Cement factory

[MountainMan]

My wife and I were wandering the back roads yesterday and came across a huge industrial layout - rail-served! at the local Portland cement works. I will be driving there this week to take some pictures, but meanwhile, you can get an aerial view from Google Earth. I tried to post one but computer will not let me.

[lajry]

If you can post the street address & zip code we can look it up ourselves. Don't even need the city & state as zip code takes care of those.

[MountainMan]

If you can post the street address & zip code we can look it up ourselves. Don't even need the city & state as zip code takes care of those.

doesn't have a "street address" - it's out in the countryside.

Look up Florence, Colorado and then pan East until you see a small label that says "Portland". You'll run right into the complex.

I used to be able to post images from GE, but it doesn't seem to work anymore.

Well, looks like I CAN copy the "view location. 38°23'14.46" N 105°01'05.32" W

[FCIN]

Let's try these links. Google https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Florence,...o&t=h&z=17

and Bing (view can be rotated) http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=qcy1jm6...orm=LMLTCC

Nice big facility!

[MountainMan]

Of greater interest are their locomotives. They are freshly painted, bright red and have huge lettering on the sides that say "Rock And Rail". I'm trying to break free of the house to get pictures, but the phones are out, we have a forest fire in the hills behind our home and so I am stuck here waiting for the service people in the Philipines to arrange for a rep[airman to show up - didn't come yesterday as promised - so that we can receive reverse 911 emergency notifications.

[lajry]

Isn't Rock & Rail is the RR that does all the switching between Canon City & Pueblo CO on the old DRGW (now UP) Tennessee Pass line?

[FCIN]

Look's like you're right about Rock & Rail Andy: http://www.rockandrail.com/ I'd heard of RRRR before, but thought it was strictly a switching operation somewhere.

[MountainMan]

Colorful bugggers, aren't they?

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.pwrr.org/prototype/rocknrail/Rock&Rail1.jpg">http://www.pwrr.org/prototype/rocknrail/Rock&Rail1.jpg</a><!-- m -->

[Brakie]

Colorful bugggers, aren't they?

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.pwrr.org/prototype/rocknrail/Rock&Rail1.jpg">http://www.pwrr.org/prototype/rocknrail/Rock&Rail1.jpg</a><!-- m -->

I can hear "serious" modelers laughing if a guy should up at a club with models of those engines.

Notice the SP inspired "bloody nose" GP30 leading the consist?

[MountainMan]

Isn't Rock & Rail is the RR that does all the switching between Canon City & Pueblo CO on the old DRGW (now UP) Tennessee Pass line?

It's not the Tennessee Pass line - it's the Royal Gorge Route. Trains haven;t gone up to Leadville in decades.

UP doesn't own the trackage through the Gorge anymore; they sold it to the Royal Gorge Scenic Railroad many years ago, and with the closure of the Canon City coal-fired power plant, and with the Cotter uranium refinery long out of business UP no longer has any reason to use the tracks anyway. RGR owns the tracks form Canon City to Parkdale at the western end of the gorge.

The ironic thing is that UP just spent a small fortune putting in new grade crossings and crossing signals all the way through Canon City on tracks they aren't even using.

[MountainMan]

Colorful bugggers, aren't they?

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.pwrr.org/prototype/rocknrail/Rock&Rail1.jpg">http://www.pwrr.org/prototype/rocknrail/Rock&Rail1.jpg</a><!-- m -->

I can hear "serious" modelers laughing if a guy should up at a club with models of those engines.

Notice the SP inspired "bloody nose" GP30 leading the consist?

They had better not laugh too hard - those are prototypical and therefore both holy and sacrosanct. 8-)

[Ralph]

Judging by the looks of unit 201 the road's scheme appears similar to the venerable SOO Line, except with yellow instead of white. Looks good to me!