Cement Plant

 One of the large industries I’m carrying over from AIR1 is a cement plant. On the old layout the plant did not progress much past paper signs taped to the benchwork, although the long, raised coal dump trestle, and a receiving dock ore dump were fabricated.

After a great deal of study I believe I’ve come up with a plan that is both easy to build and relatively compact. My usual plan is to build some sort of vague industrial structure that conceals all the workings behind a large corrugated metal wall, since I do not want to model the complicated inner workings. To over simplify this, my cement plant will be a series of boxes connected by a piece of 3” PVC pipe set at a 15 degree angle.  To paraphrase a saying from the studios “A little weathering, and scattered vague detail parts makes a model builder what he ain’t”*. 

Remember it’s a model railroad, not a working model of a cement plant. What I need is a large grey wall with loading dock doors in it that IMPLIES it’s a cement plant. The fun comes from spotting and pulling h.o. Scale cars at this “Cement plant”, not in producing h.o. Scale cement.

And to borrow another tried and true studio saying, “I don’t need it right, I need it RIGHT NOW”, so a passable model of something that looks like a cement plant sooner rather that later is good.

I want to try kitbashing the various structures from a couple Walther’s Glacier Gravel and New River Mine, as well as Home Depot’s plumbing dept. the initial idea is a structure that will straddle the main track. With the coal dump and other mineral receiving on one side of the main, using a simulated elevator and conveyor to move product up and over the running tracks, storage yard, and loading tracks.

According to my research, and if you set aside the crushed limestone which would arrive from a nearby quarry by conveyor, about 2 1/2 tons of raw materials yield 1 ton of finished cement.

For a model railroad a cement plant is a good industry.  Because of the nature of the raw materials and the finished product, HEAVY, railroading is perfect. 

The following would be required for one shift’s production:

The plant will, as always on AIR2, receive coal for the kiln and an associated power house for local electric needs; 15-20 hoppers

1 hopper of iron ore/slag

1 hopper of cinders/fly ash

1 covered hopper of fine silica sand

10 MTY covered hoppers

1 boxcar full of MTY bags

Covered hopper of Gypsum

5 MTY boxcars for loading


The operating plan is for this industry to be on Western Maryland trackage. There is a WM job planed for each session. This guys job is primarily to get the WM-AIR freight connections into and out of staging on time. After that he gets to take his switcher up to the cement plant every other session, even sessions he’s working at the paper mill. This way the job holder gets to do administrative work, yard work, and a little over the road. If he’s a go-getter, and based on the overall plan to allow the individual switch jobs control their own work load, he can switch the paper mill as soon as he’s done with the cement plant. 


* in the movie business a common saying that stokes the fires of resentment between the painters and carpenters on a show, but also has more than a little bit of truth to it,  “A little plaster, and a little paint, makes a carpenter what he ain’t”. Another saying I have used on more than a few hundred occasions, when faced with a set construction flaw, or a dead line for the camera to role and we need to conceal something that was not finished in time, “Put a ficus in front of it”. How many of you build structures on your layout that had unfinished sides that you concealed with trees of scenery?




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