Roofing shingle granules

[lv4142003]

Bernie, were you looking for a roofing shingle granule manufacturer? There is a relatively large quarry operation down near Blue Ridge Summit, PA. It was on the WM, now CSX. I was down there about 2 years ago and asked the folks at Mainline Hobbies whose tracks were down the road from their store, and was told about the plant. It's Specialty Granules Inc. They were shut down at the time to correct EPA violations and all product at that time was coming from a plant in Wisconsin or someplace in the mid west. Depending on eras, cars would be 2 bay covered hoppers and could be marked WM, B&O, CSXT, CR, PC, PRR. And someone mentioned Certainteed in the Crestwood industrial park, near Hazelton. I saw 2 bay covered hoppers there, but I thought that was sand to be made into fiber for insulation. Didn't see any shingles stacked up outside. Very nice shingle plant in Wilmington, Delaware off 495. Usually a dozen 2 bays outside. Believe the skids of shingles are transported by truck

[randgust]

If fuzzy memory serves me correctly, the perlite plant at Antonito, CO (that was served by DRGW standard gauge, UP, then SLRG) is the stuff that was going to various roofing shingle manufacturers.    One of the plants used to be on NS on the Shenandoah branch just south of Strasburg, VA - I remember the UP/DRGW covered hoppers showing up there.   All outbound covered hoppers.   That plant is now closed.
That Perlite is now reportedly going out by truck and being transloaded to BNSF somewhere on I-40, maybe to Albuquerque, reportedly not moving by rail because of UP rates.   
https://www.dicalite.com/location/antonito-co/
Just what is this stuff?    See http://www.schundler.com/bitumized.htm

[peteski]

Is this the stuff called "black  beauty"?  Good for N scale coal loads?

[mu26aeh]

Bernie, were you looking for a roofing shingle granule manufacturer? There is a relatively large quarry operation down near Blue Ridge Summit, PA. It was on the WM, now CSX. I was down there about 2 years ago and asked the folks at Mainline Hobbies whose tracks were down the road from their store, and was told about the plant. It's Specialty Granules Inc. They were shut down at the time to correct EPA violations and all product at that time was coming from a plant in Wisconsin or someplace in the mid west. Depending on eras, cars would be 2 bay covered hoppers and could be marked WM, B&O, CSXT, CR, PC, PRR. And someone mentioned Certainteed in the Crestwood industrial park, near Hazelton. I saw 2 bay covered hoppers there, but I thought that was sand to be made into fiber for insulation. Didn't see any shingles stacked up outside. Very nice shingle plant in Wilmington, Delaware off 495. Usually a dozen 2 bays outside. Believe the skids of shingles are transported by truck

SGI is on the line that I model, hopefully on version 3.0 I can find room for it.  Used to be served by D795/797, it now has it's own local B702 that serves the plant at least 3 days a week if not daily.  Train comes out of Hagerstown MD with interchange traffic for MMID along with cars for SGI.  They drop their cars at Highfield for MMID, then continue to switch the industry a little further east.  They come back west and pick up cars that MMID has dropped off.  It's interesting to watch the crews if they are both in town at the same time, as they partake in the "Highfield Shuffle".  Lately, B702 will sit on the main and the crew is taken east towards Gettysburg to take over D795 as CSX has basically gotten rid of overtime.  They will recrew 795, and put both trains together to return to Hagerstown.

[MikeyS]

It's a big shame that all these roofing shingle plants have been closed. When I was a kid I used to watch these trains go back-and-forth loaded. Stop it kind of reminded me of my childhood moments. Nowadays things have changed for trains and houses included too. I remember that in the 80s my grandpa had to pay a fortune to fix his roof, and it took about 3 weeks to finish it alone. Today you just have to call guys from roof repair sites like roofing contractors St. Louis and the job is done in a couple of days.

[sirenwerks]

There's a GAF plant in Baltimore on Ponca Street that receives covered hopp[ers to manufacture the roofing shingles, if that's what you mean.  https://goo.gl/maps/ArZ7onNS9JACVF9Z6

[Tom Todd]

"Is this the stuff called "black  beauty"?  Good for N scale coal loads?"

I know black beauty as a sandblasting grit.  If I remember correctly it is a heavy mineral, like a type of low grade iron bearing mineral.  As far as loads go it depends on how fine it is.

Tom

[RRRover]

Here in the midwest, there is a granule supplier for 3M in Upper Michigan that ships via CN (and before that CNW, UP, WC). The cars are labeled at the plant (somewhere near Quinnisec, MI)with small 3M tags with a lot number and color notation. The cars are normally seen on CN trains 446 and 447 and their northern counterparts A450 and A451 (north of Green Bay, WI to Gladstone, MI). I was once at the plant years ago, but didn't get to shoot it.

Rrrover

[nkalanaga]

A few decades ago (80s? 90s?) there was a coal-fired power plant in Illinois that was selling its fly ash to a shingle company, for use as granules.  Guaranteed fireproof - if it wouldn't burn in the power plant, it certainly wouldn't on a roof.

No, I wouldn't want to depend on it to protect the house, without knowing what the SHINGLE was made of.

[Showme]

  Yes, years ago I bought 50 bags of black beauty from Harsco Abrasives, across the road from the Kincaid Power Plant just south of Springfield, Il. Had to blast concrete sealer off a gym floor so the poured rubber gym floor product would stick to the concrete. I think they told me it was a by product of the power plant, maybe left over coal cinders. I never thought of using it for coal loads but I can see that working. Will check it out because I had couple of bags left. I think the granules might be too big for N scale roof shingles though.

[peteski]

The "black beauty" I an familiar with is something that the road repair crews sprinkle over freshly sealed cracks in asphalt, so they won's stay sticky.  It is fairly fine, and good size for representing N scale coal.