Cement plants

[HO7]

anyone know of where i can find a diagram of the the track and building arrangement of a Cement plant, where they actualy make the cement, any size plant will do. what raw materials would be brought in by train?

 

thanks

 mark

[charlie9]

Go to Bing maps and do a bird's eye view of Ste. Genevieve Mo.  There was a huge cement plant there.

Charlie

[wabash2800]

One of the industry soft cover books that Jeff Wilson did for Kalmbach, Industries Along the Tracks 3, has a complete section on cement plants with a track diagram, photographs and information on how they operate with different sizes and locations. I assume it is still available, and I highly recommend it.

Jim Boyd's Monday Morning Rails book has photos and some track info on one that was located at Dixon, Illinois. It was interesting in that both IC and C&NW trains serviced it and part of the right-of-way went down a city street to get to and from the cement plant! And if that wasn't enough for operating interest, C&NW and IC engines often double-headed in the same consist to get back uphill off the branch to the main track that was elevated!

Victor A. Baird

www.erstwhilepublications.com

 

[jrbernier]

Mark,

  ?Cement plants usually get the base material(limestone & chalk) that is mined close by.  The large cement plants in Mason City, IA did have small railroads several miles long that brought in the materials, but I syspect the remaining plant has it trucked in now. Fuel for the kiln many time has been oil or coal, but NG is also an option.  The other basic materials can include old tires and scrap.  This gives the cement it regional color.

  Cement plants are huge operations, and both bulk cement(small 2 bay covered hoppers) and bagged cement(box cars or truck) are shipped out.  Do a Goggle or Bing map search on Mason City, IA.  Just to the north are the two large plants - zoom in for detailed track layouts.

Jim

[wabash2800]

I forgot to mention that I wrote and researched a chapter in my book, Railroading on the Wabash Fourth District, on a 5 mile branchline built right at the turn of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century to service a cement plant at Stroh, Indiana. However, my info and photos are mostly circa 1930s, as the plant finally quit in the early 1940's. (The plant had been modernized several times in its existence.)

The Wabash brought clay in gondola cars from nearby Steubenville, Indiana, later mixed at the Stroh Plant with Marl that had been dredged mostly from nearby Big Turkey Lake. (Different kinds of material are used to produce the Calcium Carbonate in Portland Cement and the use of Marl is one variation. Marl, which is a mud, also has some clay and silt in it.) This plant used a "wet process" in that the mix was a slurry before it was heated in kilns to produces clinkers. The clinkers are ground and mixed with Gypsum to produce the cement. This is an over-simplification in that the Portland Cement process has many, many operations with a very highly extensive capital investment in equipment.

Shown in one of the track diagrams in my book, there were three standard gauge tracks that serviced the plant: one track to bring in coal in hoppers to fire the kilns, another track for loading of the finished cement and another to park the gondolas of clay ( the clay was scooped out by a crane with a clam shell).  At that time, covered hoppers for cement were not commonly used and cement was shipped out bagged in boxcars. (I'll assume the RR also brought in box cars filled with bagging material and perhaps ash was taken out in gondolas too. Also, Gypsum comes from quarries, so perhaps it was shipped in by rail also, though I could not find any info on shipping that raw material reference the Stroh plant.)

The other interesting thing about this operation was that it had a narrow gauge steam RR to haul the marl in small dump cars from around the lake to the cement plant which also included a causeway on the lake.  There were a number of the narrow gauge tracks that served the plant with a small engine house, primitive engine service facilities and track to park the marl dump cars before they were pulled (by cable) up an incline that dumped clay into a mill. I also included a layout for the building and assoicated machinery, and a photo of the plant circa 1930. Two of the narrow gauge engines are shown in operation along with a dredging crane.

Other industries served by the Wabash in Stroh, included a pickle plant, coal and lumber yards, stock yard, mill, etc. Passenger service existed between Helmer and Stroh from 1907 to the early 1930s. There was no yard at Stroh per say, with just a double ended siding and a minimum of spurs for industries.

Also included in that chapter is an account in the own words of a railroader who worked the Wabash train in the late 1930s that serviced the branch. As far as I can determine, diesels never operated on the branch but with a dedicated train powered by an 0-6-0, Wabash B-6 Class steam engine btw Montpelier, Ohio and Stroh, as needed, at the very last. There never were any turntables or wyes on the branch, nor an engine house or formal cinder pit. And water was pumped from a creek near the cement plant and stored in small water tank for the Wabash steam locos. (A water column was used rather than a spout directly from the tank.)

