Mills being switched

Great photo! Thanks for posting.

Malcolm

Indeedy

Beautiful layout

How about more pics!!!!

BXCX Dan,

I'm working on a paper mill too. Mine will most likely consist of good paper boxes until I can get time,(if ever it seems),to build a more proper structure.

Besides boxcars to load paper in & Chlorine tanks used for what purpose I'm not sure, as I don't know that much about the paper industry,what other freight cars does a paper industry use?

How many tracks does your mill use?

I've read paper mills use acids,hydrochloric & sulfuric acids also,but we don't have good models for those purposes. I've read some mills use 2nd hand kraft shipped in boxcars instead of woodchips.

This is 1 of the "heavy" industries planned.

Thank you for the encouraging picture & info.,also.

Al Hummel

Alan, Others,

Thanks for the comments and Alan, there sure are the right cars for the paper mill. 

There are the clay slurry cars that Lionel manufacturers that are great for paper industry. 

Atlas has the 20,000 tanks for the chemicals and chlorine. Plus you will want a couple of 4750 grain hoppers coming dumping corn or whatever to make the glues.. 

I have 4 tracks coming into my mills. two for unloading of the clay slurries and chemicals etc and one for the delivery of the covered hoppers and one track to take the finished products out. 

 

if you can find this book, put out by Walthers, it will answer a ton of questions on the paper industry etc plus has a lot of plans etc. 

 

I also have a track that delivers coal to the power house which is separate from this location and essential on the other side of the mills. 

 

I have here some more pictures of the mills.. 

Alan,

 

Here is that Walthers book..

 

 

Thank you for the pic's & info. GREAT MODEL!!

Thanks again,

Al Hummel

Plus you will want a couple of 4750 grain hoppers coming dumping corn or whatever to make the glues.

 

Thanks Dan, now I know what to do with that covered hopper I have

 

We had a paper mill nearby in Franklin Va, and of course the one down in Roanoke Rapids NC where my relatives lived, but all I can recall is the smell coming from them, never paid much attention to what kind of rolling stock was out and about.

 

Here's a photo of Union Camp in Franklin:

 

 

 

but all I see is woodracks and tankcars.

BEAUTIFUL!!!

Thanks for sharing and this very inspiring.

Bob,

 

Yes, the covered hopper (corn.. would be made into corn starch which is the 'glue' for the box's etc..)  Also, a line of wood flats/cars is needed.. pulp cars. I guess I have to rethink my new area with a track for those! WHOA! more switching to do! love it!

The pulp was brought in already processed! there you go.

 

Erik, John, Alan,

Thanks for the kind remarks.. 

 

By the way, I have online business on my model RR where the finished products are delivered to a box company that turns out ready made boxes for whomever orders them. 

like packing boxes for veggies.. etc..  This online move then requires three to four cars a day to get from the mill and send to the box co. At the Box co, there is just one siding for the products to come in, but then those boxes are switched out and or reused to load the finished products in.. hence, going to the box plant requires (6) cars a day. it's fun to switch.. 

 

ok, back to leasing real railcars here..

 

Dan

 

 

Dan,

Thank you for the idea for a box factory Dan,that gives me new ideas for my overload of boxcars. In Bremen,IN,there used to be a factory called,"Package Masters." They received boxcars,quite a few at a time on 1 siding,also. I always wondered about the operation as they're long since gone,track torn up&are now replaced by a carton factory. They must've gotten their box material in the bpxcars,made boxes of all sizes,then shipped those out,like your model operation,using the same cars. I learned many years later from my station agent friend,those boxcars went as far as Arizona where the boxes were unloaded onto trucks for delivery. Mel called it a "transloading"operation.

 

Thanks again for the idea,I was beginning to seriously wonder,like I said,what I was going to do with all those CSX 50'6" boxcars. Now they've found their,"niche" between the paper mill&box factory. 

 

Al Hummel

Sure Alan,

 

here is some more food for thought.. 

 

Of course, there is the boxcar movement.. But also think that those chemical and slurry cars.. switching them in and out and bringing them to interchange and return.. that is also a switching move I make.. in all, the move between the box plant and switching out the mills takes about 1 hour and 30 minutes! ohh and add in the car delivery and back from the box plant. just this alone is two hours.. 

 

I also have a railcar manufacturing company on the model RR and "putting in new cars' to be switched to interchange takes time along with delivering the gons for the steel etc.. 

 

It's all fun though.. 

 

Take care,
Dan

Very nice job there. Great to see some nice modeling during lunch today. Thanks for posting.

BXCXDan,

 

Thanks Dan,more great ideas! You mentioned gons for steel. Do you by chance have a plant that uses steel or a steel plant? I was thinking about putting in a "cold rolling" facility,which a modeler showed 1 of those on a track drawing when I 1st got into O scale&it consists of 2sidings. I have 8 of the new Atlas steel cars so either a steel customer or the rolling mill are both things to look at.

I'm always interested in ideas  as my layout is in planning,just starting. I have 25'x40+' with shelves on all sides some of which are useable,the yard is using a long shelf now. The others have possibilities but are more of a hindrance. Then there's sump pumps & water facilities plus a furnace. I have the following industries in mind so far...

