FAIRPORT, PAINESVILLE & EASTERN
OTHER INDUSTRIES
Though Diamond
Alkali/Shamrock was far and away the largest and most important customer the FP&E had, the railroad had several other
customers. Below I have some information
on those other customers that I gathered from various sources such as articles,
books, websites, Lake County Tax Maps, and ICC Finance Docket 23980. Since the sources are so varied and numerous,
I decided not to list them as I have on my other pages; however, if something
mentioned on this page piques your interest and you would like to follow up on
it, feel free to e-mail me and I will share with you any source information I
have (my e-mail address is at the bottom of the main page).
I am
presenting the industries in geographical order from east to west and by
division (Perry Division first, then the Rayon Branch, and finally the Western
Division). It will be extremely helpful
to follow along using the 1966 FP&E System Map as
a guide (which can be found on my FP&E
Maps page); just open another tab or page in your internet browser with
that map on it so that you can easily flip back and forth between the
information on this page and the map.
Perry Division
Stauffer / Mid-West Materials
(On Map: Unlabelled
spur just west of Perry-Perry Township border)
The facility at this location was built in 1942 by Western
Molded Products (a division of Stauffer Chemical), and made carbon bisulphide for Diamond Alkali and Industrial Rayon. Sometime between 1960 and 1965 Stauffer
mothballed the plant. The facility
remained vacant until 1969 when Mid-West Materials purchased it for use as a
steel processing and distributing service center.
Calhio
(On Map: Spur labelled Calhio Chemical Company)
This customer began operations in 1954. Calhio was jointly
owned by California Spray Chemical and Stauffer Chemical, and manufactured
agricultural insecticides—mainly captan. Circa 1965, the inbound commodities included
ammonia from Illinois and caustic soda from Niagara Falls, NY; the outbound
insecticides were shipped primarily to customers in New Jersey, Oregon and
California; and chlorine wastes produced as a by-product were shipped to
Buffalo, NY for further processing.
After numerous corporate ownership changes in the 1980s
and 1990s, the final owner, Arvesta,
closed the plant in 2004.
Rayon Branch
Cleveland Electric
Illuminating
(Not On Map)
CEI
constructed an industrial spur from the end of the Rayon Branch to its Perry
Nuclear Power Plant circa 1977. From
what little I have learned about this spur I believe it was used during the
construction of the power plant, and that is it. The track is still there to this day, but has
not been used for many years (most of the track is covered with vegetation or
has been paved over where roadways cross it.)
Rayon / PET Processors
(On Map: Spur labelled I.R.C. Fibres)
The plant at this location was built in 1937 by Industrial Rayon
and began operations in 1938. IRC (widely
known as just "Rayon") manufactured tire cord and various kinds of
fabric including rayon and synthetic yarn.
Circa 1965, the inbound commodities were sodium sulphate
from Niagara Falls, NY, wood pulp from Georgia and Florida, bituminous coal,
and an occasional car of anthracite coal; the outbound products were shipped to
New York, Maine, Michigan and Ontario.
The Rayon plant was closed in August 1980, and the facility was
purchased for liquidation/dismantling in 1981 by Louisiana Chemical. However, because some of the equipment was
valuable for plastic pellet processing, a new firm—PET Processors—was created
and bought the plant from Louisiana Chemical in 1986.
Allied / Robintech
/ Georgia-Pacific
(On Map: Spur labelled General Chemical Company)
This plant began operations in 1953 for the General Chemical
Division of Allied Chemical, and produced sulphuric
acid for Diamond Alkali and Industrial Rayon.
In 1963 the plant was redesigned and began producing PVC resin. In 1973 Allied Chemical sold the plant to
Universal PVC Resins, a subsidiary of Robintech. Four years later it was sold to
Georgia-Pacific, who subsequently converted the facility from making polyvinyl
chloride resin to making polystyrene resin.
In 1996 Georgia-Pacific sold the plant to NOVA Chemicals.
Western Division
Fasson
(On Map: Unlabelled;
located on east side of Hardy Road, on south side of FP&E
main line)
This customer started operations in 1967 making large rolls of
adhesive paper. Fasson
is a division of Avery-Dennison, and this plant is still operating to this day
(though it looks like there has not been rail service since the 1980s).
