Building America with Trains (67 Photos)

#45 The old Coal Scale house on the Southern Pacific line in Demming New Mexico. Razed by explosive demolition in the fall of 1997. I was the project manager for that demolition. The structure was 110 feet tall very heavily steel reinforced concrete with a pair of huge steel vessels in the top of the structure for weighing the coal in a monstrous balance beam scale. We spent 14, ten hour days prepping the site.
Due to strategic high pressure mixed product petroleum pipelines, fiber optic and other communication, natural gas lines, etc running under the property and rail yard, we had to lay down 3 feet of soft dirt and corrugated metal to cushion the fall in the landing zone, a fifty five foot wide strip of land between the tracks and the side of the Demming exit ramp on I-10. Our powder guys wrapped Det cord and industrial plastic explosive on structure and we stopped traffic on I-10. The explosion threw the reinforcing steel beams we used across the rail yard taking out all the highline power and communication lines. Oops…..That was in October of 1997.