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They simply take the covered hoppers deliver them as a "train" to the cement facility that would ship by truck to support the ready mix plants. The facility would use a very small electric motorman type vehicle to "pull" one hopper onto the unloading track. A air driven hammer is attached to the "pot" which is the actual bottom of the hopper, the hatches are opened and the cement "shaken" out of the car into a grate where it then is sent up to the silo for storage. It does not take long to unload one of these. The Cement facility at Hope Arkansas where I used to take cement out to a ready mix plant by truck in little rock would recieve about 120 covered hoppers (2 bay) twice a week (or once a week not sure) In Union Bridge at Lehigh Cement, the covered hoppers are switched directly into the silo building where they simply "pull" the cement out of the cars into underground carriers where the cement is sent "UP" to the silo above. This was big time railroading as nighly cement trains came in from the Maryland Midland. (I dont know where they came from) Now there is a major facility that made portland cement in Virginia (I think either winchester or martinsburg) and they basically drive most if the supply of cememt for a large area of the midatlantic. Another facility was in Baltimore near Curtis Bay and they would pull cement off the ship by air pressure and put it into the silos above for transloading into trucks. It only took a few minutes to "feed" a bulk tanker. The Canton Railroad also switches this area as well. I think it was either "Blue circle" or "Blue star" cement but dont remember. "Cement" is the word for the material which when mixed with water, rock, sand, additives etc at a ready mix plant becomes "Concrete"
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