Cement plant operation

[sailormatlac]

This is a puzzling question, since the cement plants I've been familiar with have the limestone input right there. This is borne out by a google search: the opinion seems to be that since the limestone raw material gets burned up a lot in processing, you don't want to spend a lot of money hauling it in. So normally there would be the limestone quarry handy, with other materials, like iron and coal, hauled in by rail. I'd certainly be asking that and other questions about this particular plant.

@jwb: I finally got my answer from a search. Found out it was carried and is still carried in open top hoppers, just like coal would be. Found many pictures of it. Also, a guy I know asked his uncle, a retired employee of my specfific prototype. From what he told me this afternoon, gypsum was really carried in standard hoppers. They had a shaker to make it flow into the conveyor pit. He also confirmed me there was only one track for cement unloading. Meaning I misunderstood for years the insurance maps. Going back in time with Google Earth, I was able to spot the gypsum pit and the coal pit. Both on their own tracks. Now that makes much more sense.

There was a HUGE limestone quarry beside the plant. But when making Portland Cement, you need gypsum into the mix. From what I read, without gypsum, the concrete would set extremely fast and would flow at all.

So you got a cement plant, be ready to have a track for coal (hoppers), a track for gypsum (hoppers) and a track for loading cement (covered hoppers, boxcars). Really a nice industry... I calculated this very industry would need 17 cars at full capacity, and 5 car spots (cement loading, coal pit, gypsum pit, and 2 loading bay at the bagging plant) and finally, you have to weight most cars at the scale! No wonder e-paw's doing one!

Matt
Matt