Pillsbury / Glyco / Lonza
(On Map: Spur labelled Pillsbury)
The facility at this location was originally the eastern portion
of the Diamond Magnesium plant.
Pillsbury bought the facility in 1963 and converted it to produce the
artificial sweetener sodium cyclamate.
Unfortunately for Pillsbury, just as they were expanding production in
the mid-1960s, sodium cyclamate was linked to cancer
in mice—resulting in the US government banning the substance in 1969. That year Pillsbury sold its plant to Glyco Chemicals. Glyco had already established a small fatty acid plant on
the northwestern corner of the Pillsbury grounds in 1966; with ownership of the
entire facility Glyco expanded its production of food
grade fatty acids and glycerides. In
1986 Glyco was merged into Lonza;
and in 2002 Lonza sold the plant to Twin Rivers
Technologies. Twin Rivers 'mothballed'
the plant at the end of 2006, and in 2007 announced it would convert the
facility to produce biodiesel fuel sometime in the future.
Uniroyal (South)
(On Map: West of Pillsbury spur
on south side of FP&E main line where
"RUBBER" is written)
The facility at this location was originally the western portion
of the Diamond Magnesium plant. In 1963
the Naugatuck Chemical Division of U.S. Rubber bought the facility and
converted it to produce synthetic rubber.
In 1967 U.S. Rubber changed its name to Uniroyal, and Naugatuck Chemical
became Uniroyal Chemical. Uniroyal was
merged into Crompton & Knowles in 1996, and that company closed the plant
in 1999.
Glenn L. Martin / Uniroyal
(North) / Dartron
(On Map: Spur on north side of FP&E main line where "U.S." is written)
This facility began operations in 1947 as a chemical plant for
Glenn L. Martin, and produced vinyl resins.
Two years later Martin sold its entire chemical division—including this
plant—to U.S. Rubber's Naugatuck Chemical Division. Naugatuck Chemical (later Uniroyal Chemical)
continued to produce PVC resins at the facility until it was closed down in
1975. In 1979 the plant was sold to Dart
Cartage (later Dartron), who used it for scrap metal
recycling. In 2001 Dartron
sold the facility to Crompton Manufacturing (a division of Crompton &
Knowles), and Crompton subsequently cleared off the land.
U.S. Industrial
(On Map: On B&O
line in Fairport Harbor where "HIGH" is written)
The customer at this location was not served by the FP&E until Chessie System
abandoned its line to Fairport Harbor in 1982, at which point the track from
this industry to the former FP&E/Chessie interchange became an industrial spur. The facility was originally built in 1949 by
Dasher Rubber & Chemical to produce rubber; in 1959 the plant was converted
to produce colored plastic pellets, and was operated under the name Polymer
Dispersions. In 1964 Polymer Dispersions
became a subsidiary of National Distillers & Chemical, and in 1974 the
facility was absorbed into another ND&C
subsidiary, U.S. Industrial Chemicals.
After numerous corporate name changes and ownership changes in the 1980s and 1990s, in 1997 the
plant was taken over by Equistar Chemicals—which then became a wholly-owned
subsidiary of Lyondell Chemical in 2004.
Notes and Observations
An interesting item that I came across while researching
the above industries was the following quote from a 1959 issue of the journal Public
Utilities Fortnightly demonstrating how interconnected many of the FP&E's customers were:
General Chemical supplies sulphuric
acid to Industrial Rayon and Diamond Alkali; the latter supplies hydrogen gas
to Air Products, Inc., and General Electric, where it is compressed for various
uses; caustic soda from Diamond is shipped to Industrial Rayon; Stauffer
Chemical ships carbon bisulphide to Industrial Rayon
and also supplies this chemical to Diamond, which uses it to make carbon
tetrachloride, returning the elemental sulphur to
Stauffer, which uses it to make more carbon bisulphide,
some of which goes next door to Calhio Chemical. Calhio in turn
makes sulphur dichloride, which it sends to Diamond
and in return receives chlorine and caustic soda.
Created by Scott Nixon
October 2010