Concrete Plants

[dehusman]

2. information (mainly for 1980s/Chicago) on what cars sand would normally be loaded in???

Recyled ore jennies were common (the short open top hoppers that they load iron ore in).  Two bay open top hoppers were also common and open top gondolas.

By the way, "ballast" in the US is normally a larger size than they commonly use in concrete.  I know what you are saying but in the US they usually call it "aggregate" rather than ballast.

3a. how was cement unloaded? 

By both gravity and air pressure.  Depends on how the plant is set up.

3b. Once dropped was the cement moved on conveyor or blown? 

Gravity is conveyored and pnuematic is blown. 

3c. Did they use car shakers - as they don't appear to be shifting the cement with air?

  Some did.  They would have a bracket on the side of the hopper to attach the shaker.  Some hoppers wouldn't have them because the vibration would damage the linings.

Dave H.

[Dave-the-Train]

I really like the Cement plants thread.  The link

http://www.cement.org/basics/concretebasics_history.asp

leads to a lot of interesting stuff.

Including...

http://www.cement.org/basics/concretebasics_concretebasics.asp

I had forgotten that concrete includes sand as well as ballast... so, if I have a large concrete plant I not only need to ship in cement but sand as well... assuming that the plant is built in the largest ingredient by %... the ballast.

So I'm after some information please...

1. pics of large concrete plants - probably the pre-stressed stuff like bridge sections - but tip-up buildings would be good too

2. information (mainly for 1980s/Chicago) on what cars sand would normally be loaded in???

Hoppers... open or closed for sand for concrete?

3a. how was cement unloaded?  The Walthers cars appear to have a gate to drop the load straight down (loads of dust? ).  In the UK we move cement by bag or air pressure blowing it in and out of tankers (both rail and road).  (Clearly a plant would only use bags for the very special stuff - it amazes me how many special stuffs there are). 

3b. Once dropped was the cement moved on conveyor or blown?  (I'm surprised that the Walthers' cars don't have pipe outlets like Atearn's 2 and 4 bay Centreflows... I'm not surprised that I'd never noticed this before )

3c. Did they use car shakers - as they don't appear to be shifting the cement with air?

Thanks for all help