EXAMPLE TEXT FROM BOOK
Part 1
Page 7, Historical Summary
Introduction
The history and story behind the existence of a gypsum plant
at Plaster City, California seems to be only a footnote in the
developing years of the Imperial Valley, a valley with an abundance
of stories and facts that has created a rich history. However,
when the Plaster City gypsum plant and its related quarry at
Fish Creek Mountains are viewed with regards to how railroads
played a significant part in developing and sustaining the economic
giant known as the Imperial Valley, all things related to Plaster
City and gypsum mining take on a higher level of importance.
Part-1 describes how the gypsum deposits of Fish Creek Mountains
were discovered, how mining of those deposits resulted, and
various events that led to the existence and operation of what
is simply known today as Plaster City. Part-1 is arranged to
address the Discovery Era, initial construction of the Dunaway
Era, expansion under the Pacific Portland and Cement Company
Era, and the evolving U.S. Gypsum Company Era. Throughout this
book, the focus is on the narrow gauge railroad that began operation
hauling raw gypsum, or “gyp” as it is nicknamed,
to a processing and storage site at Dunaway City on October
14, 19221.
Part 1-Historical Summary
Page 18
Construction
IN THE BEGINNING, As Samuel Dunaway began bringing his vision
to a reality, a work camp of tents was the first structures
erected onsite at the plant location, which would be named Dunaway
City. The camp would evolve to a permanent company housing community
located on the north side of old Hwy-80. Under Pacific Portland
Cement Company ownership, the site’s name would change
to Plaster City and have it’s own postal address and train
station. During ownership by U.S. Gypsum, the housing community
would be dismantled and disappear but the name Plaster City
and the success of gypsum mining and product manufacturing would
continue, as it does today.
Part 2-Trains & Operations
Page 31
Operations
Originally, exploratory mining at the quarry used horse or mule
drawn wagons that were complemented with motorized truck to
haul extracted gypsum within the quarry for either transport
to a central storage site or sending samples to Dunaway City
for analysis or at off-site locations. As commercial mining
operation began, the railroad tracks were extended into the
quarry so that ore cars could be loaded adjacent to the extraction
points. During the early years of USG ownership, large dump
trucks replaced the railroad inside the quarry and moved the
gypsum from its extraction points to a central storage site.
In addition, the central loading point became a three-step process
of preparation, storage, and loading of trains; crushing equipment
was added to reduce the raw gypsum ore to a 4-inch or less size.
After passing through the crusher, the gypsum rock is moved
by conveyor and stored in multiple, adjacent silos that are
positioned above the railroad tracks. Finally, the ore train
positions multiple hopper cars under the silos and they are
gravity-loaded underneath the silos. This newer and presently
used three-step process at the quarry has three beneficial outcomes:
large size gypsum rock did not have to be reduced at the plant;
the smaller sized gypsum rocks were immediately usable at the
plant by the final crushing equipment, which would turn it into
powder-like substance in preparation for cooking; and more gypsum
could be loaded into the same ore cars because the smaller sized
rocks would compact better, providing a greater yield of gypsum
per train. Simply stated, the preparation (crushing) before
loading at the quarry made the quarry, railroad, and plant operations
more efficient and had a positive impact on the business’s
bottom line.
Page 38
Locomotives
The second and third acquisitions of motive power for the Imperial
Gypsum & Oil Company were Numbers 12 and 14, both obtained
in 1921 when Dunaway and fellow corporate officers bought equipment
from the Arizona Consolidated Copper Company for railroad operations.
The initial purchases would allow for enough motive power and
rolling stock to bring gypsum from the quarry to the plant and
sustain operations at the quarry, e.g., locomotives, ore cars,
and flat cars. The motive power and ore cars were the backbone
of operations and the flatcars would be used to haul equipment
and materials to and from the quarry, mount fuel and water tanks
for transporting supplies to the quarry, and to fabricate a
crew car to transport the work force to and from the quarry.
The build dates for Numbers 12 and 14 were the same timeframe
of April 1900 and were almost identical. Regrettably, I did
not find a left side picture of either unit. Number 12 outlasted
Number 14’s operating years; 14 was retired in 1930’s
and used as parts for 12. Number 14 was scrapped in 1946 and
12 followed within a couple of years.
