Standard floor for industrial stations

[VS]

So... cities use a "standard pavement".

There is already a standard for "high tiles", too, regarding colour of top, texture and height. These are made to join well with rail stations. See eg.:
http://forum.simutrans.com/index.php?topic=9984.0

What about ground-level stuff? Should it use mostly asphalt? Concrete? Cobblestone? How would that mesh with the existing "high tile" pieces? Opinions welcome!

[mEGa]

I think concrete or asphalt are a good proposition because it is like that in real life for contemporary platforms... And cobblestone for old periods as I was able to see it on old photos of harbour sites
I'll try to do this into my addon for tram stops few months ago : 3 types of floor :
- without material
- concrete
- asphalt
http://www.simutrans-france.fr.nf/doku.php?id=en:page_doc_tram_stop_full.

[VS]

After some image search, it seems that asphalt is preferred, except for harbours?

Roads are seemingly not really roads, just places that are driven over more than the others. Except for harbours of course...

[IgorEliezer]

After some image search, it seems that asphalt is preferred, except for harbours?
Roads are seemingly not really roads, just places that are driven over more than the others. Except for harbours of course...

Asphalt is preferred. It's easier and cheaper than concrete. Asphalt can tolerate weather changes (dilatation and contraction) and small deformations thanks to its elasticity and plasticity. You can build with no problems a very large yard and mark the "roads" with paint, as long as you build a good drainage system. It's all nice in a dry soil... but it's weak in wet terrains, hence the structural concrete in the harbours.

[VS]

Oh... there is logic :O What did I think yesterday?

I suppose another weakness of asphalt is maximum pressure, which would explain why some container terminals use concrete, no?

How about the "road" marks? So far I could see that
- arrows are somewhat common in white,
- harbours use yellow for road edges,
- harbour cranes will have yellow diagonal line fill for "vehicle, don't stay here",
- sometimes, places where cargo should not be put is marked with big white squares with diagonals ("X in a box"),
- space for containers is marked "like a parking lot", yellow under cranes, white elsewhere

It's hard to find pictures from anything other than container harbours :-/ Anyway, this demonstrates most of the markings I mentioned...

[Sarlock]

There's the Deltaport in Vancouver, BC, Canada (where I live):

49.020464 N,123.159077 W



White boxes to indicate where shipping containers go, white diagonal lines to indicate "no boxes/trucks here", laneways for trucks with short diagonal separation lines.  All of those trucks look like shunt trucks, short 2-axle units to transport the containers to/from the ships to be then transfered to rail or highway trucks.



Again areas beside the tracks for temporary storage of shipping containers.



There are several crane units that can travel up and down the entire length of the rail yard to transfer shipping containers.

Everything appears to be asphalt.  Asphalt is primarily used on all roads where I live (oil is plentiful here in Canada) so there is a local influence that plays a factor.  I think the choice between asphalt and concrete is really a local decision.  Concrete typically lasts longer but is more prone to cracking and requires a lot of patching.  Asphalt does too but it is easier to repair and resurface when the time requires.  You'll notice, however, that the asphalt has an almost concrete colour to it, the darker black colour fades pretty fast under heavy use.



If you go to the port in Google Earth/Maps you will also see the big coal depot on the west end of the terminal.  The entire terminal is built out in to the sea for better ship access to the area.

Trying to find a terminal that doesn't primarily handle intermodal shipping containers now is nearly impossible, nearly everything has been converted to this system.

I think the maximum capacity is similar for either asphalt or concrete, it really depends on how thick it is and how good of a road base is underneath it.  Asphalt can deform under heavy loads in really hot weather, however.

Truck loading areas tend to be located at the back of warehouses, but I'll see what I can find.

[Sarlock]

I had a look at a lot of North American facilities and asphalt is used in a lot of them.  Some look like they are concrete, but many are asphalt.

Many industrial sites have rail access that goes right inside the facility through a big set of doors.

I guess it comes down to what matches best with what we already have, colour and texture-wise.

[ӔO]

there is also asphalt concrete, which is as intermediate between, obviously, asphalt and concrete.

I would just use an intermediate colour and call it "modern paved surface"

There's no need to make it very specific, when the goods available are very simplified.

[VS]

Sure The point of this topic was mostly to see what should it look like... colour, texture and possibly shape.

A (still) open question is, what did they use before?

edit: Some distance away, there is also a wood dock (?) Nothing spectacular.
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=49.020464+N,123.159077+W&hl=en&ll=49.174441,-122.919438&spn=0.002914,0.008256&sll=49.269821,-123.060951&sspn=0.093079,0.264187&t=h&z=18

[mEGa]

A (still) open question is, what did they use before?

In France before 2nd world war on rural little station, they used gravel between edges in stone, May be it was the same material in Europe ?



In harbour sites or big fret stations, a cobblestone pavement in alternation with the gravel was used in part of space where stored goods.

[Sarlock]

Probably cobblestone up to a certain point, transition to asphalt/concrete at a later date.  The style can change at this date as well, from a manual unload/load system with crates to a crane system with intermodal containers.