Introduction and a commodity question

[High Speed Kurt]

Hello Everyone,

I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself, my name is Kurt, I live in New Orleans, LA.  As long as I can remember I have been a fan of the SOU/NS. I do both railfanning around town and modeling (HO scale) I have been lurking for a while, and finally decided to join in.

I have a question concerning something I would assume is big business on the NS, particularly in Georgia. Kaolin / Clay slurry tank cars used to come through here all of the time, it has slowed some, but I always wondered, are these primarily loaded in the southeast region? What types of industries receive these cars? I tried doing some research on the net but couldnt really find anything. Does the NS run unit trains of these cars?

Thanks,

Kurt

[E.M. Bell]

Welcome to the board Kurt!

Im not sure where all the locations that the kaolin ships from, but I know a great majority of it comes out of GA.  The Sandersville RR (shortline that interchanges with the NS) pretty much only ships the stuff.  Up this way in KY, train 174 almost always has a large block of kaolin cars, but I have never seen a solid unit train. 

When I worked for the KXHR in Knoxville, one of our customers that made ceramic products (poopin stools to be specific )  got a carload a week of Kaolin, as well as a few other things... 

[High Speed Kurt]

That's good to know.

I always knew Sandersville as "the kaolin road" but never realised they were the primary source. Looking at their website, most of the big players in that buisness are located in or around the town. There is even a Kaolin GA, and from the looks of the map, a huge plant resides there. Go figure.

I am going to have to make it out there one day. Apparently they only interchange with the NS, so the NS is the primary way the stuff gets out.

Thanks,

Kurt

[GAandFLA-RR]

 
When I was a clerk in Tennille, most of my job was handling the interchanges with the Sandersville RR.  It didn't take long to realize how big kaolin is in that area!

Sandersville RR's primary money maker is kaolin.  JM Huber, Thiele, and Imerys have plants along their line.  They would bring in (before business started dropping) between 150-200 loads a day to our yard in Tennille.  Now it's about 100.  Used to be a good portion of those loads would go to Savannah mostly for export......that has dropped significantly as well because of the economy.  They also have a chip and crosstie mill on their line as well as a plastics plant that receive pellets in covered hoppers.

Another location with kaolin plants is west of  Tennille at McIntyre.  The company was Engelhard, but a few years ago it changed to BASF.  Unimin Kaolin (I think it's called something else now) has a small plant there as well.

The kaolin belt stretches from Huber, GA (just south of Macon) all the way to Langley/Bath, SC.  JM Huber has a plant in Huber (of course).  JM Huber and Thiele have plants in Stapleton (southwest of Augusta),  another Unimin plant in Hephzibah (near Augusta), and K&T (Kentucky and Tennessee) plants, among others, in the Bath/Langley area.......................................all served by NS.  So, yup, kaolin is a big money maker for NS in this part of the region.

The only unit clay train we ever ran was a 688 from Tennille to Chattanooga, but NS quit running it around 2001 or so.

[TB4JY]

Oh yes.  The dreaded 688!  What a beast!

[High Speed Kurt]

Good info! I would guess the 688 would be broken up in Chatanooga and switched out to other various trains for interchange/industries.

Thanks!

Kurt

[Backyard]

  Kaolin clay is used in the paper-making process for high-quality newsprint, magazines, etc.  It is what makes newsprint look smooth & the printing is perfectly clear.

For magazines, it helps hold the ink in place....did you ever notice how magazines are hard to stack because they "slide?"  That's because the whole rag is covered with ink on clay....

Kaolin is also used in "Oil-Dry" & cat litter...or is it bentonite.... :