Lumber and paper mill layout for conrail csx and ns

[Anonymous]

I am soon going to begin work on my new layout. It will be will be a 22x12 foot U-shaped layout. I plan on modeling Conrail and its owners Norfolk and Southern and CSX with a lumber/paper mill layout. I would also like to include some Amtrak since i have a fleet of AMfleet and Superliner cars and a book case of engines. I would appreciate any advice and help. Thank you


Bill

[Anonymous]

I have been experimenting with different track plans and i have filled an entire 180 page book with pencil scale drawings that don't fit my needs. I was wondering if anybody could give me some help with a track plan. Thanks.

[fisherdm]

I can probably help answer any questions that you have on paper mills. I work for a consulting engineering firm that does work at the paper mills in the southeast. I have personally visited about half a dozen mills over the years.

My first work of advice is that a paper mill is a BIG industry. One of the smaller mills I have worked out would at first glance seem ideal. Its a long, stretched out mill squeezed between a railroad and a river. However, to model the north half of the mill would require about 24 feet in HO scale. And this particular mill does not receive all that much from rail; mostly they use trucks. A medium sized mill would easily occupy the entire space that you have available.

That being said, I will state that I am including a paper mill on my layout. It will occupy approximately 14 feet of shelf. In order to accomodate the space available, I am concentrating on modelling some key structures and features. I will include the paper machine building, stock chests, wood piles, and warehouse. The rest of the space will be used to include the various unloading facilities, with the rest of the mill either on the backdrop or in the aisle.

MR has had a couple of articles in the past about paper mills, and there was an N scale layout a couple of years ago. These can help give you a sense of the scale involved. Unfortunately, the Walthers paper mill kits are not big enough to do the job. The HO kits would be about right for N scale, especially if you put two of the kraft mill kits together. For reference, a moderate sized paper machine building is 400-500 feet long.

Dan

[Anonymous]

Thanks Dan. I had no idea the mills where that big! I bought the walthers kit and expected that to be the size of it. Since i thought that was about it, what does an entire mill complex include?

Bill

[fisherdm]

A large, modern paper mill consists of a number of sections.

The first is the wood yard. Logs and wood chips are delivered here. Typically, these are brought in by truck, but you can still justify using rail car if you want (and I expect you do). Wood is either long wood (40' long), short wood (20' long), or pulp wood (real short). Wood chips are brought in in open hoppers. These are unloaded and conveyed to various piles depending on the type of chips. Logs are run through debarking drums, then slashed and chipped, before these are conveyed to the wood chip piles. The unloading facilities are interesting, but since the wood piles are generally located right next to the tracks, do take up a lot of room. The wood chips piles could be suggested at rather than modelled, since they are removed from the immediate unloading locations.

The "main" part of the paper mill is the pulping, bleaching, and paper making. While this is very interesting from an engineering viewpoint, there isn't a lot of railroading done here. Basically the wood chips are cooked in large pressure cookers with a caustic chemical bath, washed, bleached (if applicable), and stored in large stock chests. Then the pulp is sent to the paper machine building where it is formed into the sheet. (I am greatly simplifiying here.) Railroad delivieries here are bleaching chemicals for the bleach plant and paper coatings for the paper machine. The unloading facility can be remote from the actual building. The buildings themselves are among the key structures however. I already mentioned the size of the paper machine building. The pulp mill and the bleach plant tend to be large blocky buildings up to 150 feet high. They are surrounded by various tanks, equipment and pipe associated with the operation. Another signature item is a stock chest. Modern stock chests are covered in tile, 120' tall and have a funnel design at the bottom. The Walther's kit has the right look, just not the right size.

For a railroader, the most interesting parts are chemical recovery, power island, and sheet finishing. The chemical recovery is where the used pulping chemicals are recycled for reuse. Deliveries include lime, caustic soda, and various other chemicals in covered hoppers and tank cars. The power island generates the electricity and steam that is used throughout the mill. Coal is deliviered in hoppers, but also fuel oil in tank cars (used the light the boilers). The sheet finishing is generally in the same building as the warehouse. The warehouse generally has tracks that enter the building in a team-track arrangement to be filled with paper.

This is a summary of a full mill. There are various ways that you could take parts and pieces of the mill to provide the traffic you want. I'll be glad to answer any questions you have.

Dan

[Junctionfan]

Fisherdm has pretty much covered it. The only thing I can say is that some of the additives in the paper mill require certain cars. Kaolin tanker and clay hopper is easy to do but the industry often takes an oxidizer called sodium chlorate. You might have seen them. They are 2 bay hoppers cylindrical or center flow usually and is painted silver. Some of that particular commodity is shipped by CN to CSX and NS from Nexen Chemical in Quebec so the railcars are often have gacx, unpx and cglx reporting marks.

The pulp making process occasionally requires hydrogen peroxide. Look for paint schemes KCPX and TELX for that. Hydrogen Peroxide tankers are not to difficult to find. There are plain looking tankers on Joe Shaw Railroad page-krunk.org, that have reporting marks tilx and utlx.

[jrbarney]

It may have changed in recent years due to environmental concerns, but one thing you don't want to copy is the smell of a paper mill. IIRC, there was a sulfurous odor when the wind was in the right direction.
Bob
NMRA Life 0543

[ClinchValleySD40]

There is an excellent chat group on yahoo called Paper Mill Modelers. And then there is also the LDSig over there. Right down your "givens n druthers" and include a sketch of the space available and I'll bet you'l get many responses. Or submit you latest draft and ask for opinions - you'll get 'em.

[Anonymous]

I never even imagined that a paper mill was so complex. Thanks a lot. All of your information will certain help me rethink all of my layout to include all of this. (even though it sounds huge.) Thanks again..

[BRJN]

IIRC, in Modeling the Clinchfield in N Scale, there was a section discussing how they hid an empties in / loads out pairing, connected by a helix, inside a mountain. If the paper mill complexes and buildings are big enough, you may be able to arrange the necessary viewblocks and do something similar.

[Anonymous]

Awsome discussion on the paper mills. I have the walthers kit the takes up a 2x6 area, and its very tight. I am trying to capture part of the massive complex and feature an industry that requires a dedicated switcher or in some cases with the mills in Maine even a dedicated train. I am thinking about using some of the false fronts/buildings that Walthers makes to extend the feeling of the larger mill. In this case it would have to span a 3 track yard and a 1 or 2 track main line. Anyone have any ideas ????

I am using plupwood inbound, I need to find something to use for the grinder and conveyors, any ideas ?? The ones that come with the cement plant and the coal overflow filler look close.

The main cars that I am using into the plant are pulpwood, coal, oil, kanolin and covered hoppers (I guess for lime or costic soda)

Here are some pic's

http://community.webshots.com/user/nhguy21

Thanks,

Josh

[Anonymous]

Great discussion! I too am fascinated by the paper mill/lumber industries that are served by the railroads down here in the South. I commonly railfan the GP plant in New Augusta, Mississippi when I am home with my wife visiting her side of the family. This mill is served by the Old Augusta Railroad (OAR) now under CN on a line running from Mobile, AL to Hattiesburg, MS. Mills are a great place to see all those cars mentioned above in the previous replies!

As you could imagine, I too have aspirations to have a paper mill on my layout some day. With my own observations and this great tread now printing off on my printer -- I should be right on target for a cool N-scale replica.

Anyone have a successful trackplan that services their mill?

Thanks!