Looking For Cement Industry Info

Model Railroader Prototype information for the modeler
1

I am planning a new layout and was considering creating a fictional short line connecting a large gravel pit to a cement plant (amont other local traffic).

I was wondering if anyone knows of or has any good information on modelling a cement plant.

I’ve found some information about the basics of cement production, but I would like to be as accurate as possible, including the types of cars the raw limestone and finished cement might be shipped in, and how many loads such a plant would realistically receive and ship on a weekly basis.

Thanks! [8D]

2

I think you are confusing cement plants and concrete plants. Cement is the gray stuff in concrete that glues everything together and is made separately in most cases. It is a limestone mixture that has been crushed and screened to a powder. It is transported in bags, covered hoppers and modified tank trucks to concrete plants. Somebody is going to jump all over me for the bag comment but that is legitimate dependent on the era you model. Major cement companies use storage silos like grain elevators and that is what my Walther grain elevator complex will be. I am not cognizant of any concrete plants that ship be rail. That is pretty much all truck following dry mixing.

3

i am also modeling a cement/concrete plant. i took a ride one day to a plant in HOLLY HILL SC. that is serviced by CSX. i used that as my model. basically you have about 4 tracks leading into a silo facility with cover hopper cars. the silos tranfer the cement to the mixing facility, the trucks are then loaded and sent out. i also watched numerous dump trucks hauling in sand. the aggerate used to make the concrete was hauled in on hopper cars.

4

Actually I was thinking of a cement plant. I meant to say limestone quarry when I just quickly typed gravel pit.
Is there a prototype that does this? I was just trying to come up with a reasonably plausible raison d’etre for my modern day shortline. Any suggestions on what limestone would be transported in? Open hoppers or covered? Would it be as larger stones or a finer powder?
My history for this shortline has it that the original limestone quarry adjacent to the cement plant dried up but a new one was found nearby that could keep the large cement plant open, so the existing short line had a new lease on life and is presently successful (what ficitonal model railroad isn’t? [8D]). Thanks for your help guys.

5

Well here in the south suburbs of Chitown I-80/94 crosses over a huge open pit limestone quarry that has just played itself out. It is about one mile across and at least 400’ deep. The processing plant is located on the south side of the quarry and is in the town of Thornton. The neat thing is a public road goes right though the center of the plant and you can see virtually the entire operation. Euclid dump trucks and conveyer belts feed the plant but there is no reason a railroad couldn’t do the same thing. It is certainly feasible and there is precedence in the west for such a thing. The granties quarries used trains also so it isn’t far fetched. I would think high horsepower four wheel engines and short trains would be in order as well as frquent service subject to the size of your plant. Just don’t forget to spray SP lettering gray on anything in the immediate area!

6

Nabieszko,
Just did a keyword search at the Index of Magazines at this site using “cement plant” as the search term with the results below. Ndprr’s comment is right on, the fines from the cement mills in the Lehigh Valley used to coat the workers cars and with a little rain added, ruined the finish on those cars. You could write your name in the cement dust on any window sill.

Bob
NMRA Life 0543

Freight traffic at a cement plant, Railroad Model Craftsman, March 1951, page 12. ( CEMENT, “MARTIN, BOYCE F.”, OPERATION, PLANT, PROTOTYPE, RMC )

Cement storage plant, Railroad Model Craftsman, November 1966, page 40. ( “BARTHOLOMEW, DALE”, CEMENT, PLANT, STRUCTURE, RMC )

Vistas - Cement Plant, NMRA Bulletin, January 1984, page 42. ( CEMENT, “CRAGO, WILLIAM A.”, PLANT, BL )

Portland Cement Co. Cement Plant, Railmodel Journal, May 1992, page 17. ( CEMENT, DRAWING, INDUSTRY, “NEHRICH, JOHN”, PLANT, “PRINCE, DAVID”, STRUCTURE, PROTOTYPE, RMJ )

The Ash Grove Cement Plant from Walthers, Pikestuff and Plastruct kits
Railmodel Journal, September 2001, page 19. ( CEMENT, “FERREL, RON”, INDUSTRY, PLANT, STRUCTURE, RMJ )

7

In Yukon OK, on the west side of Oklahoma City, on 10th St NW, just west of Sarah Rd, there is a concrete plant. It receives cement in covered hoppers, sand and gravel/limestone in 2 bay open hoppers. It is served by the Union Pacific on an ex-Rock Island line that heads west out of OKC, more or less parallel to I-40 all the way into NM.

