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Just found this " Camgros building at 532 Francisco Boulevard" hope it helps
Green is Shamrock, McPhails was red, Camgros I recall was orange, but I could be wrong on that one.
Are there any photos of Camgros or McPhail's businesses? I would like model the area of Anderson ave for switching and these plants would be cool.
Googling Camgros results with a lot of newspaper articles but no images strangely.
Richard is wright there was 3 cement plants that had rail service plus i think Benkins moving and storage
used to get a railbox car some times this was 1977 when i walked home from san rafael
Jack G: your friend is likely correct. I now seem to recall that it was Shamrock, not McPhail's, that was at the Irwin and Francisco Blvd. W. site, or what is now Shamrock Center. If someone were to search long enough, they would find photos of a Shamrock cement truck on this website with a knuckle coupler used for moving freight cars around their San Rafael facility. Maybe someone can find an article about the McPhail's sale (around 1994?) and/or Shamrock move.
Another mistake on my part: I'm confusing McPhail's with Ghilotti Construction! It was Ghilotti with the Partridge Family style construction vehicles. They've toned it down over the years, but red, yellow, and black figure prominently in their color scheme. I don't think McPhail's was ever into construction, but they sold construction materials, including ready-mix, and propane. At one time they even sold appliances.
This is all terribly embarrassing. I certainly don't want to appear cavalier with facts, but it appears I really blew it on this one! However, the good thing about this website is that we can collectively improve recall and cement (pardon the pun) the historical record with the best information available so that future visitors can benefit.
Steve Atnip provides another avenue for related research: Camgros Ready-Mix, also of San Rafael. Did they have an NWP connection?
"Who's on First?..."
Camgros had a cement plant in the same area
Steve: can you elaborate? Who are the Camgros? And what is the tie-in to the McPhail's site?
I can find that Camgros may have done some development up by 5th Ave, and I see a few obituaries for family members. Please fill us in!
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