Sims GE 44 Tonner
Sunday, June 15, 2008 at 12:37AM Sims Metals has a plant at the corner of Cutting Blvd and S. 4th street in Richmond California. The busy facility deals in scrap metals and receives all manner of scrap by road and rail. Much of what is received by the plant is sorted then loaded on ships docked in the nearby Port of Richmond. The ships are bound for Asian ports where the scrap will be made into new steel.
A couple of sidings enter the Sims plant from the Richmond Pacific track that runs around the east side of the plant. Sims uses a GE 44 Tonner, #9911 to move railcars into and out of the plant. It does this presumably for safety reasons and to avoid switching fees. Richmond Pacific locomotives are not permitted to enter the plant which may also be related to the condition of the track within the plant.
I was lucky enough to catch these guys using Sims 9911 shuffling gons of scrap into the plant on my way home last Saturday morning. Here’s the clip of the old GE 44 tonner heading back to the rail entrance of the plant.
The RPRC drops and picks up cars for Sims on the track along Hoffman Blvd. Usually it’s gondolas but from time to time, box cars and flat cars arrive with loads for the plant. The Sims plant also ships out scrap loads from time to time.
A couple of years ago, two dead UP SD40-2’s showed up. You can see them against the fence in the lower part of the photo below. Fortunately, these have been the only locomotives heading off to meet their maker around here!
Trackage around Sims
The BNSF Siberia Lead runs between the RPRC tracks and Hoffman Blvd here and it can be seen in as the top track in the pic above and the foreground of the pic below. In the shot above, the main Sims siding lies along the line of trees and is visible below them while the RPRC track runs along on the other side of the tree line which, as can be seen from the street shots includes a fence. This track is where the RPRC leaves and collects cars for Sims.
The shot below shows Siberia Jct where there is a connection from the BNSF Siberia track to the RPRC 8th Street bypass track.
The two boxcars have been set out by the Richmond Pacific for later delivery by the RPRC to an autoparts facility on the other side of Cutting Blvd. Below is the view along the Siberia Lead as is crosses Cutting Blvd then passes under I-580. The spur to the autoparts distribution facility is just this side of the freeway seen above the track in this picture.
You can also just see the lead along Cutting Blvd that branches to the left (west) from the Siberia track just before Cutting Blvd and just this side of the Cutting Blvd grade crossing relay box.
The RPRC switches the Cutting lead in the evening and can be seen drilling tank cars for an industry and exchanging centerbeam loads for empties at Channel Lumber, both located on Cutting Blvd. The crew will also run across Cutting on the BNSF rails to reach the autoparts distribution facility and BOC gases. The distribution facility receives 86’ and other boxcars like the one on the Siberia Jct track while the BOC plant has a two track loadout for carbon dioxide and receives CO2 tank cars.
Back To Scrap
I moved around to Hoffman Blvd to get a better view of Sims 9911 moving cars around. Here’s a couple more clips of the small unit carefully moving cars into the scrap yard. Note the slow speed the cars are moved into the yard. You can see a lot of activity in the yard behind and the crew are very careful to keep everyone safe as they position cars for unloading.
Pardon the wind noise! A lot of the industrial noise you can hear in the clip is coming from the scrap yard.
Industrial Interchange
It was fun watching this unit and it provides great inspiration for a simple interchange operation instead of just another siding into an industry. The Sims plant only has a couple of sidings which hold about 6-8 cars as well as a spot for their locomotives. For the most part, they appear to mainly use the siding that 9911 is switching. The cars on the RPRC track create a slight obstacle for operations though the RPRC can get to the rest of it’s tracks via Wright Ave.
I plan to include an industry on the RBL that has it’s own small switcher like this one thus creating an additional simple crew job or two to collect, switch and return cars to the RBL instead of an RBL crew doing all the switching.
GE 44 Tonner in N Scale?
As far as I know, there’s no N Scale offering of this unit. The Simms example looks great with those funky exhaust stacks, though I would definitely put this guy in the “ugly locomotive” bucket along side other early GE’s, the EMD BL2 and pretty much every Alco ever built! Having said that, I’d love to get one if someone makes one because it looks so different from the other units I’ll be running. I have an N Scale Magazine article describing how to scratch build on but if that is what I have to do, I’ll use an Also S-1 or something like that as a stand in.
Just in case you’re interested in modeling this unit here’s another side on shot:
And if you’re interested to see more of the Sim’s plant area, here’s the interactive Google map to of this area. You can move the map around by dragging it and you can zoom in. Here’s the cool stuff though, if you open the larger Google map and click on “Street View” you’ll see that the Google car has been all around the Sims plant and that the street view pics show some nice street views of the plant including trucks waiting to enter the plant on 4th street.
I was only able to collect a few shots and clips before I had to continue home and the kids were waiting patiently in the car for me to be done with yet another of my detours! As always, feel free to click the “comment” link below to post your own thoughts on this or any other post on this blog. Or click the “email” link above to send me an email and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
Reader Comments (5)
Looking closely at the SIMS metals locomotive, I wasn't convinced that that locomotive was a 44 Tonner.
It's in fact a GE 50Tonner C-I. You can see a comperable locomotive here: http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/asd4.jpg
If you're crazy or rich enough, there's another cousin for sale by Duke Energy in North Carolina! I came across this searching for more information on the SIMS locomotive.
http://www.duke-energy.com/asset-recovery/pdfs/GELocomotive_Cliffside.pdf
For close to 15+ years my dad kept his sailboat at Marina Bay (moved to NC in 1997), so I know the areas you're shooting / talking about pretty well. It's amazing how much the Marina Bay area has changed (looking at Google Maps anyway), but all that industry you're shooting, is pretty much the same as I remember it over 10 years ago now.
Keep up the good work.
Hey, that is a GREAT report! Thanks for sharing. As for the 44 ton in N scale, there is (if I remember correctly) the Kato or Tomix shell, that can fit on a Kato frame.
Take a look here to see a DCC installation or try to search with Google.
Hey thanks Denny! The DCC article loooks great!
- Steve
Hello neat photos and vid's. The unit is a GE 50 ton loco, with two D/D/ 671 engines powering two 1503 traction generators. These both power the two 733 traction that are in each truck assembly. The drive axle powers the idler axle by a chain driven from a sprocket on each axle.The unit was delivered about 4 several years ago in early March. I have a couple photos of unloading it from the two trucks we hauled it in from the Phila., PA area. The large exhaust stacks were to help keep the engine exhaust level down. The unit was also completely rewired and all new electrical switch gear installed. There was a old 44 tonner on the Sims property that came from the NAPA Valley Wine train, it might have been cut up by now. The 991 replaced that unit.
JC McHugh - www.mchughlocomotiveandcrane.com
PS - Also we just saved a old Mack locomotive, you can learn about it at www.mchugh4macklocomotive.com