Just piddling and layout out some track.

So, 

Here is how the story goes. Two railroads ran very close to each other and actually crossed each other near the old cement plant.  At some point in history, a merger was allowed between the two railroads. The cement plant is still a healthy customer and the railroad reorganized the traffic flow and designated the primary main and the old secondary into primarily uni directional operations.

Nowadays, the junction is still used but trains now move off of the double track main using an upgraded interchange track near the old cement plant. Trains on the secondary main still cross the junction, but the secondary main ends not too far from this junction.  The old line is now used to service a few industries and a small yard to hold cars for the cement plant. I do not know exactly what the plant will look like at this point, but something that straddles the tracks will cover the future opening through the wall. 

A whole bunch of SMD plant lighting will add to the overall dramatic effect. 

I think this junction is going to end up being a very photogenic spot. It just seems like something I have seen in real life. 

 In this view, the cement plant is built along the wall to the right and possibly against the wall concealing the double track exit through the wall and into the unfinished portion of the layout. 

This is another view of the available real estate. I think a couple of in plant RR crossings will make an interesting visual.

In the bottom of the photo is the interchange switch that moves trains from the double track to the secondary main.  In the background, it is possible to see the beginning of the wooden trestle that creates a speed restriction of 40mph over the bridge that spans the river. This area is seen in other blog posts. 

So, where should other track be located and what should it look like? Where would switches come off of the mains? If you could just do a line drawing with suggestions, that would help. 

Look at prototypes

I know of a few Portland cement plants located alongside mainlines.  The plant at Howes Cave, New York on the D&H is one.  The mill that is Clinchfield, Georgia (south of Macon on the former Southern) is another.  Lehigh Cement's mill in Leeds, Alabama is close to the old Southern and CofG mains.  Monolith, California (just east of Tehachapi summit) and Victorville (just east of Cajon Pass) also fit the bill.

Otherwise, most plants I can think of are on branchlines or long spurs off mainlines.  In many cases the mill _is_ the town, and it's named something like "Portland" (as in Colorado) or "Limestone" or some such.

Most Portland cement plants are located very near limestone quarries, so their inbound supplies are usually limited to fuel (often coal), kaolin or bauxite, gypsum, and bags if the plant sells it that way.  In the days before covered hoppers (late 1930s), most cement was shipped in barrels in boxcars so they would also get cooperage supplies.  A plant that is not near a quarry, like the old Williams Brothers plant in northwest Atlanta got some of its stone in gondolas.

Portland cement also needs a small amount of iron which since the '70s has often been provided by burning steel-belted tires in the kiln.  Not sure how they added the iron before that. 

The Walthers "Valley Cement" is flawed in two important ways.  Most noticably it doesn't have a preheater tower, that tall structure in the middle of your night shot.  It also doesn't have clinker storage.  Raw cement when it comes out of the kiln is called clinker and it's generally the size of pebbles or even bigger.  It is mildly hydro-reactive so it is stored in large covered sheds.  Then it is fed into the mill to be ground into a fine powder and mixed with gypsum to regulate the setting time.  Only then is it stored in upright silos awaiting loading into covered hoppers.

So you need a track for inbound fuel (unless it's fed oil or natural gas by a pipeline), and other one or two for the other supplies.  And you need a track for covered hopper loading and probably a storage track or two to store empties.  Many mills have their own switchers because they need to move cars all day.

You asked about "how many switches off the mainline?"  Be careful there.  Mainlines busy enough to need directional running will be signaled and that means you try to minimize switches off them.  A cement mill or other large industry will have a running track alongside the main and the switches will come off that.  Just something to think about.

Scott Chatfield

Some clarification, Scott

Okay, 

Thanks for the great information, Scott. Your post kinda proves how big of a customer a cement plant would be. It will also give me an excuse to paint an old GE for LaFarge / CEMEX cement, etc.

As far as aggregate coming in in gondolas, I guess this is primarily limestone from a Glacier gravel type of kitbash? If it doesn't come by rail, some large conveyors or something like that would look appropriate, I guess?

What is a good starter for a preheater tower? Something in the steel mill series or a refinery kit or what?

Klinker storage will just be more silos placed prior to a crusher, right?

...

It seems to me like Walther's has stopped short of a proper cement plant, whereas there should be a rework of their blast furnace to make the tower on so many cements plants...

Wow, Legos are ridiculous !

Benny, 

I think you have a point. I just wonder how many kits they could sell and at what price? For $250, I would probably just try and kitbash a decent representation. If they could offer something that would even be a backdrop offering, I would probably go for it, but I think part of the problem is that it is a tall structure, even selectively compressed. If it was a good kit, I could see it selling for between $50 and $75, especially with the detail items that would be necessary.

