anyone know of where i can find a diagram of the the track and building arrangement of a Cement plant, where they actualy make the cement, any size plant will do. what raw materials would be brought in by train?
thanks
mark
Go to Bing maps and do a bird's eye view of Ste. Genevieve Mo. There was a huge cement plant there.
Charlie
One of the industry soft cover books that Jeff Wilson did for Kalmbach, Industries Along the Tracks 3, has a complete section on cement plants with a track diagram, photographs and information on how they operate with different sizes and locations. I assume it is still available, and I highly recommend it.
Jim Boyd's Monday Morning Rails book has photos and some track info on one that was located at Dixon, Illinois. It was interesting in that both IC and C&NW trains serviced it and part of the right-of-way went down a city street to get to and from the cement plant! And if that wasn't enough for operating interest, C&NW and IC engines often double-headed in the same consist to get back uphill off the branch to the main track that was elevated!
Victor A. Baird
www.erstwhilepublications.com
Mark,
?Cement plants usually get the base material(limestone & chalk) that is mined close by. The large cement plants in Mason City, IA did have small railroads several miles long that brought in the materials, but I syspect the remaining plant has it trucked in now. Fuel for the kiln many time has been oil or coal, but NG is also an option. The other basic materials can include old tires and scrap. This gives the cement it regional color.
Cement plants are huge operations, and both bulk cement(small 2 bay covered hoppers) and bagged cement(box cars or truck) are shipped out. Do a Goggle or Bing map search on Mason City, IA. Just to the north are the two large plants - zoom in for detailed track layouts.
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
I forgot to mention that I wrote and researched a chapter in my book, Railroading on the Wabash Fourth District, on a 5 mile branchline built right at the turn of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century to service a cement plant at Stroh, Indiana. However, my info and photos are mostly circa 1930s, as the plant finally quit in the early 1940's. (The plant had been modernized several times in its existence.)
The Wabash brought clay in gondola cars from nearby Steubenville, Indiana, later mixed at the Stroh Plant with Marl that had been dredged mostly from nearby Big Turkey Lake. (Different kinds of material are used to produce the Calcium Carbonate in Portland Cement and the use of Marl is one variation. Marl, which is a mud, also has some clay and silt in it.) This plant used a "wet process" in that the mix was a slurry before it was heated in kilns to produces clinkers. The clinkers are ground and mixed with Gypsum to produce the cement. This is an over-simplification in that the Portland Cement process has many, many operations with a very highly extensive capital investment in equipment.
Shown in one of the track diagrams in my book, there were three standard gauge tracks that serviced the plant: one track to bring in coal in hoppers to fire the kilns, another track for loading of the finished cement and another to park the gondolas of clay ( the clay was scooped out by a crane with a clam shell). At that time, covered hoppers for cement were not commonly used and cement was shipped out bagged in boxcars. (I'll assume the RR also brought in box cars filled with bagging material and perhaps ash was taken out in gondolas too. Also, Gypsum comes from quarries, so perhaps it was shipped in by rail also, though I could not find any info on shipping that raw material reference the Stroh plant.)
The other interesting thing about this operation was that it had a narrow gauge steam RR to haul the marl in small dump cars from around the lake to the cement plant which also included a causeway on the lake. There were a number of the narrow gauge tracks that served the plant with a small engine house, primitive engine service facilities and track to park the marl dump cars before they were pulled (by cable) up an incline that dumped clay into a mill. I also included a layout for the building and assoicated machinery, and a photo of the plant circa 1930. Two of the narrow gauge engines are shown in operation along with a dredging crane.
Other industries served by the Wabash in Stroh, included a pickle plant, coal and lumber yards, stock yard, mill, etc. Passenger service existed between Helmer and Stroh from 1907 to the early 1930s. There was no yard at Stroh per say, with just a double ended siding and a minimum of spurs for industries.
Also included in that chapter is an account in the own words of a railroader who worked the Wabash train in the late 1930s that serviced the branch. As far as I can determine, diesels never operated on the branch but with a dedicated train powered by an 0-6-0, Wabash B-6 Class steam engine btw Montpelier, Ohio and Stroh, as needed, at the very last. There never were any turntables or wyes on the branch, nor an engine house or formal cinder pit. And water was pumped from a creek near the cement plant and stored in small water tank for the Wabash steam locos. (A water column was used rather than a spout directly from the tank.)
This would be an interesting branch to model, including a unique, very sharp S curve on the branch and an undulating profile with sharp curves btw Helmer and Stroh. Stroh had a station, a few tracks and industries in additon to a passing siding and the junction with the Stroh Branch and the Fourth District mainline. The track at the last was very overgrown with shubbery and tall grass and some of the light railed dated back to the 1880s. The rail was finally pulled up in 1945.
You could also go to Google earth and look up "Lone Star, VA". The plant there shipped in coal for their power plant and gypsom for the cement.
.
Alan, Oliver & North Fork Railroad
https://www.buckfast.org.uk/
If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there. Lewis Carroll English author & recreational mathematician (1832 - 1898)
The old South Dakota State Cement Plant (now privately owned) is in Rapid City, South Dakota. It's a one million ton/year operation, served by the Rapid City, Pierre and Eastern (Genesee.)
On a map, it fronts on St Onge Street just north of West Chicago Street between the railroad and Sturgis Road. Don't ask coordinates - I got there from Las Vegas by 'boom and zoom.' (Both Google and Mapquest give me Las Vegas as default. Google has an accurate track plan.)
As cement plants go, this isn't very large - but an uncompressed model would easily overfill a two car garage. OTOH, you could drop it into either of the two big plants in the Mojave - Tehachapi area of California and lose it.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - without cement plants)
Cheers, the Bear.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."