HAS ANYONE EVER MODELED,(BUILT),A MODERN PAPER MILL?

Al, I've been looking at paper mills (and pulpwood plants) the past few weeks too.

I grew up around the Paul D. Camp mill in Franklin Va and the Halifax mill in Roanoke Rapids Nc, both had a body of water nearby.  Both smelled like collards cooking!!!

To do a regular-sized mill would take a lot of real estate.  I'd need to look into small paper/pulpwood mills and see what they looked like, if there was such a thing as a small mill.

Alan, Do a google earth of the plant/s your thinking of modeling, the footprint will be overhead and adjustable to your available space.

The one in Wallulla, Washington along the Columbia River is a large plant which recycles cardboard as well as pulp. They have the recycling center alongside the plant, have a huge settling pond system, and extensive railyard.

These are photos of the Halifax mill in Roanoke Rapids NC.  Not "modern" but...

NO. 3:

NO. 1:

I had cousins that worked at the mill.  They even had a car wash just off the main road where employees (and everybody else apparently) could stop and clean the gunk off their car.

Thank you gentlemen for your inputs.

Bob Delbridge,I been thinking of downsizing all aspects of the process,but the variety of freight cars makes me cringe at the thought,as tankers,boxcars and hoppers can be used,depending on the plant. I can do the space,in time.

Al

I hear ya Al!!!  That paper mill building must be at least 200 yards long, judging from how many boxcars are sitting there.

I'm gonna need more pulpwood cars

There’s one in Spring Grove,Pa the P.H. Glatfelter plant 

I had a heck of a time trying to find photos of a creosote plant, as many, like breweries, were vacant lots, and worse, EPA fenced off .  I rolled the windows up driving through Circleville, Ohio, which smelled like sulphuric acid from its paper plant, which l am told has closed. I would like to see photos of an early, small paper plant, but doubt any existed in Colorado.

Alan:

First off if you can get a copy grab hold of Kalmbach's Industries Along The Tracks vol 2. Paper mills are discussed here.

I was a subcon for a layout builder a while back. As part of the layout his customer wanted a paper mill. Using OGR product I built a paper mill and warehouse - see below

Next up was the boiler house and kiln again with OGR product.

I was on my way to the next structure when the customer pulled the plug on the layout.

Attached is a pdf file showing the plan

Hope this helps

Joe

Forum sponsor BTS does an older vintage pulp mill as several (7) different kits. 

Joe@MODEL STRUCTURES,

Thank you so much!! Fantastic models!! Have the volume 2 book you're talking about have researched it's pages many times.

Thanks again.

Al Hummel

Now, if you could model the stench of a paper mill, you'd have something!   Years ago my mother used to live not far from a paper mill, when the wind blew in her direction, Mamma Mia, what a smell!

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Now, if you could model the stench of a paper mill, you'd have something!   Years ago my mother used to live not far from a paper mill, when the wind blew in her direction, Mamma Mia, what a smell!

Do I "smell" a new scent coming from MegaSteam?!?!?!?!

My dad loved him a mess of collard greens and cornbread.  I liked the cornbread he made but had to run out of the kitchen when the collards were cooking.

The mill in Roanoke Rapids NC didn't smell as bad as the one in Franklin VA.  Seaboard worked both plants.

Speaking of creosote...when my wife moved here from Vicksburg she worked at Atlantic Wood Industries where they used creosote and later arsenic (I think) to cover telephone poles.  The plant was on the Superfund Cleanup list, the earth was saturated and they had to remove 300,000 cubic yards of it plus dredge 24 acres of the Elizabeth River (from the plant and from Norfolk Naval Shipyard dumpings).

I posted 2 photos of a building I used when my layout was in the garage here:

https://ogrforum.com/...86#79283631143856386

Thought I would show it to Al and maybe you guys can tell me what kind of glue to use to stick cardstock to styrene???

Here is one not to far from me.  It's just a series of buildings with a holding tank of some sort (lower left corner), with a rail line running through the middle.  Whatever they bring in by rail is done via high cube box cars, never any hoppers.  a lot of the raw material is brought in by truck (they use a lot of recycled material.  At some point they also installed a power sub station (upper left corner)  This would be easy to model and scale back to fit your layout.  They also have a large warehouse across the street (not pictured)

The photo is of Marcal Paper. Most of the process equipment and tanks are inside the buildings. I think this may be a finishing mill and not one that makes paper from pulp.

I was in a mill southwest of York, Pa that appeared to be a full process mill. It smelled pretty bad and had lots of open and closed top storage tanks made of both carbon and stainless steel. 

It would be a real cool plant to model.

Alan Graziano

Marcal products are (or were) made from 100% recycled paer--would eliminate many of the probably smelly steps in dealing with wood pulp.

The smell comes from the digester where sodium hydroxide is us to breakdown the structure of the wood.  When we can smell it, rain is coming.

The local paper mill receives both logs via truck and wood chips via gondola.  NaOH comes in by tank car.  They make brown craft paper that leaves via boxcar to the local port for export.  A byproduct is used by a chemical plant and leaves them by tank car.

Jan

We have one here that has changed hands in Niagara Falls, NY. I don't know that it's that easy to tell what it is from outside? I'm thinking some really big buildings with train tracks for deliveries.

It seems most are forgetting the lime kiln. I used to work for a company that repaired kilns. Camden Arkansas comes to mind as that was typical of the kilns (kils) for southerners. 20' in diameter and 400' long resting on 4 roller piers and including gear drive. To see what a kiln looks like go the www.phillipskilnservice.com. It is now a sub of F L Schmidt.  In the southern US most are outside, up north inside.

