Atlas makes some nice N Scale 2-Bay Centerflow Hoppers that are painted for Blue Circle Cement. From my research, Blue Circle Cement became part of Lafarge North America in 2001. Unfortunately, my research has not been able to determine which Lafarge cement plants were originally Blue Circle Cement facilities. The only curent reference to Blue Circle Cement is to Lafarge Cement UK (see http://www.bluecircle.co.uk). I doubt that the Atlas covered hoppers would be carrying cement imported from the UK, so I am still trying to identify US cement plants that would ship to customers in such hoppers. That way my way bills could reflect the real life shipper to a customer modeled on my layout.
Does any one on the forum know where the Blue Circle Cement cement plants were? Lafarge has a cement plant at Ravena, New York. Was this originally a Blue Circle plant?
There is an active Blue Circle Materials, in Atlanta, Georgia. Norfolk Southern brings crushed rock (1 1/2") to this plant, from west of Douglas, GA, in a low side gondola, usually about 40 per day, however, where the cement comes from, I can’t say.
I know the cement rides 2 bay hoppers, of various types.
A Google search, would use Blue Circle Materials, or Blue Circle Concrete, with the particular area of interest.
Mandelswamp -
I just did a Google search on ‘Blue Circle Cement’ and found this article from 2001. It happens to mention NY alot, in particular, the Syracuse area. Not sure if it will help you out, but here’s the link in any case. If I find more, I’ll edit this post and put them here for you.
Thanks for your information. Your references to the Lafarge press release and the FTC information confirmed what I suspected - that the Ravena, NY plant was indeed a Blue Circle plant.
Lafarge owns quite a few aggragate industries east of Atlanta, GA, in the granite swath making up Stone Mountain, Panola Mtn, Arabian Mtn, Pine Mtn in Lithonia (about four active granite/gravel quarries and at least that many cement plants), and the Oxford, GA granite quarry. To my knowledge, only two of the quarries see any rail traffic (most gravel and granite ships out by truck), but I believe at least 4 cement plants between Covington and Atlanta see at least 5 or 10 rail cars each of aggregate and processed cement per week. Alot of the cement cars are still labelled Blue Circle though, so it wouldn’t be out of place to use them in a Lafarge owned cement plant.
My understanding is that powdered cement is actually a combination of raw materials including crushed limestone, granite and sand, mixed and thoroughly dried to a powder, where it’s then loaded into covered hoppers, and shipped to the distributor. To model a complete aggragate industry, a quarry (for the limestone and gravel), a cement processing plant (like Valley Cement by Walthers), and a cement distribution plant (like Medusa Cement or Blue Circle Cement by Walthers) would all be appropriate structures. The raw materials would come in by open top hopper from the quarry to the processing plant, then powdered cement would be shipped out in covered cement hoppers to the distribution facility where it would be either offloaded into cement mixer trucks for delivery to customers, or to a bagging plant where it would be bagged and shipped by truck for sale at retail stores and home improvement suppliers.