Inspiration

Davis-Murdoch Stone Company

February 2024

Rampant Speculation

The beginning of this saga can be found here.

Here is another photo Jim sent me.

Picture-039-wagons
The wagons in this picture probably have been gathered and piled to be photographed for an auction catalog. It immediately brings to mind one of Jim's stories about how Phoenix soapstone would haul wagon loads of laundry sinks to the Southern Railroad's depot at Arrington.

These aren't wagons but carts, probably used for road grading. The soapstone company apparently graded and maintained the local roads using these horse drawn carts. This implies that the soapstone company was using horses, trucks, steam tractors, and trains all at the same time.

Picture-039-GraderHilited

Buried in the pile of carts is a road grader which I have emphasized in this copy of the photo.

RussellRoadGrader

The road grader bears a strong resemblance to the O scale Russell road grader available from Wiseman Modeling Services. The grader may have been used with the carts, and was also horsedrawn.

Broken and flawed soapstone coming out of the quarries may have provided plenty of raw material for road building aggregate, but it would have to be crushed.

RockCrusherPlant

Back in the 1920s, road construction trade magazines contain ads for portable crusher/spreader outfits. Had Phoenix soapstone bought one of these contraptions?

AustinMfg

Apparently so. Here is another of Jim's old photos of items to be auctioned. This v-bottom side dump gravel hauler was most likely delivered with a crusher and bucket belt to lift the gravel into the box. Where did the crusher and bucket belt end up?

Picture-023SoapstonePlantWorkers

At the talc loader, of course.