This came up in another post of mine so I headed out this morning and thought I would take some pics of it to share. The name of the place is simply Holcim. There website mentions a few different kinds of cement and concrete, but the only thing this place ever gets is Trinity 3200 covered hoppers. I rarely see semi's going there to be loaded, but I think that's just because my timing is off. Once it warms up and the construstion season really starts I will have to take more pictures. I don't know if my pics show all 3 cars that were there, but in summer there was always around a dozen cars sitting there on the tracks. However, what you see in the pics is what you get. Other than the two steel pins mounted high between the unloading shed and the 2-story office, there is no other storage. The cars simply sit there untill, well, they're needed. I also know this because last spring/summer I wrote down reporting marks from a few of the cars and everytime I heard a train running through I jumped out there to see if they were taken. The two car numbers I had sat there about a month, which seems right. When they do get cars the always switches them seperatly, usually during the summer its a job in itself. A crew will come out here with nothing more than cars to switch at this transloading place. They often do the same for the rendering plant (like today) and the scrap yard. Incidentaly they only had one gondola switched today, I've seen then get 6 at one time before.
Theres also a Bing maps hit. If you scan to the right you can see the main with a line of 2 bays on a dead-end spur to the left of the main. In the 4 years we've been living in the area I've never seen that many cars sitting there for the place though.
Just thought I'd share all these.
I modeled something similer, but larger using a Walthers Medusa Cement plant, a Kibri Cement Batch Plant and a Pikestuff building to connect them. The idea is the silos receive cement and aggregate by rail from offsite manufacturing plants (too large to model on my layout) and can ship out dry bulk cement or aggregate in trucks or ready mix concrete in cement mixer trucks.
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
Thanks for the pictures!!
"Rust, whats not to love?"
How do they switch this plant when the track is gone just past the points on the switch? Is there a door and track at the other end? It is a neat looking plant.
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!
locoi1sa How do they switch this plant when the track is gone just past the points on the switch? Is there a door and track at the other end? It is a neat looking plant. Pete
You are correct in identifying this as a transloading facility, though those of us in the cement industry would simply refer to it as a "cement terminal." I have designed, erected, and commisioned quite a few of the real ones prior to retirement. Should there be interest, I could easily prepare drawings from which to construct a generic model of such a terminal. Have no clue if MRR would be interested in an article.
Most are similar, though some use pneumatic railcar unloading systems (buried Halliburton P-tanks or Fuller-Kinyon pumps in a below track pit} rather than the bucket elevator shown. I have designed them with as few as one overhead silo to as many as six. Most silos are 12' to 16' in diameter.
Ted
Eric97123I was jealous of your find until this weekend when I was driving in Portland and spotted a great cement plant right under my nose that I have driven by thousands of times. http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=rkpnmt4s90wd&scene=5568006&lvl=1&sty=b and just northwest up the river is a nice UP yard. You will have to copy the link cannot figure out how to make it a link
and just northwest up the river is a nice UP yard. You will have to copy the link cannot figure out how to make it a link
Just press the spacebar after you paste the link, and it will become active
G PaineEric97123I was jealous of your find until this weekend when I was driving in Portland and spotted a great cement plant right under my nose that I have driven by thousands of times. http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=rkpnmt4s90wd&scene=5568006&lvl=1&sty=b and just northwest up the river is a nice UP yard. You will have to copy the link cannot figure out how to make it a link Just press the spacebar after you paste the link, and it will become active
How to activate a link depends on what browser you are using.
"No soup for you!" - Yev Kassem (from Seinfeld)
MILW-RODRThe effort would be appreciated by many I think. A general curiosity would love to see any terminal plans but also the modeler in me wants to also. Of particular interest smaller terminals using a few concrete silos.
You might find this thread interesting.