ModelRailroadForums.com is a free Model Railroad Discussion Forum and photo gallery. We cover all scales and sizes of model railroads. Online since 2002, it's one of the oldest and largest model railroad forums on the web. Whether you're a master model railroader or just getting started, you'll find something of interest here.
ok, while i still building the layout i started to think about industries to model. Cement and it production cycle got my attention for simple reason that i have number of 2 bay covered hoppers. did a lot of reading about the subject and looked on satellite pictures of several facilities.
Production cycle of Cement
raw materials such as lime stone and sand delivered to Rawmill where the ground and dried into "rawmix". Rawmix is fed into rotary kiln and processes into clinker. several kinds of waste such as tires and plastics can be fed into the kiln as well. Kiln is fired with either gas, liquid or ground solid fuel.
Clinker is ground to fine powder cement in Cement Mill and stored in silos to be transferred to concrete mixing plant.
what i can't find solid answer on is modularity of the process meaning separation of distinct facilities and as a result transportation methods.
raw materials: Limestone from quarry transported in open hopper cars. Sand - open or covered hoppers?
Since drying of material in rawmill is accomplished by hot gases from the kiln, i'd guess there is no such thing as standalone rawmill. however does Cement Mill Has to be on site as well or can be separate, meaning is there transportation by rail of Clinker from distinct Kiln to distinct Mill? if so, which car? covered hopper? How is Clinker stored? silos or can it be just piled up outside?
Kiln Fuel (i guess not critical but still). if gas or liquid is obviously transported to site by either pipe or Tank cars in case of liquid. what about solid? is coal always ground on site (open hoppers) , pre-ground coal dust (probably not), coke (open hoppers), ground coke?
I'm pretty sure the sand comes via covered hoppers. I vaguely recall something about them not wanting the sand to be wet - clumpy, hard to get of the car, etc - but I don't have the article handy so I could be wrong.
Chris, thanks for the link. looked at aerial shots of that plant. unfortunatly no birds eye view for these locations. wasn't able to spot the components but the sheer size of it probably means it is end to end plant. is it quarry to the north or is it just humongous storage area? i was kind of expecting more rail in such location but if they mine limestone right there it would explain it sort of.
fly-ash, the remainder of burnt coal, can be used to make concrete but i don't see mixers so it diesn't look like that facility offers ready concrete as well (which i guess is understandable). do you know if they ship fly-ash out or just dump it aside? which hoppers are used in there, all 2 bays?
the more i read about the subj the more i think to drop line or 2 of the yard and make a bit larger concrete plant instead. very rough sketch attached (track work is not even close to approximate).
Orange - is the cement plant .
Red rectangle - either another cement plant component or greatly reduced engine maintenance are (wondering if i can get by without it at all.)
Blue - barge unload point, origin of coal sand and limestone. red lines are on lower 7X1 shelf.
I'd think it unlikely they would ship clinker by rail to another site to be ground up and mixed.
As far as off site opperations, the only thing you would really get is bulk distribution locations that receive powdered cement via covered hopper and off load into storage silos or straight to trucks.
You can also have carloads of addatives, like gypsum, that get ground up in with the clinker to make cement.
There are some photos of the cement plant my club is building on our web site. Not finished yet, but the bulk receiving silos, crusher, kilns, clincker and final storage buildings are there. I still have to build the initial mixing/ drying building and gypsum silos and connect everything with conveyors.
The Limestone quarry near Beachville ON is currently owned by Carmeuse Lime is pretty large----there is in this case 3 mills on it plus an extensive quarry complex. They produce all grade of limestone from block to lime for foundries.
One thing that a friend of mine did to get around space issues--as he was modeling this thing was to use the fascia to give a hint of the size of the thing--rather than trying to model the whole kit kaboodle---a la Lance Mindheim's Monon Route.
Some pix of the complex---if one wanted to try modelling the mills--even cement mills--everything is ALL WHITE here---
In my working life so long ago, I worked missiles mainly and at times I worked on projects with other types of explosives. I was working at WPNSTA Fallbrook and was given the napalm project to find out how much we truly had and work with a contractor that would finally get rid of the remains of Vietnam. All the napalm returned from Vietnam and Pacific theater was shipped to Fallbrook. The plan was to empty the 500 and 750 pound aluminum containers and ship the liquid to the Chicago area for fuel at a power plant. The aluminum was to go for recycling after being cleaned out. The wooden crates were to be crushed and sent to Arkansas for fuel for the making cement. So they will use anything that will burn. The problem for the wooden crates was that it had been pressure treated with pinta which is a carcinogen. The liquid had Benzine which is another carcinogen. After 25 years of this stuff causing problems for every one, the Navy made out a big check to get rid of that mess. So to answer your question, they will use anything that will burn to make cement.
I've worked with St Lawrence cement and Lafarge cement....I don't know of any such situation of SAND being used in the manufacturing of cement...pretty much just the situation of limestone...coal and coke were the goods for the kiln, both brought in by unit trains...and of course the export of the finished product....a lot of the cement production plants have in-house locomotive power to move the coal cars and cement cars as necessary....usually some 2nd generation goodies, yard mules or lower class geeps...there are classic examples like the operation in Bellingham Washington in earlier years where the limestone was railed in by MILW Road with the use of those dinky ore cars....and I recall there's a similar situation with another cement production plant in Victorville CA where they rail in the raw products from the quarry...this one being TOTALLY in-house...so you really can let your imagination run wild with the hypotheticals....but the rule of thumb is that the finished product/cement is shipped out only with the two bay hoppers as they have the necessary slant of a slope sheet to unload properly.
Flyash is added to concrete mix in leu of liquid air intrainment. It's cheaper, and at lower altitudes, the flyash works great as air intrainment. It makes the concrete able to stand heat and cold by expanding and contracting a little and saves it from cracking. At higher altitudes air intrainment is still used and is better. Some highway crontracts specificly forbid the use of flyash.
I worked for a sand and rock company for 35 years, and we not only made road materials, but had three or four concrete batchplants running most of the time, and it was above 7,000 feet in altitude in Arizona.
