Hi
In the current issue of MR they have an article on scratchbuilding a Bentonite Plant. I think the structures look great and would love to put something like it on my layout. However I prefer to model the Midwest area. So, can someone tell me an industry in the Midwest that would use a plant layout like the Bentonite plant in the MR article?
Thanks
wdcrvr
Well, since Midwest made cork roadbed for HO trains, heh heh... just kidding.
Bentonite is a subject near and dear to me as a geologist I worked with a lot of drillers who used bentonite to seal environmental wells. Bentonite is a type of clay that expands when it gets wet so it is ideal for sealing environmental wells with, but also used in land fills and even sealing ponds, and of course drilling etc. Honestly I have never seen a Bentonite plant but I'd guess they would have a generic look - the bentonite was shipped in bags on pallets and plastic buckets for the oil field and environmental drillers.
In graduate school I took a clay minerology class and found it very interesting - so many darn uses for clay it's amazing - of course koalinite used in paper, china, paints, medicines, etc, and there pottery and fertilizer, rubber fillers, kilns, a meriad of things. My professor had served as a consultant for many countries all over the world - he had a very interesting life.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
Bentonite is a clay that is used for 'drilling mud' in the gas/petroleum industry, and as a 'binder' for taconite pellets. It is also used in the paper industry.
It can be found in the Midwest, though large deposits in SD/WY generate much of the railcar traffic.
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
How about something you might see in Missouri, Kansas, Illinois or Kentucky?
Back a LONG time ago, when I was playing with wine-making, Bentonite (aka "Wisconsin Clay") was used as a filtration agent - and worked quite well, IIRC...
May your freight ALWAYS roll smoothly...and ON TIME!!
Google Maps is your friend. These are near where I grew up in Indiana, but you can probably find similar industries 30mi away in Illinois. (Try around Effingham for starters)
US Gypsum near Shoals, IN.
38.682652, -86.713023
Just west of that
National Gypsum (no longer rail served)
38.673843, -86.753359
A farmers Co-op would not be out of place either or an adjacent coal loading loop (now with tracks removed and used for grain).
38.860150, -87.061588
Here are photos of coal loop in service in late 80s/early 90s https://www.flickr.com/photos/sataraid1/7607079930/in/photostream/
For a short period in the 60's and 70's Hallet Minerals had a similar plant on the Missabe in Burnett, MN, about 30 miles north of Duluth. They shipped in raw bentonite from Wyoming and dried it there for USS.
After a few years somebody came to their senses and figured out that since it cost twice as much to ship bentonite as to produce it, it made no sense whatever to ship raw bentonite at 40% moisture most of the way, dry it, and then ship it 50 more miles when pre dried bentonite could be purchased and shipped directly. The plant was closed and eventually torn down.
It seems to me like you're asking, "If I built this industry and placed it on my Midwest layout, what could I realistically say it does?" The simple (but not very satisfying) answer is, it's your railroad, you can do anything you want. Including building an industry to process a previously undiscovered Midwestern lode of bentonite.
But if you desire more realism, a facility like this could process and ship some other substance handled in a semi-liquid or slurry form. Other kinds of clays are the most obvious. Although it's most commonly found in and around Georgia, kaolin -- a clay used in polishing glossy paper, and commonly shipped by rail -- is also found in Minnesota, Missouri, and southern Illinois. All across the Midwest can be found absorbent clays (Fuller's Earth), fire clays, plastic clays, ball clays, flint clays... here, just check out this link. Clay Resources of the Midwest
--Steven Otte, Model Railroader senior associate editorsotte@kalmbach.com
Steve
Thank you so much for giving an answer to the question I was asking. I guess I did not make myself clear enough in my original posting. Now I feel that I can use this structure (or something similar) and have a plausible explanation for its existence on my layout.
If you are adventuresome, take a trip to Wyoming to see bentonite plants. I seem to recall seeing one in Worland WY or somewhere close to that. I seem to recall nothing unusual but it was served by covered hoppers. We had visited Yellowstone Natl Park and were on the way home. And if you do get out there, go to Bill WY along the four track BNSF/UP track to the coal mines.
I just saw a bentonite plant near Powel Wyoming. It looked to me like a grain milling plant and had a bunch of covered hoppers on the tracks near it and a bunch of fairly large vertical storage tanks. So, some type of grain processing?
NP 2626 "Northern Pacific, really terrific"
Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association: http://www.nprha.org/
Another industry to consider located in Illinois is Corning Glass. As it happens Unimin Corp has a glass sand mine near Winchester VA. Unimin also owns the shortline, Winchester & Western, and ships the sand in it's own hoppers to Corning.
My neighbor while traveling has seen the W & W hoppers in IL & NY.
Bob
Don't Ever Give Up