Both of these plants are on the east side of the CSX/L&N Radnor Yard.
Nashville Rail Welding Plant
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| Viral Media posted Big Blue Crane The crane in a landmark in CSX Radnor Yard, and is for unloading rails off flatcars to be used by the welded rail plant to produce welded rail. The Nashville Rail Welding Plant is located in the CSX's Radnor Yard complex in Nashville, Tennessee. This plant produces continuous welded rails (CWR) by the Electric Flash Pressure Butt Weld process. There are two loading tracks to hold the rail trains while receiving the CWR. This plant is currently mothballed and out of production. |
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| Street View, Jan 2021 |
This image catches the gantry crane in use and shows a lot of storage piles. A Mar 2020 image has just a few small storage piles and the next image, Apr 2020, has no storage piles.
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| Google Earth, Nov 2013 |
Special freight cars are used to ship the long rails.
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| Mark Hinsdale posted via Dennis DeBruler |
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| Viral Media posted Welded Rail Plant The Nashville Rail Welding Plant is located in the CSX's Radnor Yard complex in Nashville, Tennessee. This view was from better days when the plant was still in active. This plant produced continuous welded rails (CWR) by the Electric Flash Pressure Butt Weld process. The plant is laid out in a north and south configuration, with the welding machines being enclosed in a building at the south end. There are two independently operated welding stations in the building designated as the east and west welders, each providing a separate string of CWR. Immediately north of the building are hydraulic machines, into which the CWR strings are inserted. These machines, through pressure contact with the rail and a hydraulic drive, provide the power to push the CWR onto the rail cars designed to transport the rail to the field for installation. Between the power source and the rail cars (approximately 200 feet) are a series of moveable guides and rollers to position the rails in their proper place on the rail train. There are two loading tracks to hold the rail trains while receiving the CWR. This rail train consists of 27 flat cars, 24 of which are spacer and support cars, with an upright about 10 feet from each end to support the rails, in four tiers of ten welded rails each. The two end cars are equipped with moveable bulkheads to support the rail ends in their proper position tie down car is placed in the middle of the train equipped similar to the support and spacer cars. A tie down car is placed in the middle of the train equipped similar to the support and spacer cars. [Maybe Viral Media is not machine generated. No program would repeat a sentence.] It additionally has an "A" frame arrangement across the car at the center so the CWR strings may be clamped to the car, preventing movement of the rail lengthwise. [In the label on the figure of "Crane to Life Rail Sections," "Life" should probably be "Lift."] |
I presume this plant became obsolete because steel mills now roll and ship the quarter-mile long rails. For example, the Columbia City location of SDI produces long rails. (Update: BNSF appears to be still operating their CWR plant in Laurel, MT.)
ProTrition Feed Mill and Purina Feed Store
While looking for the rail welding plant, I found this big feed mill. I include the trailers at the top and the railcars at the bottom to show that they ship packaged feed rather than bulk feed, and they receive liquids (tank car) as well as grain and/or soybean meal (covered hoppers).
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| Satellite |
In some Global Earth images, I saw up to four tank cars on the property. I wondered if they carried molasses. This webpage implies that they do carry molasses.
The Purina checkerboard logo near the top has fresh paint. Note that the orange machine has railroad wheels raised up at both ends. So this machine would be used to shove its hopper and tank cars around the plant. The trailer is a bulk feed trailer, but it is the only one I found. There are a lot of regular trailers at the other end of the mill.
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| Street View, Jan 2023 |
Another fresh Purina logo.
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| Street View, Jan 2023 |
Animal feed must be rather heavy.
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| Street View, Apr 2020 |
The retail store has a lot of checkerboard paint. I included the many skinny tanks in the right background because they intrigued me.
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| Street View, Jan 2021 |
I'll bet those tanks hold plastic pellets. In particular, the raw material for "TPO’s (Thermoplastic Olefins) and Polypropylene Compounds." This company is one of the reasons why modern cars and trucks are made with so much plastic. ("GM Recognizes Advanced Composites, Inc. (ACP) for Performance, Quality, and Innovation.") [advcmp]
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| Satellite |
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