The concrete goes out in mixers to local job sites. It has a two track siding, both ends connected to the single track mainline. In the construction season, it seemed to get two or three train loads a week, fifty or more cars, usually two or three locomotives, ranging from GP38-2 to 8-40CW. Most of the hoppers were lettered for the concrete company.

8

I have some references in my file about Cement and Concrete.

CEMENT DEALER/REDI-MIX CONCRETE BATCH PLANT
Cement batch plant, Totowa NJ, proto & model Mod RRer Oct91 p.111
Cement Dealer Rail Modl Journal Jul93 p.42
Consolidated Concrete batch plant, Calgary Alberta Canada
proto pix, plans, HO model [i[ModRRer May 98 p.68
Harris concrete batch plant, my personal b&w pix, Gregory 1969
Operations (switching) at a bulk cement distributor RMC June92 p.69
TEWS Cement built for Wisconsin Central N project layout from Walthers Coal mine kit ModRRer Feb98 p.109; ModRRer Dec97 p.112
Tillbury Cement Co. rail to truck transfer facility,
HO construction article. RR Mod Craftsman May96 p.76

CEMENT, PORTLAND, MANUFACTURING PLANT
Abandoned cement kiln near Japanese Sunken Gardens,
my personal color pix, Oct1995 San Antonio trip
Austin White Lime, McNail,Texas
Journal of Texas Shortline RRs AugSepOct98 p.42,46,47
Cayuga Lake NY cement plant, proto & HO model Mod RRer Apr95 p.83
Switching a cement plant, RMC June92 p.69
Schematic, proto pix,modeling Mod RRer July94 p.92

I remember visiting and photographing the Centex Cement plant in Corpus Christi more than 20 years ago when I was a television cameraman. The plant was on the Corpus Christi Ship Channel, backed up to Nueces Bay. Back in the 1950s, it made cement from oyster shell dredged from oyster beds in the bay. This was halted for environmental reasons. The plume from Centex smokestack, not so much smoke as particulate matter was a landmark for sailors to find their direction from 30 miles away. THAT was halted too. The main structure of the cement plant was a tube- I assume steel with some refractory type lining, a tube 8 feet around and a quarter of a mile long, heated red hot on the inside and slowly turning round and round. Quite

9

There was an MR article I think it was in 1990, that dealt with the Blue Star Concrete Company’s Campostella Road plant in Norfolk, VA. The author described (accurately, I might add since I lived there for almost 16 years) the operation of the plant, plus the chute delivery system that runs under I-264 near the campus of Norfolk State University. The company was bought up in the late 90’s by TarMac, but if I can find that article, I’ll try to give you the exact date. A search of the MR Archives might show it if you use “Blue Star Concrete” as your search keywords.

10

In case you haven’t heard, Walthers is coming out with a cement plant complex, including rotary kiln, tentatively in May…won’t be cheap and has a fairly good sized footprint.

Hope this helps.

11

If you should decide to do a concrete plant, I have many pictues that may help you. Virtually all of the Lefarge (formerly Blue Circle) plants around here have rail connections.

12

Limestone would come in open hoppers in a variety of grades, be crushed at the site, processed and shipped out as cement in bags (even today) in boxcars or in bulk covered hoppers (short 2 bay as it’s heavy). Hoppers of coal for fuel could be brought in as well. If your line is long enough to be plausible you could add the batching plant to receive cement and hoppers of offline sand & gravel plus additives to generate truckloads of concrete. Could make a really cool layout.

