Cement plant modeling info needed


IronBeltKen

IronBeltKen

Lazy Daydreamer
Hi gang,

I'm trying to find some easy-to-read info about cement plant operations. I tried going the "google" route but got 160,000 hits of mostly corporate profiles, environmental stories, and eBay listings for the WKW Valley Cement kit - nothing of any use as a reference.

I know Kalmbach has published a few books on trackside industry modeling, I'm wondering which one (if any) covers cement plants. Any tips or clues will be greatly appreciated!
 
Ken, I just went through the same thing as you. It can be hard to find what you are looking for sometimes.

I'm not sure if either of those books has anything on Cement plants in it. The WKW Valley Cement Kit has a small write up on cement plant operations in its instruction sheet. It is a very good kit to BTW. I would recommend it as a starting point for any large cement plant.

Here is what I learned in researching the Portland Cement Plant for my club's layout.
Raw Materials In:
Limestone, Clay, Sand, Gravel/Agreget, Gypsum and fuel for the kiln
Out:
Cement powder by hopper, boxcar and truck

The Process:
- Limestone and Clay are crushed, cleaned and mixed in a processing building.
- In large plants, the mixture passes through a pre-heater and then into the kiln. Smaller plants may not have a preheater.
- The kiln slopes from the processing building down toward the Klinker building. The mixture is heated to a molten state at the top of the kiln and flows down toward the Klinker building. It is heated again at the bottom of the kiln to a higher temp, this process creates Klinker.
- The klinker is crushed and mixed with gypsum in the klinker building. This powder mix is portland cement.
- The powder can be loaded into hoppers, or bags stacked in boxcars or trucks. The powder can also be mixed with sand and gravel to make concrete to be shipped out in the same manner.

Here is a link to my clubs cement plant track plan.
http://www.windsor-modular.com/showImageOdd.php?file=newLayout/CementPlant.jpg&w=702&h=454

Hope this helps some. I have some flow charts on the cement making process at home, I'll post if I remember when I get home.
 
Fred,

Thanx Fred, for an excellent course in "Cement Plant Operations 101" :D

I bookmarked the link to your club's cement plant track plan. My own facility will be heavily compressed, a tip-of-the-iceberg rendition since I don't have a large amount of space. I do have the Valley Cement kit BTW, I'll have to do some corrective surgery on a few of the buildings to make them fit.
 
Ken, I'm not to sure what to tell you for info wise, not sure exactly what you need to know (or whats useful from my selected knowledge base!).

However, I can offer some pictures of the HUGE Cemex "portland" cement plant in Victorville CA.
http://rr.blockchoice.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=8

This plant has had a long & colorful history, with Cemex being the most recent, with Southwest Portland Cement as the company they bought out. Its referred to as Southwest Portland Cement by most people. Try searching SWPC on railroad sites. They have their own motive power, right now an SDP35 & SD40-2, though as far as I can tell only the SD40-2 makes it out.

On any given day there's ~100 2 bay covered hoppers there, and they own a fleet of open hoppers to transport the raw materials from their own pit, to the plant.

The raw materials line is approximately 40 miles, to some hills out in the desert north of Victorville, around Apple Valley CA.
 
Ah, the steel tycoon expands his empire to concrete:D They make a good industry to model with lots of action.;) BTW: Check your reg email.
 
Thanx everybody, I believe I have enough info now to proceed with the project - I knew I could count on you!
 
Hello Ken,
Now that it's been over a year how did your cement plant project turn out? I'm asking because I'm starting on one now. Mine is going to be a free-mo module so I have a lot of room length wise but not a lot of depth. This tread was a lot of help thank you and the others for the postings.
Ken - Are you going to be at the train show this coming weekend? I'll be there and I know someone with a table selling so I may be there a little as well. but I'll be on the move most of the time. Hope to see you there.
Dave
 
Hi Dave, been awhile hasn't it. I wound up abandoning my original plan of modeling a full-blown cement plant and did a cement distributor instead, because (1) I didn't have the space and (2) I already have one huge industry on my layout, e.g., the steel mill. Prototype cement plants are huge and cover many acres, and generate an enormous volume of rail traffic in open-top and covered hoppers each day. I needed an industry that would process, at most, 5-6 covered hoppers a day. That's when I discovered a cement distribution center was "just what the Doctor ordered", and that's what I've got now. [I still need to buy or build a few cement-hauling semitrailers though, it doesn't look complete without a few of those...]

I'll be at the show with a friend of mine this weekend, but I'm too broke to do any large purchases - I'll just be there to say hello to old friends mostly. What table will you be at, I'll try to drop by.
 
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Ken,
I would love to see some photos of the cement distribution plant you ended up with. I recall seeing the cement hopper you weathered and it looked great.
I was doing some research last night and I did notice that I will need a large amount or area for a cement plant and to add the quarry to the layout will make it about 2x the size I was thinking. So I plan to do the free-mo in multiple modules and have the quarry and cement plant on their own module. We'll see how long i can continue till I run out of money. For now I'll design the modules as seperate ones and later join together. I guess that's one of the great parts of free-mo.

I'll be at the show on Saturday and I don't know what table Bob will be at till I hear more from him. I do plan to be spending some money so I'll be shopping a good part of the time. I would also like to go out to eat for a late lunch or early dinner in Baltimore. I hear this place called Polock Johnny's is good, do you know? Maybe even get some time to go railfaning in Baltimore for some new photos.
Dave
 
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