Tanks?

Those aren’t tanks, those are kilns.

A quick guess at brick making materials

Major requirements are clay for the bricks, coal for the kilns, hoppers to ship the materials in, boxcars or gondolas to ship the goods out.... Doesn't the original article list all that already?  Seems like an essential bit of information that would be needed to pitch the article to the editors in the first place.

Janet N.

Here is a chart showing the

Here is a chart showing the brick manufacturing process: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Michael_Smith119/publication/304778779/figure/fig3/AS:380124684931075@1467640195755/The-brick-manufacturing-process-Source-The-Brick-Industry-Association-2006-8.png

After forming and cutting the bricks need drying. That can be natural air drying or heated drying. In some factories the waste heat from the kilns is used for drying.

More modern factories might have changed to oil firing instead of coal or in some cases charcoal.
Regards, Volker

Replies

Dave,
I do realize those are the kilns. I got lucky and found 4 of those that were produced by Mr Plaster before the became unavailable. Plus I got the 4 stacks. They all need to be weathered properly.

I also believe I am only going to be able to make use of only 3 of the kilns, due to space limitations of new configuration. Original idea was to utilize Walther's 'Water Street Freight Terminal as the office/warehouse,...now considering P2K 'Moore & Co', and maybe even an old Sydam metal building kit.

Janet,
I only have that first image page,...not the rest of the article.

Volker,
You posted as I was composing replies already. I'll have a look at that link you provided

Brick Stacks & Pallets

I picked up a pkg of brick stacks and pallets at a train show this past sat (not a very good show, sure do miss the old Timonium show).

Google is your friend

Just typing in "major raw materials need for brick making" into google search pops up:

So I guess I need sizable

So I guess I need sizable stowage for sand, clay, and coal? Wonder how clay would be stowed, and what railcars it would be brought in on,...or maybe barged in?

Interesting video on the brick making process

This is interesting because I think it shows that a brick factory does not need to be a huge sprawling complex, covering half of the layout. 

@ Janet

The photo is part of the directions for the Walthers Cornerstone Brick Works series of kits. 

Quote:

Quote: Normally, bricks contain the following ingredients:

Clay

Clay is normally sourced locally so it would be rare to ship in clay.

If the kilns are coal fired, then coal in.  

Brick in boxcars out.

Many modern "bricks" are actually closer to small concrete blocks.

D'Hanis Brickworks

The HABS HAER site has many pictures of the D'Hanis Brickworks in Texas that had those round kilns.

Not sure what era you are

Not sure what era you are modeling, but this facility is in my hometown and borders the NS Buffalo Line. You can see where they source their raw materials lol

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Watsontown+Brick+Company/@41.0690606,-76.8501414,707m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x89cf0c97c2667031:0x55e925ebc6e02000!8m2!3d41.0704535!4d-76.8519697

HO kilns, etc. from "Mr. Plaster"

I have two kilns and some palletized bricks from  "Mr. Plaster" that are surplus to my current plans.

They've been OOP for some time. I believe the company was based in Toledo, Ohio.

Where are any kilns for firing the brick?

I didn't see any signs of kilns??

D'Hanis Brick & Tile

Thanks Dave,

That's an interesting photo,...big plant

http://www.dhanisbricktile.com/

Modern Brick Works

I did a one day temp job in a brick plant back in the 80's. Don't recommend it !!!! Anyway Brian, these days they don't use outside kilns.

It was a modern cement block place or used the cement tilt up walls. There was a stamp of some sort that or a mold system that formed the brick. I was on the cooking end of things. We loaded the bricks on to a conveyor belt that flowed through a huge oven. Cooked the bricks and then they were stacked onto a pallet. Other then the belt it was all labor intensive and done by hand.

Jack

Brick Factory in Washingto DC

When I lived up in that DC & Annapolis area I visited this site was just off on New York ave as you entered DC from the Balt/Wash expressway

http://bygonebrookland.com/on-this-spot-before-the.html

They made lots of good old red brick like that was used in DC and Baltimore.

Likely there was a brick factory(s) in Balt, but I've not found photos/info on it.

More photos of the ruins,..

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/united-brick-corporation-ruins

Check out the building in that one particular photo, I've been looking for that photo

Rail service?

Not much rail service at any of those plants.

Rail Service

Not much rail service there, thats true Dave.
I ran across another HUGE complex up in PA that made refractory brick for steel production items, etc .
It had a huge number of kilns, and lots of RR service.

Mine is just serving Baltimore,...and maybe some of the steel industry I have on the layout

Tony Koester

Has mentioned in at least one 'Trains of Thought' column that his father was manager of a brickyard. Reaching out to him might yield insight into the rail shipping of brick. 

Where did bricks get delivered from Brickyards circa 1940-50's

This older discussion on this forum had some interesting material,..

Where did bricks get delivered from Brickyards circa 1940s and 1950s
https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/where-did-bricks-get-delivered-from-brickyards-circa-1940s-and-1950s-12188371

Watsontown Brick...

I live in the area of Watsontown as well and that is a long enduring company. When the White Deer & Loganton was abandoned, Watsontown Brick acquired the Class A vertical-boiler Climax affectionately known as "The Pot", so at one time at least, Watsontown Brick would have had its own industrial narrow gauge railroad. 

Ryan

Mount Union's Brick Works revisited

Mount Union's Brick Works revisited

In its heyday, Mount Union, PA, was touted as the largest manufacturer of silica bricks in the world. Starting in the closing year of the 19^th Century, three busting plants were soon operating day and night, providing steady streams of hard semi-quartzite bricks for lining steel mill blast furnaces. Long trains of hefty 40-foot steel box cars with “PENNSYLVANIA” boldly lettered on their flanks snaked their way out of the Mount Union yard onto the four-track mainline to start their journey west via Altoona and Horseshoe Curve, filled with silica brick bound for the steel mills of Pittsburgh,....

http://magazine.trainlife.com/rmj_1991_7/ (Go to page 58, 59)
(Railmodel Journal, July 1991)

I thought this quote in the article was interesting. “IF ever there was a prototype example of making use of virtually every inch of space, which is so common on model layouts, it was Mount Unions's North American plant.”