13

[:I] I’m sorry, I couldn’t find the article, but I remembered that the name was Lone Star Concrete, not Blue Star. Sorry.[:I]

14

I used to work for a concrete outfit and also have hauled portland cement in the mid-atlantic area… I’ll add these tidbits…

I believe you need Rock, Flyash, Sand, chemical (Additives) water and bags of Fiber. A theoratical concrete plant will take carloads of rock and sand and a tank car of chemicals , bagged fiber can be brought in by boxcar.

With my experience, we had ships bring in cement which was moved to silo by pressure air in pipes then loaded into air pressure tanker trucks (Or covered hoppers) and shipped to the concrete plant. Fly ash comes from coal fired plants. Grace of Baltimore shipped chemicals by semi truck and a good concrete plant will use several different tanks which was filled at least weekly. Bagged fiber came from fiber plastic (Sorta) and was added to concrete by the mixer driver during charging for greater resistance to cracking.

If you wanted to model a Cement plant, look at “Capitol” in MArtinsburg WVa. I believed they take material and literally ground it up in huge tubes full of ball bearings and fired it to a powder form.

Rail service can be as simple as a string of covered hoppers unloading into a silo or two which unloads into tanker trucks. Or as complicated as you wish. Remeber that trucks are a part of the process.

The History Channel’s “Hoover Dam” will fill your head all about concrete. I believe they built a railroad just to haul the materials to the job site.

The lime stone quarry can be used to ship (erf…) lime to a roof shingle plant they need those all the time in making roofing shingles.

I hope this helps.

Lee

15

Walther’s website currently lists 4 cement plants. Three are in stock and one is backordered. Just do a search on “cement plant” and the 4 will be listed.

16

History Channel showed the Panama Canal Lock concrete arriving on flats from a gang of mixers. The Hoover Dam mixers were located at the now visitors center parking structure and a short rail carried the buckets to the landings for the overhead wire cranes. The Hoover Dam cement was delivered in converted boxcars and vacuumed into silos above the mixers. Aggregate for the dam came from Arizona. It was hauled to the mixer plants by rail. Many of the coastal defense sites had small or narrow gauge railways for excavation and concrete movement. Later they had rail sidings for the guns and still later the ammunition. Since the 1930s, rubber tires have replaced the rails as afavorite transport mode.
See the Yahoo Cajon Group for Victorville, CA cement plant information. Also there is a flag just east of Colton on what’s left of a limestone hill. The plant is south; I think this is the Riverside Cement plant.
Have fun, Lindsay

17

Greetings, I have worked in the cement manufacturing industry since 1971 as consultant in bulk material handling systems ( elevators, conveyors, feeders ect. ). This profession required that I visit several cement manufacturing plants per year. I have been in at least 200 plants world wide. Besides coal to fire the kilns, oil has been used and stored in large tanks shipped in via rail car. Maintenance and Supply usually has a rail siding for new - large eguipment ( including front end loaders and the large quarry trucks) on flat cars and some box cars for smaller items. Some plants import clinker ( product that exits the kiln) from other plants occasionally shipped in 2 bay hoppers mostly. Some Cement manufactures have remote terminals to store finished cement ( for local truckage usually ) in large silos shipped in 2 or 3 bay covered hoppers. There are a few plants still around that use 2 bay hoppers to transport limestone from thier quarries to the plant. Some plants use back up fuel sources to the primary such as coal with oil or natural gas back up. Some plants also use additives to the coal such as corn kernels or shredded tires ( these could concievably be shipped in via rail car on a layout but are usually trucked from local sources. If I can be of any further assistance please feel free to E-mail me at RRRerun@aol.com.

18

ndbprr, the Thornton quarry still has activity, although it is isolated at best. I have seen rock piles at the bottom and activity even late at night. Perhaps rock is only removed as needed and what is available from that loc. is less used now. Can you imagine the bridge that would be needed if the dug the thing out from under the road. Bob T