Hersheys Chocolate, rail dependency

Hello all,

I am very aware of how large the Hersheys plant is (largest chocolate plant in the world), and I know they receive their cocoa beans by rail (in boxcars), but I'm seeking to understand the full spectrum of the commodities they receive by rail, and the finished products they send out.

Can anyone offer any input as to what kind of products Hersheys receives? We've already mentioned cocao beans, and I know they mix milk (deliverd by truck) with sugar. Is the sugar delivered by rail? If so, is it in liquid form (tank cars)?

Any other ingredients I'm forgetting?

What kind of railcars (tanks, boxes, covered hoppers, etc.) can be found spotted at the plant, and are they marked for a specific vendor? (i.e. ADM, Corn Products Intl, Cargill, etc.)

Also, do they ship their finished products out by rail, or is it all truck?

Any insight you can offer me is much appreciated.

Thanks!

NYCS wrote:Hello all,

I am very aware of how large the Hersheys plant is (largest chocolate plant in the world), and I know they receive their cocoa beans by rail (in boxcars), but I'm seeking to understand the full spectrum of the commodities they receive by rail, and the finished products they send out.

Can anyone offer any input as to what kind of products Hersheys receives? We've already mentioned cocao beans, and I know they mix milk (deliverd by truck) with sugar. Is the sugar delivered by rail? If so, is it in liquid form (tank cars)?

Any other ingredients I'm forgetting?

What kind of railcars (tanks, boxes, covered hoppers, etc.) can be found spotted at the plant, and are they marked for a specific vendor? (i.e. ADM, Corn Products Intl, Cargill, etc.)

Also, do they ship their finished products out by rail, or is it all truck?

Any insight you can offer me is much appreciated.

Thanks!

A bit of historical trivia: at one time, much of the milk arrived in Hershey Transit freight motors; it was collected from farms in the area.

Hi All,

Another piece of trivia: Do not know if Hershey's chocolate is used in candy bars, but I do know that Baby Ruths are shipped via a Reefer. Yup, the car has to be refrigerated. Seems that a hot railcar and chocolate are the ingredients for a lot of melted chocolate. And no one wants a melted Hershey bar or Baby Ruth. So, my HO gauge car that has the Baby Ruth logo on its sides is, A REEFER.

Thanks Rob for providing up to date information on Hershey operations.

BWP

I will be in Hershey from 4/26 to 4/29, The last time I was there, I watched the traffic at the crossing behind the amusement park, are there any other places in the area that are better to view the trains? I heard if I go near Harrisburg there is much more traffic, but I dont want to venture to far from the area....45 mins. tops. Thanks in advance for any help you guys could provide.

Tom Smith
Long Island, NY

Just a note... cocoa beans are usually shipped from Africa in burlap bags. They are shipped either on old-fashioned marine pallets or in containers. Most of the east coast cocoa I believe still arrives through Red Hook in Brooklyn or Philadelphia... but there's no guaranty that it always arrives by rail at Hershey.

Back in the 1960's, strings of empty reefers spotted at the Hershey plant for a back-haul load of candy to Western points were a common sight. The confectionery industry has traditionally been concentrated in the Northeast, and the ready availability of equipment in need of a return load, whether rail or truck, has always kept freight rates low, and discouraged relocation.

Dressed-meat traffic deserted the rails very quickly in the wake of the completion of Interstate 80 across Pennsylvania's northern tier (c. 1970), and I suspect that the candy traffic disappeared about the same time.

However, if the recent experiment of routing unit-train-sized perishable shipments to central cold-storage warehouses proves economically feasible, the rails could then make a play to regain the westbound traffic.

They stopped receving the cocoa beans at Hershey via Rail. Sad they are supposed to be laying off quite a few people in favor of another place that is non-union.

I heard a rumor today that the Hershey facility is closing in Hershey PA and is moving down south. Any truth to this?

msernak wrote:I heard a rumor today that the Hershey facility is closing in Hershey PA and is moving down south. Any truth to this?

