Cement Works Modeling and Operation

[RudyProductions]

So I'm looking to model a fictional Cement Works and possibly a Limestone Quarry somewhere between 1948 and 1968 (only in Trainz for now, as I don't have the space nor budget), but I have very little knowledge of how these would actually work in operations. In the little bit of research I've managed so far there's actually a lot more to making cement than I realized! If I'm correct, Limestone is a prominent ingredient, hence why my Cement Works shares facilities with a Limestone Quarry. If this incorrect however, I'll most likely scrap any plans for the quarry. I will probably end up redressing the route to represent the workings at different points in time; my "history" is that it was originally opened in the early 1850s and served as one of the motivations for the opening of the (fictitious) local railway. So my main questions are:

 

1) What kind of commodities would the Cement Works (and quarry) need delivered to the site? Would this definitely change in the hundred years since opening, or is it possible that this site could still be using the same recipe? And also, what type of industries does it come from?

 

2) What commodities do they ship out? This seems obvious at first: Cement, in both bulk via presflos and pallets of individual bags of cement via box vans. The Limestone Quarry may also export, well... limestone, depending on the exact relationship between the two. I imagine they are both managed by the same company, though the quarry may be a subsidiary. But there is also the mater of waste. When they're done mining their limestone, and mixing their cement, what's left over that they have to get rid of? Where does it go?

 

3) What types of rolling stock are these commodities transported in? At least in the cases that aren't obvious (I'm not that clueless)!

 

Thank you for any assistance!

[TravisM]

Inbound loads would be coal for the furnace as limestone is crushed and heated in the cement process.  Obviously the outbound loads would be bagged cement or loose in PCV’s or something similar.

 

I’ve added a link to my website and go into the folder “UK Station’s”, then the folder Peterborough - Leicester, you’ll find a gallery for Ketton Cement Works and you’ll find loads of interesting pictures.

 

rail-pictures-2009.smugmug.com

 

 

 

[The Stationmaster]

Going back over the previous answer and adding a bit.  The principal load coming in would be coal - but what could well change over the years is the method of unloading moving forward from shovelling it out to using a wagon tippler to using hopper wagons.  Thus the way the track layout worked and, obviously, the equipment provided for coal discharge would change as newer methods and wagons came into use.

 

In my experience (not exactly vast) cement works seem to have usually been built. as near as possible to the most important 'ingredient' for making cement, i.e. limestone.  And, like coal deliveries by rail, the means of moving the limestone about also changed over the years with possibly n.g, internal railways being replaced fairly early on by covered conveyor belts as the scale of production increased.

 

Going by an example I knew quite well you can reckon 2-3 trainloads of coal in per week could produce 3-4 trainloads of Presflos out per week.  But all the cement works I have any knowledge of also used road transport.  The one on my patch in the mid 1970s only despatched railborne cement in Presflos, all the bagged output was despatched by road so there was no rail loading facility for bagged cement.

 

Hope that helps a bit.

[Fat Controller]

Gypsum was brought in to the cement works in some cases (block trains at Northfleet, wagon loads at other locations). I don't know if anyone uses it at present. There were also works that used an iron compound as an additive. Steelworks slag and fly-ash have also been added at different times

Fuel would be mainly coal, but also petroleum coke, abattoir waste, and carpet offcuts.

There have been cases of works that have brought in supplies of chalk or limestone, presumably to either sweeten the supplies from around the works, or to make up shortfalls. An example was a works between Rugby and Leamington Spa, which received supplies from a quarry near Tring; this flow was important enough to justifying a special build of Chalk Tipplers. 

 

[spamcan61]

Maybe lots of useful background info here:-

 

https://www.cementkilns.co.uk/index.html

[Nearholmer]

All of the many cement works that I’ve come across in pursuit of industrial railways used chalk, rather than any other sort of limestone, probably because all were the south of England, and the only outbound good was cement powder, in bulk or bagged form, or both.

 

Coal was certainly the main inbound good, but I have a feeling that some sites went over to gas firing from about fifty years ago. Other minerals were taken in to use as additives in the process, but only in relatively small quantities.

[Davexoc]

Chinnor cement works had two big holes in the ground extracting the chalk, either side of the Ridgeway long distance footpath. I believe the two were joined up by tunneling, which was used as practice for the Chunnel.

The only commodity in was coal, which was shunted by gravity through the tippler. All out going product went by road, with nearly 99% being road tankers. A neighbour used to drive one of only two flatbeds they had for bagged product.

 

[pharrc20]

Hope Cement works is a good example to do some research on but essentially it has both a limestone quarry to the west and a shale quarry to the east and uses both in the production of cement. I think gypsum is brought in by road but would have to fact check that one. Coal is currently brought in by rail from South Wales but in the past has come from Ayrshire, Immingham, Yorkshire coalfield too I would imagine. Recycled materials including rubber tyre waste has and may still be used too to fuel the kilns processes.

 

Outgoing traffic is of course cement both in bulk form in the likes of Presflos, Cemflos, PCA 'vee-tanks' and straight barrel tanks, along with the newer JPA tanks. Also dispatched in bagged form too loaded into 2-axle vans like unfitted and fitted versions including the Palvans, then later air-brake vans. With a resumption of van traffic around 2001, VGA/VKA vans were used along with bogie Cargowaggon vans with seven repainted into Blue Circle Cement yellow livery (like the Heljan OO model).

 

And the works is quite a compact site though was updated and changed around 2007/8 as traffic expanded and new bogie tanks arrived. Plus it has that nice single track linking the works to the main exchange sidings at Earle's Sidings on the main Manchester to Sheffield Hope Valley line. There is still a good amount of traffic that goes out by road tankers.

 

HTH Paul

[pharrc20]

On 11/09/2021 at 21:58, pharrc20 said:

Hope Cement works is a good example to do some research on but essentially it has both a limestone quarry to the west and a shale quarry to the east and uses both in the production of cement. I think gypsum is brought in by road but would have to fact check that one. Coal is currently brought in by rail from South Wales but in the past has come from Ayrshire, Immingham, Yorkshire coalfield too I would imagine. Recycled materials including rubber tyre waste has and may still be used too to fuel the kilns processes.

 

Outgoing traffic is of course cement both in bulk form in the likes of Presflos, Cemflos, PCA 'vee-tanks' and straight barrel tanks, along with the newer JPA tanks. Also dispatched in bagged form too loaded into 2-axle vans like unfitted and fitted versions including the Palvans, then later air-brake vans. With a resumption of van traffic around 2001, VGA/VKA vans were used along with bogie Cargowaggon vans with seven repainted into Blue Circle Cement yellow livery (like the Heljan OO model).

 

And the works is quite a compact site though was updated and changed around 2007/8 as traffic expanded and new bogie tanks arrived. Plus it has that nice single track linking the works to the main exchange sidings at Earle's Sidings on the main Manchester to Sheffield Hope Valley line. There is still a good amount of traffic that goes out by road tankers.

 

HTH Paul

Further to my original post, I forgot to add that power station fly-ash is being brought in to Hope using PCA tankers too and has done for a number of years now - definitely from Drax power station but times exist in Real Time Trains for paths to West Burton ps too.

 

HTH Paul