I can’t fully and briefly document the move from Wimpey Minerals (apparently now Pennsy Supply) in Annville, PA via NS to Pavonia Yard in NJ (across the Delaware River from NE Philadelphia), but here are links to the info I was able to find:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e3qSNqYvmk - “Before it could reach my location a H6A came through headed west with a SD60 leader. H6A is a Annville to Enola stone train from Mallards Quarry. [Millard Quarry was the former name of this quarry when Bethlehem Steel Corp. operated it. - PDN] . . . H6A Loaded Stone Annville PA – Enola PA”
http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=127&t=1282 - Post by JJMDiMunno on Thu April 01, 20014 - “Those GE units are owned by Pennsy Supply, formerly Wimpey Minerals, an industry located in Pavonia. This company receives the stone cars from NS 64Q, the Annville unit stone train…”
The CSX runs a train, or maybe trains, colloquially called the Rock Runners from a quarry in Millville, WV to a processing plant in the Bladensburg, MD area; I don’t recall who owns the quarry. Millville is located a few miles south of Harper’s Ferry, WV on a branch off CSX’s Shenadoah Subdivision from Harper’s Ferry, WV to Winchester, VA.
I have seen the Rock Runner several times and they use short open top hopper cars with platforms at each end. The Rock Runners had carried cabooses at one time, andI believe they were used as shoving platforms because they had to back down CSX’s line which runs from Hyattsville, MD to the CSX yard in Benning to reach the processing plant.
Another rock train operation in Maryland is on the Maryland Midland from a quarry near Woodsboro, MD to the Congoleum plant near Finksburg, MD. The rocks are carried in standard hopper cars. This rock train runs during daylight hours during cold weather months to prevent the rock from freezing, and impedng the unloading of the cars.
"CHFP- 2000 M-Th, They travel from New Haven, Connecticut to Fresh Pond, New York via Metro North from New Haven, Connecticut to New Rochelle, New York, then via Amtrak from New Rochelle, New York to Oak Point, New York, then via CSX from Oak Point, New York to Fresh Pond, New York where the stone is interchanged with the Long Island Railroad and the New York and Atlantic Railroad. FPCH returns the next day (with same crew after rest) via the reverse routing.
Fresh Pond Jct.,NYFPCH - 1000 Th-F, (same as above)Empty stone train to Cedar Hill,CT. when in season".
CN runs multiple shuttle trains of crushed taconite every day between Eveleth MN and Forbes MN for Cliffs United Taconite, a distance of about 15 miles each way. They move about 18 miillion tons a year this way. This is where old ore cars go to die.
Thanks to all of you who have contributed information in response to my request of March 4. You’ve been very helpful in identifying rock train operations on Class I railroads.
Just to clarify, I’m interested in revenue-producing rock trains on Class I roads (BNSF, CN, CP, CSX, KCS, NS and UP). So, this would exclude ballast trains, and it would exclude short line and regional railroads’ rock train operations (although I am interested in knowing about moves that are handled jointly by short line/regional carriers in conjunction with Class I roads).
At this point I’ll invite anyone else who has additional information on this topic to speak up, because I’m sure there are other trains out there that haven’t been mentioned so far.
Out here in Kansas we have a couple of anomalies as far as rock and sand supplies are concerned. I Southeast Kansas there is lots of limestone , it is primarily used to mak Portland Cement. Harder grades of limestone have to be trucked in, as does sand.
The SK&O RR (a WATCO Line ) moves sand from Wichita area to Southeast Kansas in covered hoppers to a distribution Center near Pittsburgh,Ks.
They also operate an aggregate train between a quarry near Moline, Kansas via Winfield,Ks, to the BNSF via Mulvane,Ks. to Wichita, for a local Construction and Materials Company.
The cars on that train( about 25 cars?) are older steel, bottom dump type ( Coal Cars?) and cycles about once a week: http://www.cornejocorp.com/aggregates/ ( shows a photo of their quarry loading into rail cars)
Limestone is mined around the great lakes and shipped to steel mills for use as flux in furnaces. It’s movement shadows iron ore from lakeport to mill. CN hauls the stone on the former B&LE.
There are two large quarries in/near Camak, GA on CSX’s former Georgia Railroad route.
The older quarry, operated by Martin Marietta, is the only reason for a 4 mile spur to Cedar Rock, GA. When Kings Bay Submarine Base was being built near St Marys, GA dedicated rock trains were run between the two. (I believe this operation was in the mid '80s) As a kid, my father always told me this quarry was where Stone Mountain near Atlanta came from. My great uncle owned the land where this quarry is located. At the time of the sale, he had the option to sell the land out-right or lease it with payment being basically a royalty of a penny a ton for all the rock hauled out. He took the out-right sell. However, the better option would have been the royalty as the sell took place well before the end of steam operations on the Georgia Railroad and rock is still being pulled out of that quarry by the dump truck and hopper car loads today.
The other quarry is very new, practically in the town of Camak. I am not aware of any dedicated trains that are ran out of it, hopefully someone else will be more helpful about it.