1. At least 1 major grain facility that may turn into a milling facility that would handle grain trains & which would also make corn syrup for the corn syrup transloading facility which requires a few team tracks. That's industry #2.

3.A steel facility of some type,either that uses the finished product or makes it. A cold rolling facility I believe uses tankers of some type in addition to steel cars.

 

4.A foam production facility of some type. This uses tankers to bring in the chemicals used to manufacture the finished product & boxcars to ship the foam in addition to semis. We had a Stauffer chemical plant in the late 60's that had 4 separate rail sidings,but that went out & is replaced by Johns Manville which manufactures insulation material which is trucked out in semis to many stores such as Walmart to name 1. It uses tankers to bring in the chemicals for this process&ships out a loaded tank with spent chemical residue from the manufacturing process. That plant uses only 1 siding now,I think the other 3 have been torn out or at least abandoned,sorry to say,but this plant brings in sometimes as many as 14 tankers which are stored. They unload about 5 or 6 tanks on an indoor track.

 

5. The paper mill,another major industry 2nd only to the grain elevator

in size.

 

6. Lumber facility that unloads about 6 bulkhead flats or boxcars per week.

 

I think I'm missing something along the way,but with my mind that's the best I can do.Lol

What size area do you have available for your layout?

 

Until next writing,take care.

Al Hummel

Hi Alan,

 

I do have an industry for delivered steel. My Railcar Manufacturing facility. Which I have pictures here. 

 

I also have a candy company, which receives sugar cars and corn cars. 18,000 gallon tanks and 4750cf covered hoppers of corn, flour, etc.

 

Then the utility which has the coal train. 

 

There is also Warren Pumps which is the weird shaped building with the mailbox boxcar coming out of it.. they ship finished pumps.. 

 

You don't have to have both sides of the manufacturing process on the model RR. I have a lot of delivered cars from interchange that I use. I have the one 'online paper/box company"

 

My model RR is 24' x 52'. It was featured in the January 2014 issue of O-Gauge Railroading Mag, run 268.

 

I change things from time to time to make the RR work better.. Right now, I am going to change the yard and roundhouse area.. it is a people block when I have visitors.

 

 

Dan,

Thanks so much for the fantastic industry photos! I wouldn't live long enough to get close to getting 1 building like those up.

 

Al Hummel

Cool stuff! Wow

Alan,

 

All I get is Saturday and some sundays to work on it.. But I charge ahead. 

 

Thanks Erik for the kind words.. 

 

Dan

Thanks for all this info Dan

 

I currently have a lumber industry on my layout, but the more I think about it the more I feel it should be converted over to paper.

 

Seaboard had a few of these Double-Door, opposite end Boxcars, I believe they used them for lumber and large rolls of paper:

 

 

I took an Atlas boxcar:

 

 

 

and turned it into one:

 

 

 

Sure made it easy to load with 20 feet of opening on opposing sides:

 

 

 

Keep the photos coming

Bob,

Love the boxcar! Great job. Bangor & Aroostook had some of those too.

 

Malcolm

BXCXDan,

Approximately how long did it take you to get all your industries up? When in planning stages,this is 1 thing that can be overwhelming as the mind tries to put everything into perspective at the same time-track work,buildings,loco's,etc.,etc. Thanks for the great photos,keep 'em rolling as time permits.

 

Thanks again,

Al Hummel

Bob, 

 

That is fantastic model work on that car! Very very very nice.. I would not know if they carried paper, but why not, if the doors sealed, then there shouldn't be an issue.

 

So you want to change your shipping of lumber to paper? That is cool. You can do many things at the paper mill. logs, in, slurry in, chemicals in, dyes, pulp in, corn starch in, then going out, all sorts of boxcar types with finished products. btw, a good way to model paper roll is an idea I received from a friend who has been on this forum, Don Smith, take 1" wood dowels or there of, and either paint them brown or wrap them in brown paper.. the look is great.. you can have different sized paper rolls because different manufactures require different paper types etc which one might be heavier than another etc.. plus different paper colors etc.. so much to consider.

 

Alan, to answer your question, the model RR is 4 years old. each structure takes about 1-2 Saturdays.. depending on what I have to add etc.. how big etc.. so about 8 hours average.. I whip through them pretty quick.. I let an area set and I review it for a while and then when the right idea hits, WHAM, I go to town.. like these new improvements that I am to do.. I should have had them done, but because of a few health issues, eye and hip, I am now getting to get to those and finish other projects the were left behind. I also finish one project before i tackle the next. Which gets stuff done.. a lot of us leave a project, get bored and go onto the next instead of finishing a scene and going to the next.. it is a discipline that is hard to adopt.. trust me, I had to.. ! HA! but if you see a good model RR, that is what is done.. I also do a lot of research.. the next area, or redo is going to be of these paper mills, but to resemble Holyoke MA with the canals etc. so I have been around Holyoke and doing tons of research on the internet about Holyoke and also obtaining the sanborn maps to get a good idea of the area.. I have a drawing of what i want to do, but when It comes down to it, it always changes and well, hopefully the new area will have some one say, "This looks like Holyoke" 

 

Anyhow, there you go. I hope this helps?

Dan