This month I finished up the Marble Hill area on my layout. The prototype Georgia Northeastern serves two unique industries in this location. Georgia Marble, now operated by Polycor, loads marble chips into open top hopper cars utilizing a ramp for dump trucks to back up and dump directly into the hopper cars. The facility also loads large marble slabs into gondolas using the overhead crane. Much of the marble used in monuments and the Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, DC came from the quarry located in Marble Hill Georgia. The second industry, Imerys Corporation, loads calcium carbonate into Pressureaide covered hoppers. The facility uses a Trackmobile to move the cars into position at the loading rack on the industry siding. The Trackmobile will spot loaded cars on the run around track for the local to pick up. This compact area provides challenges to the local crew as they switch the industries.
With this area on my layout completed, I have finished all the structures and scenery on the layout. While this a major mile stone, I still have plenty of projects to do including adding operating grade crossing signals and custom painting several more locomotives in the GNRR paint scheme. Be sure to check out the photo gallery of the Georgia Northeastern Layout section on the website to see more photos of the completed Marble Hill area.