Dick

Al, sounds like a fun project, and you'll learn a lot about the paper industry.  My tiny layout (toy with lots of accessories) won't handle a mill but my main industry is lumber, with log loaders (2), a sawmill, forklift all culminating in the Menard's Vetter Sash and Door Company so there is a lot of sawdust.  Therefore, due to minimal space I'm considering a biofuel plant for the residual sawdust.   You can go both big or small on these thankfully.  

But that's me, would love to follow your  progress as it goes.

Kirk 

I used to regularly pass the Verso mill in Escanaba, Michigan. It was on an interesting site and rail-served by the C&NW/WC/CN/local switcher over the years. There are lots of great photos of it, and boy, did it stink!

This is P. H. Glatfelter in Spring Grove.  At one time the tracks on the top were Ma & Pa, the tracks below with the coal hoppers, were Western Maryland.  Now both sets of tracks are owned by YorkRail.  They get tank cars, and coal hoppers in and newsprint boxcars out.  The light piles are wood chips.  The two conveyors that go off to the left go de-barkers and grinders.  The dark spot is coal that comes from the hoppers on the lower track.  The hoppers go into a unloading shed that has heaters and shakers to get the coal out of the cars.  It goes to the pile and loaders move the coal to conveyors that take it to the boiler house.  Once inside I can't help because I don't know how the magic happens, but I believe it starts at the top and goes down.  About half way down is where the newsprint boxcars load.  One thing I do know is two things that are needed is lots of coal and water to make steam and power.

Link to P. H. Glatfelter map

Gene Anstine

The Dunn Paper mill near where I live is a large but, relatively speaking, compact facility. The buildings are all interconnected and the structures are not very complex looking as far as construction goes. Now if I was to model a paper mill, being a fan "The Office", it would HAVE to be the Penn Paper & Supply ( AKA Dunder Miflin) in Scranton, PA.  Following Joe's (Model Structures) pictures, that could be achievable.

A modern integrated mill has both the pulping and paper making processes both onsite.  In many cases though you can model just a paper mill (takes less space) where pulping is done elsewhere and shipped in.  Overhead views from Google earth is a good way to start.  I've worked a bit in modern paper mills so can roughly explain the process as follows.

A nonintegrated mill repulps bales of pulp that are purchased from a pulp mill by mixing with water in a pulper.  This "slurry" is then pumped into stock prep where the consistency is set for the pulp so it can be sent to the forming section of the paper machine.  The paper machine is like a big set of rollers that starts on the wet end with stock from stock prep being sprayed on wires and then pressed by various rollers to remove the water, then rolled around a dryer drum to remove remaining water then more "calendar" rolls to form the paper to desired thickness and smoothness and then wound up on a large reel.  The result is a "mill roll" which is shipped to other manufacturers or print facilities for usage.

I've thought about building a model before but it is quite an undertaking - good luck!  If you'd really like to learn more about paper manufacturing I'd recommend checking out the TAPPI website which also includes some good overview books.

EMPIREBUILDERDAVE,

Thank you for the info. Reread Jeff Wilson's review of paper mills and ran across what you just stated about having integrated mills or a mill that rolls the paper only importing from other facilities the pulp. That would allow boxcars "in" and boxcars "out." Got plenty of room for that. Does a paper making mill that brings in bales of pulp for repulping,use tankers? I have the room for the whole process,condensed of course,but am leaning towards the finishing mill process only.

Thanks to everyone for your interesting inputs,I've learned a lot about paper making that I never knew about. 1 thing never mentioned in books,is the stench from paper mills. Ethanol,yes I've heard a LOT about that stink!!

Thanks again

As Always,

Al Hummel 

KIRK R,

I been considering a box factory also. In Bremen,Indiana where I live,there used to be a box factory that, I'm guessing,brought in there raw materials by boxcars&Iknow shipped out their finished boxes on boxcars. The agent at Bremen,told me they used to ship boxes as far away as Arizona and transload them there. it was called Package Masters. It's been long since replaced,by acarton factory. Sadly,as with many industries,the rail siding has been long since torn up. Still seems like a fun industry to model.

Doesn't matter the size of your layout,as long as you enjoy what you're doing.

Al Hummel

"Does a paper making mill that brings in bales of pulp for repulping,use tankers?"

Al, I would say yes.  I think they use a bunch of chemicals.  My mill won't have a nearby river so I figure tankcars will bring in water too.  Plus they can always use them to carry away waste water and used chemicals.

Just about any car can be used.  Maybe a shaft on one of the machines needs replacing, bring one in cribbed up in a gondola:

That's a roller out of an old printer.

We had what I think was called a "Rendering" plant in town years ago, made the paper mill smell like the finest perfume known to man!!!  I think they brought in dead horses and made whatever it was they made from dead horses, but you could barely drive down I-264 when the wind blew just right.

Another good mill would be a cotton mill.

You know all this talk has made me start redesigning one end of my NEW layout already, and I don't even have all the original track down yet!

Atlas makes ACF 17,360 gallon tank cars that are designed primarily for transporting chlorine which is used as a bleaching agent in the making of paper. So yes, tank cars are a common site around paper mills.

unfortunately I rarely get to see the rail shipment side of processes.  by my notes, there are several process additives that are used in paper making that would ship by tank car - dyes and pigments for coloring paper, sizing agents for pH control like ASA and AKD, and resins for specialty papers like container board (think orange juice containers).

So yes I'd say you should find a few tank cars at a mill.  you may be able to find some photos on Google earth with the rail yards and cars parked.  The tank car would pump into a storage tank railside that would have pipes going into the mill.