What happened to the Alpha Cement plant?

Is the Alpha Cement Plant still operating in Martins Creek, PA? When I was there in the late 1990s it was in operation and there spurs were jammed with freight cars. In fact, the facade of this plant was the cover of the 1988 LNE book. Nothing had changed. Now on google maps it looks as though the place is derelict. Nothing spotted on the sidings and the building looks as if it's ready to implode on it's own.

carajul,

It was always my understanding that after the cement business closed the silos were converted for use as grain / flour storage by Con Agra which has their main facility further to the south on the former L&NE.

Also note when looking at any of the mapping programs with aerial photos, most times the photos are taken in the early spring, which may not be a time that grain deliveries would be high. Those same photos could be up to 5 years old or more.

carajul wrote:Is the Alpha Cement Plant still operating in Martins Creek, PA? When I was there in the late 1990s it was in operation and there spurs were jammed with freight cars. In fact, the facade of this plant was the cover of the 1988 LNE book. Nothing had changed. Now on google maps it looks as though the place is derelict. Nothing spotted on the sidings and the building looks as if it's ready to implode on it's own.

The Alpha plant and the Lehigh plant to the south @ Sandt's Eddy were both purchased by Con Agra in the late 60's when both quarries closed, I think Alpha was having trouble keeping the river out of the quarry while the other quarry was higher and further from the river.

The Alpha facility was strictly silo storage while the southern plant was reworked to mill grain and ship flour. The Alpha plant was older while the other plant had been reciently updated and had bulk truck loading facilities easily converted to shipping flour. Cement is more dense so it uses a 3 hopper 950 - 1000 cu ft pnumatic trailer VRS a 4 hopper 1400 - 1600 cu ft trailer for flour, both fit the loading facility.

We used to drive Rt.611 frequently to reach the Poconos [Rt 33 didn't reach south of Wind Gap] and I remember watching the Lehigh & New England working the Alpha Plant, their yard office was in a small cement building just off the road. Their bridge across to the Bel Del is still there too.

What ever is operating in the old Alpha Cement now does it still use rail? Like I said I was there in the mid-90s and the place was jammed with cars and in fact there was a CR loco always there.

carajul wrote:What ever is operating in the old Alpha Cement now does it still use rail? Like I said I was there in the mid-90s and the place was jammed with cars and in fact there was a CR loco always there.

It was, the line south to the other mill was out of service and then it was re-openend which made the news as it passes real close to a couple houses along the west side of Rt 611 across from the bar.

I'll bet they haven't been bringing in as much grain since the corn to ethanol shift and I recall seeing a few new large galvanized storage silos at the southern plant so the Alpha facility may not be as active...

Con agra has moved some of it's shipping points around, they have a large rail to truck facility in Hunts Point, NY that eliminates some of the need to ship truckloads from Martins Creek to NYC.

The truck rates for flour are some of the lowest so having a distribution site inside New York really lowered the tucking costs. I had Con agra rye flour at a yard in Elizabeth, NJ and we were out bid on the Hunts Point work by someone who didn't have to worry about the tolls to get there from NJ. It's all dollars and sense & if they discover a need, I'm sure Con agra will fill up the silo's @ the Alpha plant...all the old production stuff can continue to fall down, all they use is the rail siding & the silos...

Last week or so, NS ran a 52T solid unit grain destined for ConAgra Martins Creek. They can't take an entire unit train at once though, so the cars are spotted in smaller cuts by evening job H71 (if that's still its symbol).