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Blue Circle Cement Plants

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  • Member since
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  • From: Long Island
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Blue Circle Cement Plants
Posted by mandelswamp on Monday, October 10, 2005 2:23 PM
Atlas makes some nice N Scale 2-Bay Centerflow Hoppers that are painted for Blue Circle Cement. From my research, Blue Circle Cement became part of Lafarge North America in 2001. Unfortunately, my research has not been able to determine which Lafarge cement plants were originally Blue Circle Cement facilities. The only curent reference to Blue Circle Cement is to Lafarge Cement UK (see http://www.bluecircle.co.uk). I doubt that the Atlas covered hoppers would be carrying cement imported from the UK, so I am still trying to identify US cement plants that would ship to customers in such hoppers. That way my way bills could reflect the real life shipper to a customer modeled on my layout.

Does any one on the forum know where the Blue Circle Cement cement plants were? Lafarge has a cement plant at Ravena, New York. Was this originally a Blue Circle plant?
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Posted by Allen Jenkins on Monday, October 10, 2005 7:17 PM
There is an active Blue Circle Materials, in Atlanta, Georgia. Norfolk Southern brings crushed rock (1 1/2") to this plant, from west of Douglas, GA, in a low side gondola, usually about 40 per day, however, where the cement comes from, I can't say.
I know the cement rides 2 bay hoppers, of various types.
A Google search, would use Blue Circle Materials, or Blue Circle Concrete, with the particular area of interest.
Allen/Backyard
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Posted by JPowell on Tuesday, October 11, 2005 6:46 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by mandelswamp

Atlas makes some nice N Scale 2-Bay Centerflow Hoppers that are painted for Blue Circle Cement. From my research, Blue Circle Cement became part of Lafarge North America in 2001. Unfortunately, my research has not been able to determine which Lafarge cement plants were originally Blue Circle Cement facilities. The only curent reference to Blue Circle Cement is to Lafarge Cement UK (see http://www.bluecircle.co.uk). I doubt that the Atlas covered hoppers would be carrying cement imported from the UK, so I am still trying to identify US cement plants that would ship to customers in such hoppers. That way my way bills could reflect the real life shipper to a customer modeled on my layout.

Does any one on the forum know where the Blue Circle Cement cement plants were? Lafarge has a cement plant at Ravena, New York. Was this originally a Blue Circle plant?


Mandelswamp -
I just did a Google search on 'Blue Circle Cement' and found this article from 2001. It happens to mention NY alot, in particular, the Syracuse area. Not sure if it will help you out, but here's the link in any case. If I find more, I'll edit this post and put them here for you.

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2001/06/lafarge.htm

http://www.ftc.gov/os/2001/06/larfargeana.pdf

http://www.lafarge.com/cgi-bin/lafcom/jsp/news.do?BV_SessionID=@@@@1125486847.1129075812@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccccaddfhekkmekcfngcfkmdhgfdggg.0&function=pressrelease&news=536879357#
this one mentions Ravena as a Blue Circle manufacturing plant.

JP

//signed// John Powell President / CEO CNY Transportation Corp (fictional)

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Posted by JPowell on Tuesday, October 11, 2005 7:35 PM
Mandelswamp -
Here's another website I found on Blue Circle and the Ravena plant

http://www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/pcem/plantlis.pdf

JP

//signed// John Powell President / CEO CNY Transportation Corp (fictional)

http://s155.photobucket.com/albums/s303/nuts4sports34/

Hunter - When we met in January of 2000, you were just a 6 week old pup who walked his way into this heart of mine as the only runt in the litter who would come over to me. And today, I sit here and tell you I am sorry we had to put you down. It was the best thing for you and also the right thing to do. May you now rest in peace and comfort. Love, Dad. 8 June 2010

I love you and miss you Mom. Say hi to everyone up there for me. Rest in peace and comfort. Love, John. 29 March 2017

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Posted by ericsp on Tuesday, October 11, 2005 9:17 PM
If Blue Circle Cement was a publicly traded company, their SEC 10K forms are probably still on the SEC's website and might list the plant locations.

"No soup for you!" - Yev Kassem (from Seinfeld)

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Posted by XG01X on Thursday, October 13, 2005 2:40 PM
I think they had something to do with Williams Bro.s Cement too.
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Posted by Anonymous on Friday, October 14, 2005 6:42 AM
The old Lafarge plant in MIlwaukee WI, is now Blue Circle and there you will see the types of covered hoppers you talk about.
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Posted by mandelswamp on Monday, October 17, 2005 9:37 AM
JPowell:

Thanks for your information. Your references to the Lafarge press release and the FTC information confirmed what I suspected - that the Ravena, NY plant was indeed a Blue Circle plant.
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Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, October 18, 2005 5:16 AM
Lafarge owns quite a few aggragate industries east of Atlanta, GA, in the granite swath making up Stone Mountain, Panola Mtn, Arabian Mtn, Pine Mtn in Lithonia (about four active granite/gravel quarries and at least that many cement plants), and the Oxford, GA granite quarry. To my knowledge, only two of the quarries see any rail traffic (most gravel and granite ships out by truck), but I believe at least 4 cement plants between Covington and Atlanta see at least 5 or 10 rail cars each of aggregate and processed cement per week. Alot of the cement cars are still labelled Blue Circle though, so it wouldn't be out of place to use them in a Lafarge owned cement plant.

My understanding is that powdered cement is actually a combination of raw materials including crushed limestone, granite and sand, mixed and thoroughly dried to a powder, where it's then loaded into covered hoppers, and shipped to the distributor. To model a complete aggragate industry, a quarry (for the limestone and gravel), a cement processing plant (like Valley Cement by Walthers), and a cement distribution plant (like Medusa Cement or Blue Circle Cement by Walthers) would all be appropriate structures. The raw materials would come in by open top hopper from the quarry to the processing plant, then powdered cement would be shipped out in covered cement hoppers to the distribution facility where it would be either offloaded into cement mixer trucks for delivery to customers, or to a bagging plant where it would be bagged and shipped by truck for sale at retail stores and home improvement suppliers.

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