Western Railroad Discussion > Dunsmuir 3/3/2014 1252-1256 Gondolas

Awesome all covered gondola train ,except engines of course.
Does anybody know what is in them? It's a lot of gondolas.


Thanks

apparently used for copper concentrate:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,3679376

which is more concentrated than dirt but less concentrated than anything of value.

It was the OVWWO 01.

Davis

The value of the concentrates hauled by the SP out of AZ and what MRL can haul out of the Butte connection is in the million(s) of dollars per car.

So why not back a pickup against the car and shovel a few grand worth of concentrates into the box and drive away you ask? You still need a smelter to finish the refining process. It is hard to set one of those up in your garage or alongside a meth lab.

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

I'll check with my neighbor, maybe he can do copper concentrates as well. One of the advantages of life in Dunsmuir...
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... It is hard
> to set one of those up in your garage or alongside
> a meth lab.
>
> Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

Perhaps a ceramics kiln can achieve the required temps. The fumes headed out the stack might color the pottery glaze.

The Butte mines pay for smelting of the copper but there is also gold, silver, manganese and who knows what other metals in the concentrates. The smelters keep these "waste" minerals for themselves and do not charge the mines any extra for extracting these impurities to make high quality copper.

The Butte concentrator is a floatation system.

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

Anyone else thinking this would have been a Modoc train?

TCnR Wrote:
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> Anyone else thinking this would have been a Modoc
> train?


Why?

Oh, that's right, it's all crap now. For a moment I forgot.
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> TCnR Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Anyone else thinking this would have been a
> Modoc
> > train?
>
>
> Why?

No, it's an OSL train rerouted. Presumably due to the derailment in the Blues

Posted from Android

So is this the Montana Resources concentrate out of Butte?

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

fbe Wrote:
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> So is this the Montana Resources concentrate out
> of Butte?
>
> Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

Davis above identified it as the OVWWO 01, Ore Vancouver, WA-Wendover, UT. This would be the empty return. The copper concentrate is trucked from Ely, NV, mine to Wendover for loading.

mapboy