Eastern Railroad Discussion > The Scrap Man Cometh ..... 30 November 2022

The Woodyard for the now closed Verso papermill is slowly being dismantled by a scrap company. This afternoon CSX moved 3 empty gons into position for the scrappers to load. The railyard at Beryl, WV is also it's self being slowly taken out by CSX.... just a few tracks remain.

1) U158-30 brings the empty gons into the former WVC / WM/ CSX yard at Beryl, WV. The yard was closed the same time the papermill was shuttered.
The caboose / shoving platform "Spirit of Grafton" has remained behind since the yard closed.

2) Positioning the empties so the power can run around the cars.

3) U158  among the emptiness of the yard......

... More to Follow ....​

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1) L165-30 on the Mountain Sub, Westbound passing a lone worker cutting scrap that was once the debarking drums in the woodyard.

2) A scene of the woodyard demolition from November 3, 2022 of the debarking Drums.

3) U158 moving into to spot the cars for loading.

... More to Follow ....

 

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1) With the two paper making machines sold and removed from the plant, the remaining parts of the mill in Luke, MD will also see the scrappers torch.....

2) And "The Junction" at Beryl slowly disappears also....

Tim W.

 

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Sad but very interesting coverage.

Interesting photoessay, gritty combination of trains and demo work.
Paper mills are complex chemistry projects, lots of jobs, lots of potential toxins, all replaced by an iPhone or two.
t4p,

Dang.

Great photo coverage

Posted from Android

Tim,
First, Thank you for the update on the demise of the Verso papermill. Very good visuals but sad!
Watching scrapping operations is always depressing. Although this is only taking away the man made parts. The "scrapping" of the people who worked there can not be so neatly depicted. 
I wish them all the best going through this Holiday season without work and an income as I surely believe there are no other employers in the immediate area that could have hired the terminated workers. Probably some have moved on. I've been there, done that, it sucks!
 I think back to around 1966. I had graduated from high school and was a "pump jockey" at a service station, also entrusted to wash cars and do simple lube jobs. That not being a career path I eventually accepted a job as a mechanic at an auto repair and state inspection station (today a "Technician") a respectable job which my younger son is gainfully employed in today. While working that job some days it was my duty to fire up the acetylene torch and cut up cars in the "scrap line". The boss, said, "Watch out when cutting any tubing as the fluid may catch fire". He never said what to do if it did! Nothing did and a few Fords, Nashes, Frazers and Kaisers left the world under mthat torch. Nothing special but I always wondered why the beautiful (to me) black, white and red Edsel Citation convertible with its 410 C.I.D. V8, push button transmission, and every option in the book, met the same fate. Today she would be a star at any car show. At least I wasn't the one who cut her up!
I moved from auto repair to NASA, military communications and medical design engineering and may someday retire. I'll be 77 in January and still enjoy working full time and do consulting on the side.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
Gonut

Deja Vu all over again for me, having seen the YS&T Campbell works in Youngstown, OH during it's slow deconstruction
in the late 1970's - early 1980's...

What has always stuck me was the sheer wastefulness of industrrial demoliton, in addition to the lives disrupted by the closing
of major facility with many people employed.

The factory I retired from was in the process of moving to Mexico, but because of a reprieve negotiated by the Union, Political leaders,
and state/federal/local government only 50% was sent away in 2016. The leftover production machines, parts washers, and even completed
parts were cut up, trashed or otherwise disposed of. This included a $300000.00 parts washer, ABB robotic arms, and assembled parts which
had been assembled, brazed, and tested.

All of the recoverable scrap was shipped out by truck, the rail siding having been removed many years before, the switch to the plant
was off of the PC/CR St. Louis Line.

Can't speak for the climate at the Verso plant, but when people where I worked thought the end was near, it got mighty hostile around that
place. The plant manager was protected by armed security.

Yeah, it was that bad.



 

Bob Dylan - "The Times They Are a-Changin'"

~ Mr. MRL

Thanks once again Tim for your great coverage of the railroads in your area.  Yes, it is very sad to see another factory gone along with the jobs.  I have ridden past there many times on both the Western Maryland Railway and on the B&O.  Thanks again.
John in White Marsh, Maryland

Is this the plant served by Georges Creek?

Tominde Wrote:
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> Is this the plant served by Georges Creek?

It was....

Pleasantly surprised to see the scrap generated being shipped off by rail. A small bright spot in a sad situation.

Thanks for the detailed coverage of the dismantling process.  Rarely see it in so much detail.

I read the other day that Amazon has pledged to reduce its use of cardboard / linerboard boxes 50% by 2025.  I've noticed several recent shipments now have (recycled) plastic bags rather than the boxes they used to use.  Fewer boxes, fewer books, fewer magazines, less paper = fewer paper mills

The only real operation the Georges Creek had was switching this plant.   When I was down there last this plant was humming.   I always thought with the expansion in online business an operation that made coated paper for shipping boxes had it good, compared to the guys making copy paper.  I still don't understand.

I really get upset on the demolition of coal handling facilities at power plants.   Wouldn't hurt to leave it there, even mothballed, compared to the expense of tearing it all out.

Our own smallish local power plant got demo'd this year and it seemed like a waste, let alone a mistake when for redundancy you want standby plants and smaller plants scattered over a wider geography for the grid.   It was supposed to be converted to gas and it got demo'd instead.

The ex-Hammermill paper plant in Erie, PA is completely gone, and the last unit train that served it was in 2000.  But the site is actually successfully redeveloped, ironically the railroad log receiving yard is now hosting an under-construction recycling plant for plastics.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> I read the other day that Amazon has pledged to
> reduce its use of cardboard / linerboard boxes 50%
> by 2025.  I've noticed several recent shipments
> now have (recycled) plastic bags rather than the
> boxes they used to use.  Fewer boxes, fewer
> books, fewer magazines, less paper = fewer paper
> mills


I would propose that this is a cost cutting move sold as an environmental one. I find it hard to accept that making millions of plastic bags is better for the environment than a million cardboard boxes.

Posted from Android

P Wrote:
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>
>
> I would propose that this is a cost cutting move
> sold as an environmental one. I find it hard to
> accept that making millions of plastic bags is
> better for the environment than a million
> cardboard boxes.
>
> Posted from Android

Possibly, although using recycled plastic keeps it out of the landfills.

Coke, Pepsi, and Dr Pepper are running joint TV commercials here in Florida about making 50% of their containers from recycled plastics by 2025.  It's clearly an idea which has favorable customer reaction.

Your last B&W shot says it all. That is one powerful image ! B&W definitely captures the mood.

Super interesting series, the black and white gives it an ominous and sad feel.  

Nathan

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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  Fewer boxes, fewer
> books, fewer magazines, less paper = fewer paper
> mills

All true but a funny thing has happened in the last couple of years: there's a big paper shortage going on, esp. for printing papers as well as other types. Where I work, it's almost a weekly occurance that something doesn't get printed, or is put off until later, because the paper required isn't available. Even popular grades and sizes, and this is common throughout the printing industry. Read more here, or google on the web:

https://www.phoenixlitho.com/global-paper-shortage-2022-what-you-need-to-know/

Verso claimed this mill was getting to be unprofitable, but who knows. I know from previous experience when it was Mead/Westvaco they made excellent paper, I always liked working with their top grade coated papers at work. Made for some beautiful printing. Why they didn't make the switch over to boxes or Kraft papers (growing market) like a lot of mills did is also not known, but at one time this was a premium mill. Now just a pile of junk as these photos show. How many former mill towns like this dot the landscape these days?

JG



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/01/22 21:32 by jgilmore.