thumbsup
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