Sean - Google search = Tilcon rock quarry Haverstraw New York It is located on the Hudson River, about 35 miles North of New York City. They own a mountain (granite rock) just West of the river. They dynamite a section; load huge pieces into the crusher; the rocks then travel on conveyer belts thru the mountain via a tunnel (under a highway); and are separated by size, in enormous piles. A lot of them are then loaded onto barges, & towed South toward the city. A lot more are loaded onto tractor-trailers (again headed South). The product is used mainly to build roads, & building foundations. When they built the World Trade Center, the rock for the foundations came from this operation. Nothing is loaded on freight cars, even tho CSX (former NYC, then CONRAIL) main-line freight trackage runs between the mountain & the river. Hope some of this helps with your project, or, someone elses.
Westshorefan (nearing the end of the line)
Westshorefan,
That website is great. The list of products and uses was a big help.
Sean
dehusmanNot necessarily. There are several quarries that are virtually exclusively railroad production. Railroads dump thousands of tons of ballast every year. Limestone is not considered premium ballast, it is too soft and dissolves in acid conditions. Granite or trap rock is the premium ballast. It is VERY hard and almost indestructible. It will last for decades.
Thousands of tons per year would not make a very big or profitable quarry. One of our plants crushes, washes, and sizes 500 tons per hour. And this is one of our smaller operations. We have had it cranked up to 750 TPH but turned it down to get a better, cleaner finished product. To keep things sane and manageable we usually run around 350 to 400 TPH. The plant is fed with four 40 ton trucks and two large front end loaders out of a blasted quarry hole 1/8 of a mile away. Right now the wall is 200 feet long and 75 feet deep. This is a new quarry that just got built. The first jaw has a 30x48 inch opening crushing to 4 inches that feeds two 3 foot cones. Then it travels via conveyor to the four deck screen where it is sprayed with water and sized to 5 sizes of finished product. Stone dust, 3/8 inch, 1/2 inch, 3/4 inch 1 1/2 inch. We also have scalpers in the chutes to make dense grade of any size of 4 inch minus. I am not a geologist but the rock looks like Diorite or Andesite. Blasting is done 2 or 3 times a week.
Our other plants are primarily sand a gravel plants. Same system but no blasting. No stone dust but 2 or 3 grades of sand. Fine mason, course mason, concrete sand, 3/8 pea gravel, 3/4 stone, 1 1/2 inch stone, and more of a waste product but does sell sometimes is washed silt. Our oldest plant is the smallest. It was built in the fifties but has been revamped over the years. It produces 200 to 300 TPH.
Pete
I pray every day I break even, Cause I can really use the money!
I started with nothing and still have most of it left!
The old rock quarry thread, I dug up for Fred.
TF
Double post, these old threads take a while to surface apparently
Track fiddler,
I would like to thank you for taking the time to "resurrect " this thread. I Have been thinking of putting in an abandoned rock quarry on the Demon's Hollow & Pacific.
I knew a few things about rock quarrys and this information came at a very opportune time.
Lots of good info here!
Rust...... It's a good thing !
Little Timmy! Not at all, my pleasure.
So good to hear from you. I could have missed but I haven't seen you around for a while. Maybe you just been busy working on layout stuff.
Well anyway, good to see you again
Today they use ammonium nitrate explosives. MUCH safer than dynamite. As stated above, they can precicely determine how much explosives to use and how to place the bore holes for precise results. The ammonium nitrate is little pellets that are dropped into the hole from a truck, the detonator is lowered in and the hole covered. BOOM, nice rock to move to the customers.