This still doesn't address the fact that Valley Cement is a BIG kit. It should be and I think Walthers did a pretty good job with it. I am just comparing walls and so forth and the only way to fit it into my enormous space is to have the mainlines run through the middle of the plant. The rotary kiln, which would happen to attach to the missing preheating tower, is about 18". I am modeling that as a full piece because I don't think it would look right being modeled as a backdrop structure. 

The thought crossed my mind to use some Evergreen/Plastruct structural shapes or even the Walthers skyscraper under construction for the tower parts. I then thought I could use Lego rocket parts or something like that for the shapes for the big cyclones, but those pieces are ridiculously EXPENSIVE. I might as well just modify pieces of the blast furnace. 

On another note, does anyone know what the Walthers buildings represent? I was surprised to see the directions simply referring to them as Building #1, Building #2, and Building #3. 

Madusa

Isn't that one portion of Valley Cement just a copy of Medusa Cement?

kirkefer,

If you look at the footprint drawing Walthers provides, most of the buildings are identified, just not the one feeding the rotary.

Ash Grove

Ash Grove Cement is a major producer, and the Wikipedia article at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ash_Grove_Cement_Companyhas links to views of several of their plants that will help you with rail configurations and the siting of plant facilities.

...

Kirk, All of my cement plant study work is based upon the Calportland plant up the road from me in Rillito, now Marana.

The first thing you will notice about the site is that the railroad makes a return loop within the facility.  at one point you can also look at the property and see that there was a spur of what was perhaps a second wider return loop along the south fence; in short, this is almost a perfect 4x8 Single Industry Layout candidate.

This plant's primary source of limestone is that long conveyer system that leaves the picture in the lower right, it is about four to five miles long in length.  You'll also notice a string of gondolas along the southern fence, so it appears this site is also receiving or shipping raw material.

So looking at this site from the top, you have a coal pile that feeds via a flood loader (Flood loader kit) into the furnaces(Refinery kit) that is serviced by frontend loaders (Kibri kit).  You have the raw material in the large reinforced building (Cement kit building #3) on the left and the prepared cement (Medusa Cement) on the right.  Then you have a couple buildings that resemble a couple of the Kibri//Vollmer silos towards the bottom of the picture.

This brings us to the kilns.  The plant at Rillito appears to have not one but three rotary kilns, each one lined up with one of three smokestacks towards the bottom of the picture.  Finally, you have the blast furnace section, filling up much of the mid left of the picture, and a large long building to the right that ends in a large covered parking lot towards the coal yard.

I want to eventually model a cement plant, and I'll likely start with the Valley Cement kit for the rotary kiln and store house, a blast furnace for the tower, a couple Medusa Cements for the delivery side, a coal loader and a refinery kit for the furnace, and a couple other kits to round out the auxiliary silos/handling units around the perimeter of the plant.  I may only build a one kiln plant, versus modeling this three kiln plant, but if I get to it and the fancy strikes me, I could easily see myself expanding out to capture all three kilns.  As is, the Valley Cement kit would do well to get me close to a one kiln plant.

For your plant you could set up the kiln, the input building and the output building and use a backdrop picture for the blast furnace

Dragon Cement

Kirk,

Take a look on Google Earth. Use this address. Dragon Products, 107 US-1, Thomaston, ME 04861

You can clearly see the quarry, access from the quarry to the plant (which is a tunnel under Route 1), the plant itself and also the rail connection. 

Also search on the net for Dragon Cement Thomaston, ME.  Lots of info  including pics.

Back in the 70s when I was in that area a lot the plant looked a lot like the Walthers kit/s.  That was when they used a wet process.  Now they use a dry process.  This plant was modernized in 2004.

Lots of info here  https://knox.villagesoup.com/p/1508023

Hope this helps

Ernie

Dragon Cement Pic

Here is an overview from Google Earth.  Use the address in my previous post to go direct to this location then you can navigate around and zoom in to see specific details.

The Cemex plant in Victorville is not a complete cement plant.

The quarry is just a few miles East of the CEMEX plant that is along side of the BNSF mainline.  Most of the work to produce cement is done at the quarry.  The clinkers are brought to the CEMEX plant  from the quarry where they are ground in the large grinder and then go to the silos for pick up and shipment either by truck or rail car.  That operation might be perfect for modeling since the kiln and various other large parts of the operation are off site a few miles away.  They do ship a lot of covered hoppers loaded with cement from Victorville, so they have a decent size empties yard at one end of the plant and a loads out yard at the other end.  The only thing left of the kiln that used to be at the plant in Victorville is the smoke stack.  When I took the tour at the 2008 National convention, they told us that they were going to implode the smokestack within the next year, but last time I went through Victorville on I-15, the stack was still standing!

By the way the old wood silos along the old route 66 in front of everything are not used as far as I know.  

Large Industries

I have always been a fan of large industries (see may 3D printing ADM blog) on an model railroad. Back when I lived in South Texas I belonged to a club that had a large track plan but limited the size of structures, although they had the space to do some realistic scenery.

