D&M Stone Train Questions

Any historical questions can be posted here. Answers would certainly help as well :)
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AARR
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D&M Stone Train Questions

Unread post by AARR »

This question is from the other board which I'm posting here because I'm not able to post there in spite of numerous attempts to get log in access.

There are two possibilities to Nile's question.

One is shale from the pit west of Alpena that closed in the early to mid 90's.

Another is gypsum or lime from one of the pits around the Tawas City area. Two of those pits remain open but the last rail shipments were around 2006.

Both of the above went to various cement plants including Dundee Cement which received about 10ish cars a week of either gypsum lime or shale.
Posted by NILE on 6/19/2020, 2:45 pm

I'm looking for information on Detroit & Mackinaw RR's rock trains. As I understand they were loaded in Alpena and a major customer was Dundee Cement on the AA. Were there any other customers? Because of the weight were the hoppers only 1/2 full? Is the quarry still open in Alpena? Any other interesting info would be appreciated. I have some of the DM HO scale hoppers and I'm thinking of modeling parts of this.
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AARR
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Re: D&M Stone Train Questions

Unread post by AARR »

I believe Jim is on this board too.

Dundee has a clay and limestone pit near their plant. However, the gypsum and/or lime they required in their mixture had to come from another quarry. As late as the 1990's and possibly mid 2000's they were getting it from someplace on the D&M (perhaps the gypsum pits around Tawas City).

Up until the mid 2000's the Lafarge Alpena plant received gypsum and/or lime from one of the pits around Tawas City. They were in the same position as Dundee with a local pit for clay/limestone/sand but have to have gypsum shipped from another location.

The large covered hoppers at Lafarge-Alpena bring in flyash. Flyash used to come from local sources (Consumers Power & DTE utility plants) but the State of MI doesn't allow them to use their flyash in cement production anymore so around 1997 they started purchasing it from a plant in Brampton Canada then changed sources around 2012 from a plant in WI.

https://members4.boardhost.com/RRHXHist ... 55212.html
Posted by Jim Chapman on 6/30/2020, 6:13 pm, in reply to "D&M "

I don't recall ever seeing rock trains heading to Dundee Cement. What time frame would this have been? Dundee had their own quarry on site so I don't know why they would need to bring in rock from somewhere else either.

LaFarge North America does still have their operation going in Alpena. I don't see any evidence of rock cars (open hoppers) on site, but they do have a substantial number of three and four bay covered hoppers present it appears (Google maps).
PatC created a monster, 'cause nobody wants to see Don Simon no more they want AARR I'm chopped liver, well if you want AARR this is what I'll give ya, bad humor mixed with irrelevant info that'll make you roll your eyes quicker than a ~Z~ banhammer...

joeyuboats
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Re: D&M Stone Train Questions

Unread post by joeyuboats »

The cement plant at Alpena used to get shale that came from a quarry at Paxton--IIRC, that was on the old branch to Hillman, but this is long gone now.

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Re: D&M Stone Train Questions

Unread post by Saturnalia »

The gypsum continued in Alpena until around 2011-2012 or so at least. Then it all went to Flyash.
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