Need some ideas please!

trainsteve2435

trainsteve2435

Member
Jun 18, 2004
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barboursville, wv
Hello everyone, been a while since i last posted, but i have been busy with the new baby and stuff. Anyways, i have finally returned to work on my layout and i need some input and ideas or sugestions on my next section of my layout..... The walthers cement plant. I have toyed with several ideas, but cant come up with what type of ground cover to start with. I went down to out local river and gathered some sand, but im not sure if its the right stuff or not. Thats where i need some input and suggestions, what would you guys do? Im hopeing someone else may be useing this complex and have some pictures or ideas. Also, i have looked on the net for pictures of real cement plants, but cant seem to find any, so all the pics you guys can post are appreciated. I will post progress pictures as i go. Thanks in advance!:wave:
 
My memories of local cement plants, pre EPA and OSHA, were that they and the surrounding countryside were only one color, grey. That has changed. Do you have a cement plant that you can visit for inspiration? I imagine that there is still some spillage and that there is a combination of concrete, blacktop and some unsurfaced roadway within the confines of the plant. Maybe a chain link fence surrounding the perimiter.
 
There's a small cement facility not far from where I live, and I agree that everything is pretty much a uniform - well... - "cement" colour.

It's a ready-mix place, so there's lots of trucks around. The ground is covered with gravel, well worn (so to speak) with the constant truck traffic. There's a place towards the back where they dump/rinse the trucks, and a front end loader that scoops the dried remains up (for clean fill??). They also have a place where they cast those big interlocking blocks you sometimes see at municipal works yards (they're built into bays that hold gravel, or dirt, or road salt).

The (natural) ground cover is limited to weeds wherever there's a spot they can grow undisturbed. There's a chain link fence all around (galvanized), with a row of tall trees separating the back of the facility from whatever is beyond. The other side fronts the highway.

Andrew
 
Thanks everyone for the suggestions and links, their very intresting. Does anyone think i should try a different arrangement as far as my trackage goes? Please, any and all suggestions are appreciated. Thanks!:confused:
 
Your thumbnails have disappeared, at least I can't see them. I don't remember your track plan for the cement plant, but much would depend on what type of plant you are making. Here in So Cal there are a lot of gypsum hills where cement is manufactured and quite a few cement distributors like Ready Mix. Generally, if you are talking about a cement manufacturer, there will be 1 or 2 load out tracks and a small yard where empties can be staged for loading or where loads wait for the local switcher to pick them up for shipment. They will also have parking for trucks to make local deliveries to ready mix plants. They generally won't make concrete, so you won't see the traditional cement mixer trucks, but rather 18 wheelers with a body kind of like a covered hopper.

A ready mix plant, on the other hand always distributes the product by cement mixer because tracks don't usually run where the cement is needed. The ready mix plant usually will have just a one track siding where cemnet hoppers and agregate hoppers will unload into a pit above a conveyor that distributes the cement to a silo, and piles the sand and various agregates into separate piles. Then when an order comes in for cement, they mix a batch using the various mixes of sand, agregate, and cement according to the recipe that has been ordered.
 
Hi Steve....

Try weeds, gravle and spilt cemet on the back side of the lot.

along Rte. 35 in Kanawha county you have river side cement plants and gravle yards.

Alos brick and a Coca Cola plant. Drive up this way and have a look.
 
hey everyone, thanks for the suggestions. As far as my pictures, im going to try and re attach them. Thanks!:wave:
 

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