Modeling an integrated pulp/paper mill in N scale set in upper mid-west setting.
What railroads would typically haul sulfuric acid (tank), clay (covered hopper), starch (covered hopper), and calcium carbonate (covered hopper), and chlorine (tank)?
MILW-RODR Modeling an integrated pulp/paper mill in N scale set in upper mid-west setting. What railroads would typically haul sulfuric acid (tank), clay (covered hopper), starch (covered hopper), and calcium carbonate (covered hopper), and chlorine (tank)?
Whichever one serves your mill!
Sounds like a flippant answer, but really, unless you are strictly modeling a prototype (in which case that will tell you which road it was), you can use a little artistic license and just pick your favorite of midwestern roads that were operating in or near the era you chose.
The reporting marks on the cars don't matter so much, because the car could have originated on a different road. With the exception of unit trains, most mixed freights have a lively mixture of cars. On a recent trip to Pittsburgh, I saw 3 Norfolk-Southern SD70's hauling a mixture of CSX, BN, BNSF, Penn Central (!), CN, and Soo reporting marks. Notice that, to the best of my knowledge, the only NS reporting mark on the train was on the power!
Connecticut Valley Railroad A Branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford
"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." -- Henry Ford
What era are you modeling? Give us a better idea of what lines were working then. For some products, there are cars from such companies as GATX, SHPX, UTLX and others, as long as the car style fits your era.
Good luck,
AFter reading those responses and looking at my question I didn't work it too clearly. What I was TRYING to say was RR's typically shipped those products by rail.
Modeling era wise as mentioned late 50's to early 60's. I WILL be modeling in a certain era, however the locomotives used will be what ever I feel like. Sometimes an old diesel, sometimes maybe the BNSF B40-8 I plan to get, and other times a steamer. Pretty much everything will be modeled in the mentioned era accept the motive power.
All of the things you mention would be carried in privately owned or leased cars managed by the shipping company. They wouldn't really ever be shipped in railroad owned cars.
Kaolin clay and calcium carbonate (limestone) could be shipped as either a dry powder in covered hoppers or as a slurry in tank cars. A lot of kaolin comes from the south-east US, and
Sulphuric acid is a typical byproduct of metal ore smelting and processing.
Caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) is another chemical comonly used at paper mills.
Chlorine is of course a gas and shipped in small to mid-size pressurized cars. Atlas has a model of a typical chlorine service car built by ACF.
Note also that all of these things would be shipped in specific cars that are specifically designed and/or assigned to carry that commodity. They're designed to specific sizes based on the density of the intended contents, and in the case of corrosive or caustic chemicals have specific tank linings (glass, rubber, etc.).
Chris van der Heide
My Algoma Central Railway Modeling Blog
cv_acrKaolin clay and calcium carbonate (limestone) could be shipped as either a dry powder in covered hoppers or as a slurry in tank cars.
In your last post you mentioned the 1950s-60s, which you didn't say in the first post. So strike the above, in that era covered hoppers were not yet common and the clay wouldn't have been shipped as slurry. It would be bagged or bulk in boxcars.
cv_acrAtlas has a model of a typical chlorine service car built by ACF
Strike that too, it's way to modern for you.
Remember railroads are/were "common carriers", they pretty much had to handle the freight that presented itself at a shipper or interchange. It's not like in the midwest only the C&NW handled clay and only the Soo shipped chlorine. The cars would just start with whichever railroad served the industry shipping the material out, and it would either get to it's destination by that railroad or, if necessary, by interchange with another railroad.
Oiy, I can't seem to word this post correctly. It's a bit of a bummer that covered hoppers weren't in common use yet, I love the early covered hoppers. It does however make modeling a bit simpler since I could model a common tank unloading area.
The building should be 18-24 inches long, with a tank unloading area at the middle, the pulp mill building at the East end (along with some of a wood yard), and a loading area at the West end, either inside the paper building or outside. The pulp mill itself will be a separate brick building. I've found the right stuff to use for chemical and clay tanks, but I'm still looking at pulp tanks.
MILW-RODR Oiy, I can't seem to word this post correctly. It's a bit of a bummer that covered hoppers weren't in common use yet, I love the early covered hoppers. It does however make modeling a bit simpler since I could model a common tank unloading area. The building should be 18-24 inches long, with a tank unloading area at the middle, the pulp mill building at the East end (along with some of a wood yard), and a loading area at the West end, either inside the paper building or outside. The pulp mill itself will be a separate brick building. I've found the right stuff to use for chemical and clay tanks, but I'm still looking at pulp tanks.
What do you mean by pulp tanks? Unless you mean the actual chemical digestors (which would likely be _inside_ the tallest mill building as that's the main process in actually producing pulp from chipped pulpwood) I haven't the faintest idea what you're thinking of. Pulp is not really liquid and certainly not transported as such. It's the basic precursor to newsprint or finished paper. If it is shipped to or from another mill, it would be dried and shipped as baled sheets.
Clay would NOT be shipped as a slurry in tank cars in your time frame. Bag it or ship it bulk (loose) in old boxcars. Some south-east roads had boxcars with roof hatches specifically for this purpose. http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=acl28863&o=aclhttp://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cg6280&o=cg
Also remember that sulphuric acid and caustic soda are liquids but chlorine is a gas, requiring very different handling and storage tank types. Also the acid and caustic soda should not be allowed to mix in any way - acids and akalines tend to react to each other.
MILW-RODR AFter reading those responses and looking at my question I didn't work it too clearly. What I was TRYING to say was RR's typically shipped those products by rail.
Are you struggling to ask what would be common road names on cars carrying those products?
The SOU carried a lot of the clay.
The chemicals would be in UTLX, ACFX, GATX and other private owner tank cars.
Boxcars would be pretty much any road name.
I am familiar with a paper mill in central Arkansas and of the products you mentioned, it didn't recieve any of those by rail. It recieved caustic soda and wood chips by rail. Shipped out several runs of paper, much of it brown paper like that used in grocery bags.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
In addition to tank cars chemicals in 55 gallon drums could be hauled in boxcars..
I feel this is a common method of shipping chemical overlooked by modelers...
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
If you like covered hoppers, I'd say run 'em. They've been around since the late 'teens, although not necessarily common. By the mid-'50s, I saw lots of them around here, including railroad-owned ones. For chlorine tanks cars, here's a little info
Wayne
My grandfather worked for a corrugated container (cardboard box) factory in the late 1950s until the late 1970s. When the plant was located in Chicago, starch (to glue the plys of paper) was shipped in bags in boxcars. When the plant relocated to the suburbs in the mid-1960s, starch was delivered in covered hoppers. In both locations, paper was received in huge rolls delivered in boxcars.
Covered hoppers through the 1950s were mostly used for cement or carbon black. By the early 1960s, industries were making the transition to covered hoppers for grain, grandulated, and powdered bulk products. (At one point, covered hoppers were even being used to haul apples for juice.)
Dan
The Operations Special Interest Group website http://www.opsig.org/ has an Excel file located here http://www.opsig.org/reso/inddb/ that has a list of industries that either received or shipped products and the serving railroads. The data base is free but the use of the rest of the site requires a donation.
For instance the International Mineral & Chemical co. shipped potash over the MN&S and the McKesson-Robbins (Churchill Div) shipped chlorine over the CB&Q
Bill
It is going to be a function of sourcing. Does your mill have a long term contract for those supplies from the next door neighbor or someone across the other side of the country. The farther away the source the more likely a foreign road car or privately owned one will be used.