This would be an interesting branch to model, including a unique, very sharp S curve on the branch and an undulating profile with sharp curves btw Helmer and Stroh. Stroh had a station, a few tracks and industries in additon to a passing siding and the junction with the Stroh Branch and the Fourth District mainline. The track at the last was very overgrown with shubbery and tall grass and some of the light railed dated back to the 1880s. The rail was finally pulled up in 1945.

Victor A. Baird

www.erstwhilepublications.com

 

 

[BigJim]

You could also go to Google earth and look up "Lone Star, VA". The plant there shipped in coal for their power plant and gypsom for the cement.

[Great Western]

There is a good cement works, (St.Mary;s Cement ) with silos, loading docks for Great Lakes tug/barge combos, and associated sidings in the port of Milwaukee WI. A satellite view would show it all. The added interest here could be the port/harbor making for an extra features and modelling. http://www.stmaryscement.com/saintmaryscementinc/ The company has many plants around the Great Lakes and I am sure there are other companies that you could look at for ideas.

[tomikawaTT]

The old South Dakota State Cement Plant (now privately owned) is in Rapid City, South Dakota.  It's a one million ton/year operation, served by the Rapid City, Pierre and Eastern (Genesee.)

On a map, it fronts on St Onge Street just north of West Chicago Street between the railroad and Sturgis Road.  Don't ask coordinates - I got there from Las Vegas by 'boom and zoom.'  (Both Google and Mapquest give me Las Vegas as default.  Google has an accurate track plan.)

As cement plants go, this isn't very large - but an uncompressed model would easily overfill a two car garage.  OTOH, you could drop it into either of the two big plants in the Mojave - Tehachapi area of California and lose it.

Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - without cement plants)

["JaBear"]

Gidday Mark, to the forum.

I have found three articles in the Model Railroader on modelling cement plants.

The first by Robert Cushman in the July 1963 MR describes the Cayuga Lake Cement Plant, and Walt Niehoffs’ article in the April 1995 MR is about kitbashing a cement plant based on that original article. When I first looked at the Portland Point site on Google Maps a few years ago the plant was still there but now appears to have been demolished.

Ken Nelson in the July 1994 MR describes how cement is made, and the associated buildings in a cement plant. He refers to the Blue Circle Cement, Ravena N.Y and North American Cement near Howes Cave N.Y both which are still visible on Google Maps though the North American plant appears not to have been in production for some time. Mr Nelson also has a track plan that compressed the cement plant based on the North American plant into an area about 8 feet by six feet.

As the others have mentioned cement plants cover a fair bit of real estate, the two Blue Circle open rotary kilns alone, according to the article are 580 ft long with a diameter of 20 ft which equates to approximately 6’6” x 2.75”. Scale compression is a thing I have difficulty with, on one hand I require a plant that will generate a good amount of traffic but don’t have the room for it.

If you look for wp8thsubspost on this thread you will see how Rob has modelled his cement plant.

http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/225932.aspx

As for inward raw materials, economics generally meant that the cement plants were built as near as possible to the limestone quarry and conveyors, aerial tramway or perhaps dump trucks were used, though trains and barges have also been used in some cases.

Portland cement is 60%  lime, and other ingredients may include 25% silica, 10% alumina, 5% iron oxide, and gypsum.

My figures are to be taken with a huge grain of salt but I have come up with the following for a 1950s cement plant.

Outwards. Bulk cement 70 ton covered hopper, 3 per day. Bagged cement one 40’ boxcar per day.

Inwards. Gypsum, 1 70 ton covered hopperor gondola per week; Silica, 2 70 ton covered hoppers or gondolas per week; Iron ore and alumina, 1 hopper per week each; General supplies, 1 40’ boxcar per week; Coal, 4 2 bay hoppers per day: Fire bricks and grinding balls for the ball mills, 1 40” boxcar each per year.

I must stress these figures (guesstimate!!) are the best I’ve been able to come up with so any clarification or correction will be gratefully received.

Have Fun,

Cheers, the Bear.

[ndbprr]

My opinion is you would get more use from a cement distribution location receiving covered hoppers of dry cement with storage silos and shipping to concrete plants. Ozinga concrete in Mokena Illinois received cement, rock , and sand by rail almost daily. As much astwenty cars at a time.