The northern third of Georgia, basically north of I-20, is mostly on solid granite. There are quarries throughout this area of the state. The quarry in Kennesaw, GA is still operating, but is no longer railserved.
The ironic part of a feature about aggregate is that this was an unwanted business by railroads such as UP as recently as 7-10 years ago. When the freight volumes were booming in the mid-00’s, there were news stories stating that UP was not going to haul aggregate.
On the UP we have a rock train that runs from Norma, WI to Refugio, TX. We run about one a day south on the spine line from our crew change point in South St. Paul to Mason city, IA. The manifest is usually 2 bay covered hoppers. Hope this helps
Here in Oklahoma there are several rock quarries located through out the state. One is located north of Lawton, OK, owned and operated by Dolese, an concrete and aggregate supplier, and served by the UP. The UP moves aggregate to OKC, Enid, Wichita, KS, and south into Texas. There is another rock quarry located in the Davis, OK area. It is served by the BNSF and moves aggregate into the DFW area. There is also a rock quarry located just west of the Port of Catossa and it is served by a Watco carrier, SKO, I think. Dolese also operates a Sand plant at Dover, OK served by the UP and ships sand to OKC, Enid, and other points to. The Up uses different cars for each type of product. Dolese has a number of cars lettered for them. Most of the UP cars are lettered for WP, or SP.
CSX runs another “Rock Runner” loop from Bittinger Quarry near Hanover, Pa. down the former WM to two stone unloading facilities in Baltimore, one at the former Fulton Junction wye between the former WM and present-day Amtrak in West Baltimore and the other down adjacent to where the former B&O Main Like to D.C.crosses the former WM in the Westport area of south Baltimore.
The quarry in question formerly supplied limestone for flux to the former Bethlehem Steel Sparrows Point steelmaking plant southeast of Baltimore, and the present-day service, run with stone hoppers instead of the usual coal hoppers, is essentially a vestigial remnant of that service, to put it into historical context.
I believe CSX and/or NS also run “rock runner”-like trains from central Virginia to the Alexandria area, specifically from the former SR Calverton Branch.
Maybe not a lot of help here but the The Pennsy Supply Millard Quarry is a major limestone quarry in Annville, PA. They ships unit trains out by NS in some rather well used open gondolas. They also have their own locomotives for moving cars around their facility. Not sure if they ship on a regular schedule or not.
Tom the Fredonia KY Rail line move two trains a day in open gondolas from Just south of Fredonia about 12 miles south to the Paal yards at Princeton Ky PAL (Paducah and Louisville RR) where pal engines take them either to Paducah to the BNSF or theCN lines. They also go east to connect with either CSX or Norfok Southern. Trains leaving the Princeton Yard are often 20 to 50 cars. The PAL is a regional made up from ex IC trackage. I am an ex magazine writer and photo nut. Harvey Lawrence Harv680@yahoo.net
Tom, In response to your query about rock trains there is a long lived operation in the foothills of Alberta, it has been operating more or less constantly since Inland Cement (now Lehigh Inland Cement) built a cement plant near Edmonton in 1955. The crushed limestone is loaded at a large quarry in Cadomin Alberta on the east slope of the front range of the Rockies and hauled approx. 220 km (137 miles) to Edmonton for use in the manufacture of cement and for aggregate products. Currently known as train U724/U725 loads/empties the train operates from twice a week to daily depending on demand. The equipment first used on this train was F-units and GP9’s in pairs and 20-25 CN triple hoppers (photograph on Google Earth, Panoramio @ Coalspur AB by Shaun Merrigan; in the 60’s Inland used leased cylindrical open hoppers with longitudinal bottom doors and automatic roof doors old reporting marks UNPX, now PWCX (photos at freight.railfan.ca look for PWCX 121932) these unusual cars seem to have been replaced by Ortner 3 Bay rapid discharge hoppers with reporting marks TILX/PWCX. Train lengths are variable I have seen several 75 car trains and two high horsepower units. Other pictures can be found at: www.imagescn.technomuses.ca click on industry then on cement and RailPictures.net, Tim Stevens CN 2660 @ Cadomin shoving empty rock train up to tipple.
Once again, I want to thank everyone who contributed information to this thread. I suspected that this community would be a tremendous information resource on a topic like this, and that turned out to be absolutely right. Again, thanks to all!
On the UP we have a rock train that runs from Norma, WI to Refugio, TX. We run about one a day south on the spine line from our crew change point in South St. Paul to Mason city, IA. The manifest is usually 2 bay covered hoppers. Hope this helps
If you’re looking for a side-bar for the article, I can give you snippets about firing, and later being a telegrapher-towerman, and later being engineer involved with the SP’s sand and gravel operations in the 60’s, through the end of the century about 25 miles south of Walnut Creek.
Your request, and responses to, give me an image of Mickey descending a huge staircase with buckets, and my sympathy aims at you; never the less…pardon a George Carlin moment…west of West Colton there was a quarry on the south side of the main’ that supplied large chunks of rock which ,when also included broken large pieces of concrete and other heavy impervious stuff, or not, generically was called rip-rap. Is this part of the artcle? Rip-rap thwarted many a wash-out.