Page 58
Rolling Stock
These pictures are two different oblique angles of the same
side of hopper 13 that was delivered to Plaster City via standard
gauge railroad. This type car replaced the original 30 ton ore
cars. The initial purchase order for sixteen units was authorized
in 1946 with the car manufacturer Austin-Western in Ohio. Later
orders were built by Trinity Rail Cars in Texas. Delivery of
units 1 thru 16 occurred in 1947 and were part of upgrading
the railroad after purchase of Portland Pacific Cement Company
by U.S. Gypsum in 1945. The design is an air operated, single-door,
bottom dump hopper. Another five units, 17 thru 20, were delivered
in August 1957, units 21 thru 25 delivered in 1999, and units
26 thru 37 delivered in 2000. The onsite total of all hopper
cars as of June 2008 was thirty units.
Page 71
Mining
The current configuration of the silos at the quarry allows
for storage of about three trainloads of crushed gyp (at 4-inch
or less size). However, the process of mining and delivery of
boulder sized raw gyp to the crusher location is somewhat independent;
that is, the boulder sized loads are brought there by large
dump-trucks and directly dumped into the crusher or on the ground
nearby-to be loaded into the crusher as needed by a large front-loader
that scoops-up and dumps the boulders into the crusher. As gyp
is crushed, it is dropped onto a conveyor belt system that rises
to the top of the silos and dumped inside for storage. Each
dump-truck load of raw gypsum, hauled from the mining site within
the quarry, is about 60-70 tons.
Part 3- Structures
Page 119
Plant, Quarry, and Railroad Related
Originally, structures at the quarry were minimal and today
there is a smaller footprint of the railroad inside the quarry
compared to when the first crusher and silo units were installed.
It was then that the amount and type of structures at the quarry
increased during the early years of USG ownership. Two more
recent areas of expansion by USG have been increasing the size
of the storage and loading site and adding three other crusher/processor
systems for other gypsum products instead of having that done
at the plant.
Part 4-Flora & Terrain
Page 159
Land Features
The pictures you will see on the following pages of Part-4 are
few and yet simply overall representative of the desert terrain
and hills of the environment surrounding the Plaster City plant
and its related railroad and quarry. The Plaster City plant
is on flatland, the quarry is in a depression within the Fish
Creek Mountains some 21 straight-line miles north-northwest
of the plant – the narrow gauge railroad runs between
those two locations through desert flatland for a total roadbed
distance of about 26 miles. The quarry entrance on its north
end is at an elevation of about 275 feet with the floor of the
quarry being somewhat of a flat depression inside the mountain
that rises to about 775 feet at its southern end. The highest
elevation of the mountain peaks around the quarry’s edge
is about 1,400 feet to the east, about 2,000 feet on the south,
and about 700 to 1,500 feet to the west.
Epilog
Page 165
As a privately run railroad, the Plaster City railroad is not
beholding to Federal Railroad Agency (FRA) regulations involving
operation of a common, public railroad. However, much of what
FRA requires is applied to Plaster City’s operation as
a matter of best business practices and commonality of equipment
and standards, which makes much of what is done on and with
the railroad, in my opinion, very safe and reliable. Consider
their safety record: “At the end of 2008, the Plaster
City railroad had operated 7 years without any lost time incidents.
While there have been minor incidents of derailment or parts
failure, other than the accidental crash of 113 at the quarry
in 1991, the railroad has a great safety record.” 46
Bibliography
Page 179
Narrow Gauge Nostalgia – A Compendium of California Short
Lines, by George B. Turner
* ISBN 1-931064-02-4, First Edition published by Trans-Anglo
Books 1965; copy provided by Mr. Mel Rader, Supervisor Railroad
and Utilities, USG Plaster City, CA.
*Third edition published as California High Country Narrow Gauge
Railroads by Oso Publishing Co. copyright 2001. Copy provided
by Bob Babcock – North County & Pacific Creek Railroad,
Fallbrook, CA.
*Both referenced for historical retrospect prior to 1965.