Most industry kits are designed for modest layouts and really don't capture the feel of a large industry. This is one of the reasons I started the ADM project using a 3D printer. I agree with  ernie176 comments about looking at the industries using google or Bing maps and to design your industry using them. I think you will get a much more realistic industry scratch building than using a kit.

You don't need a 3D printer to do this though it does make it easier. Evergreen and Plastruct make everything you would need to scratch build.

Good Lick.

Ash Grove also mixes in Blue Star Ready Mix

I am surprised at the Wikipedia regarding Ash Grove. It looks like it has concrete mixing facilities that look A LOT like Walther Blue Star Ready Mix. I have also seen some internet pics where the blue star kit was partially used as a process building at a cement plant. 

The refinery crossed my mind as a preheater and I might still use that, but I really am leaning towards using Plastruct and Evergreen structural shapes. 

This should be a fun portion of my blog, because this is going to be a major source of both inbound and outbound rail traffic. It is going to be a VERY large complex and due to this, the mainlines will go through the plant. I'll post more as this design progresses. 

This is an important subject for me.

Since I model the Maryland Midland, the Lehigh Cement plant in Union Bridge has been planned from the beginning as an important feature for my railroad.  I have about 10 feet x20 inches for it, but I want to include the street running that was a part of the design until 2007.  Understanding the various features of a large cement plant and the tracks serving it is essential to doing this right.  This is very useful information and I plan on following this very closely.  Thanks.  

cement region of eastern Pennsylvania

There was a large cement industry in eastern Pennsylvania, served by a short line, the Northampton and Bath Railroad. This has been well-documented recently in the newsletter of the Lehigh Valley Chapter NRHS. Their contact form is here: https://www.lehighlines.org/contact-us.html

I think I found my preheater tower parts

Leave it to Faller to have a really cool bunch of parts that would make a GREAT preheater. Thanks, Scott for letting us all know how badly Walthers missed this one !!!!

The chemical plant made by Faller looks strangely familiar to the preheater towers. Faller 130175.

What your pre-heaters look

What your pre-heaters look like will depend a great deal on the environment they are located in. In warmer climes such as the South or Southwest or West coast (California), they would be open frame construction to allow for more rapid heat dispersal. While in colder climes they may not be. In fact some in colder climes are entirely enclosed so that popping for all the internal gizmos and whiz bangs is not necessary. I am modeling a cement plant in the upper mid-west (Great Lakes area) and my pre-heater is totally enclosed. I scratch built it from styrene pieces and sheets. They are enormous in height and the kilns are very long. the more modern plants' kilns are shorter now as the use of pre-heaters has reduced the amount of time the raw material must be in the kiln to create the clinkers. This results in the shorter kilns. The silos that come with the Central Valley kit are identical to the ones with the Medusa cement plant. BUT these are not really very prototypical for clinker storage as the clinkers are very hard and very heavy. Most clinker storage is done in shorter and more numerous silos. I use PVC pipe ends, the round kind, for my plant. But I only have one kiln so that production would be easily handled by my four clinker storage silos. Also if your clinkers are produced by a kiln at the plant, then the clinker silos also function as cooling facilities prior to the finish grind before shipment, bulk (covered hoppers) or bagged (standard boxcars). The clinkers come out of the kilns at very high temperatures upwards of 500degrees F. they need to cool before grinding to get the most cement out of each clinker. I will try to post some pictures of my plant later today or tonight.

My Cement Plant

Kirk,

I am also building this kit to go on a three module set that will be at least 15ft. Looking at the foot print drawing that Walters provided building 1 is not named but must be the cooling and crushing building. This must be compressed good bit. Building 2 is the Kiln building. Building 3 is the Bulk Storage building also compressed a great deal. As I understand it the preheater complex would go next to building 2 the Kiln. I have also added a second set of silos with a set of rollup doors for tank truck loading. I live near Midlothian Texas which is known as the Cement Capital of Texas, There are three cement plants here. All seem to be of the new type. There is a constant flow of covered rail hoppers in and out of the plants. There is also a very large amount of bulk tank truck traffic from all three plants. I am looking for the truck trailers that are used in this area, they are 3 hopper cylindrical stile. I set the model up on the kitchen island to get an idea of the size of the middle section before the module construction starts.

This is the kind of tank trailer I am looking for.

Looking forward to the rest of your work on this project

Cylindrical Semi Trailers

Hi Foster,

Look up baztrains on Shapeways. He has these available in at least HO, which is what your kitchen table mockup looks like to me. I purchased a couple of these trailers some years ago since I was also looking for them.

Regards,

Joe W.

Just a comment

I just saw this today. And. I live in Midlothian TX, where we have 3 cement plants. The city brags it's the "cement capital" ? of the world? However, your display looks pretty good to me. You could do a google earth for us and see what we have. The track arrangements might be helpful. Just a little info for you.