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