Every other day in Frankfort, except Sunday, two R J Corman Railroad locomotives pull down Broadway some 40 flatcars each loaded with two solid 60-ton aluminum ingots. Have you wondered where these ingots come from and where they are going? Well, read on and have your curiosity satisfied.
You have spent a hard Saturday working in the yard and, as a reward, you have treated yourself to a nice cold Sig Luscher beer in an aluminum can. Being a responsible person, after consuming your beer, you have deposited the empty aluminum can in your Frankfort recycle container. Bright and early on Monday morning the good people from Frankfort Solid Waste empty your recycling container, containing the empty Sig Luscher beer can, into their truck for transport to the Lexington recycling center.
At the recycling center, they sort the Sig Luscher empty aluminum beer can from the other recyclable materials. The empty beer can is then placed in a bin full of all kinds of other empty aluminum cans. These aluminum cans are crushed into a manageable solid bundle for transport to the Novelis plant at Berea. At Novelis, the aluminum scrap cans from Frankfort and thousands of other locations around the United States are placed in furnaces for melting down to a very hot liquid, which is then poured into molds for solidification.
Some 20% of all aluminum cans recycled in the United States are turned back into pure aluminum at Novelis in Berea. Once cooled off, two of the 60-ton aluminum ingots are loaded onto one of the R J Corman heavy duty flatcars waiting in the Novelis railyard. Each day some 40 60-ton aluminum ingots are produced by Novelis.
Once a train of some 40 flatcars is loaded with the aluminum ingots, R J Corman Railroad makes up the Alcan Train. This train travels north from Berea over CSXT track through Richmond, across the Kentucky River at Ford, and into Patio Yard at Winchester. The Alcan Train at Winchester moves over from CSXT track to R J Corman Railroad Central Kentucky track. The Alcan Train now journeys through Lexington and Midway and down Jett Hill, to blow its horn along Broadway before it travels up Benson Valley and passes through Bagdad, Shelbyville and Simpsonville to reach HK Tower (Anchorage) where the train is once again on CSXT track.
From HK Tower, the Alcan Train makes a run through Louisville to CSXT’s Osborn Yard, located just south of the University of Louisville. At Osborn Yard, there is a crew change.
From Osborn Yard, the Alcan Train heads south over CSXT track through Shepardsville, past Bardstown Junction and the My Old Kentucky Dinner Train, onto Elizabethtown, across the Green River at Munfordville, through Horse Cave and Cave City to the bridge over the Barren River, and then on into the CSXT Bowling Green Railyard. At Bowling Green, a new crew comes forward to take the Alcan Train over the R J Corman Railroad Memphis Branch to Russellville.
At Russellville, is located the Logan Aluminum Company that produces more than one-third of all the aluminum cans used in the United States. Here, the aluminum ingot from Berea is remelted and turned back into a can. These new cans travel by rail and truck from Russellville to users all over the United States. Part of this new production of aluminum cans travels back to Frankfort where they are delivered to Sig Luscher Brewery to again be filled with good Bohemian style beer that can be found for sale in the finer eating establishments in Frankfort.
Once the Alcan Train is unloaded of its aluminum ingots at the Logan Aluminum Company, the Alcan Train makes the run-in reverse back to Berea. This time, however, the Alcan Train’s flatcars are empty, as all can see, when the train slowly makes its way down Broadway for the tunnel under Main Street hill. As the train moves down Broadway, it blows its horn for every street crossing to inform one and all that it is on its way back to Berea to repeat the cycle of what happens to an empty Sig Luscher beer can.