The whole entire facilty in Hershey???? That would be horrible news if it is true!!

msernak wrote:I heard a rumor today that the Hershey facility is closing in Hershey PA and is moving down south. Any truth to this?

The main plant in Hershey will remain open, though with buyouts and drastic layoffs. A new plant will open in Mexico, the Canadian plant will close and perhaps also the Reading facility.

Not happy times in Chocolatetown USA.

Warren Thompson wrote:

msernak wrote:I heard a rumor today that the Hershey facility is closing in Hershey PA and is moving down south. Any truth to this?

The main plant in Hershey will remain open, though with buyouts and drastic layoffs. A new plant will open in Mexico, the Canadian plant will close and perhaps also the Reading facility.

Not happy times in Chocolatetown USA.

Not only the bad news about plant closures and relocating to Mexico, but Hershey wants to "redefine" what chocolate is. Specifically, they want to still be able to call it chocolate, even if the product doesn't use cocoa butter.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/business ... _move.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... id=topnews
http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/trejbal/wb/115848
http://www.timesdispatch.com/cva/ric/en ... -0021.html


Publically traded corporate America at it's worst! Personally, I'm a big fan of privately owned companies which don't have to resort to artifical actions in order to keep the stock price high. (Unless they are pumping it up for an IPO....)

jrevans wrote:

Warren Thompson wrote:

msernak wrote:I heard a rumor today that the Hershey facility is closing in Hershey PA and is moving down south. Any truth to this?

The main plant in Hershey will remain open, though with buyouts and drastic layoffs. A new plant will open in Mexico, the Canadian plant will close and perhaps also the Reading facility.

Not happy times in Chocolatetown USA.

Not only the bad news about plant closures and relocating to Mexico, but Hershey wants to "redefine" what chocolate. Specifically, they want to still be able to call it chocolate, even if the product doesn't use cocoa butter.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/business ... _move.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... id=topnews
http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/trejbal/wb/115848
http://www.timesdispatch.com/cva/ric/en ... -0021.html


Publically traded corporate America at it's worst! Personally, I'm a big fan of privately owned companies which don't have to resort to artifical actions in order to keep the stock price high. (Unless they are pumping it up for an IPO....)

I think I'll start buying chocolate from some other company. Hershey has turned me off ....

po5173 wrote:I will be in Hershey from 4/26 to 4/29, The last time I was there, I watched the traffic at the crossing behind the amusement park, are there any other places in the area that are better to view the trains? I heard if I go near Harrisburg there is much more traffic, but I dont want to venture to far from the area....45 mins. tops. Thanks in advance for any help you guys could provide.

Tom Smith
Long Island, NY

You could go east, or west. Reading is about that far east, with lots to see, and do both on and off the railroad. Go west, and see Harrisburg, or cross the river, and go see Enola. Big engine shop at Enola, and lots mto see at HBG, from the depot, or down closer to GI-8. Between Harrisburg and Rutherford yard, the Hagerstown line comes in, and there might be something to see around there, as well. All within the time/distance you asked about. Regards..

Back when I worked out of HBG Terminal, the shifter spotted eight RailBox cars of cocoa beans per shift, and the night shifter spotted another eight that night.

Corn Syrup was delivered by tank car, and a small fleet of tank cars was dedicated to carrying chocolate Liquior between West Hershey & Hershey.
Hoppers brought in gradulated sugar.

Funny story...

I was working the shifter one day as a brakeman, and we went to couple to a cut of cars on 4 Storage. My first thought as we closed in for the couple was 'what is a pyle of coal doing between the rails here? Hershey hasn't had their own powerplant for MANY MANY moons!'

Well, as we went to couple, I walked out of the cab and started down the steps... about ten feet away, I immediately went back into the cab and said to the engineer 'I AINT turning in the air... couple on and drag them clear.'

It wasn't coal... it was sugar, covered in so many honey bees that it appeared to be a pile of coal. Guess buzy(busy) beez like hershey too.