Hi,
I’ve done some substantial research into Paper Mills and how to model them, and I just wanted to run the following past you all.
Am I correct, that the incoming loads would be:
Sodium Chlorate
Liquid Sulfur
Clay Slurry
Coal (If the Paper Mill is powered this way)
WoodChips and/or Pulpwood
Have I missed anything or got anything wrong with the above?
Depends on the mill and the type of paper being made. The paper mills I’ve served only recieved caustic soda and wood chips in bound by rail.
A sulphite mill might also receive sulphuric acid instead of molten sulphur.
Clay (either in slurry tank cars or powered in covered hoppers, or in boxcars) is used in mills making finished glossy papers; it’s used as a coating and filler to smooth the paper. A mill that produces exclusively pulp (some mills are pulp mills that only make pulp to be processed at other mills into finished paper) or newsprint would not receive any clays.
Staley made “engineered” starch shipped to kraft paper mills that made corrugated cardboard as a stiffening agent. Use Intermountain’s 8000K Staley tankcar for the shipment.
Around here in Minnesota,
Pulpwood, though this usually comes by truck now.
Kraft pulp for mills that don’t have their own kraft line. This acts as reenforcing for the paper from ground wood plants. Comes in box cars.
Starch, usually dry in covered hoppers.
Coatings (Kaolin and calcium carbonate) either dry in covered hoppers or as a slurry in tank cars.
Specialty coatings, depending on what kind of paper they are making.
Sodium Chlorate in stainless covered hoppers.
Sulfur or sulfite for kraft mills.
Usually not coal. They burn their own wood waste for power.
Lime at the PCC plant usually located just off the property. Covered hoppers.
Outbound is box car after box car of paper rolls.
Thanks everyone for the information.
My chemistry is a bit rusty, but I’ve just found a site that describes the digesting cycle in a Kraft Mill as using:
sodium hydroxide (“caustic soda”) and sodium sulfate
Does anyone know how Sodium Sulfate would be delivered? It’s the dry “salt” of sulfuric acid, so I assume a covered hopper of some description, or would it be more normal to just have sulfuric acid delivered? Or would that produce the wrong chemical reaction?
I know we’re only modelling, but it would be nice to get it right 
hello the mill in rumford maine burns coal still the pan am trains poru/rupo normaly have about 10-15 loaded coal cars heading the mill daily the interresting thing is the cars are loaded in south portland from a barge then taken to rigby yard in s portland then added to the poru train
mk
i have seen it carried in short unpx silverish covered hoppers
Thanks, I think I’ve sourced all the various car types I need now, except for one:
A tank car carrying Hydrogen Peroxide for the bleaching process. I’ve found lots of photographs of various tank cars, but I’ve not found a specific H0 model, so I’m thinking I might use a generic model and customize it.
I know I could use a Chlorine car, but I’d like this to be an enviornmentally friendly plant 
Anyone know of an appropriate tank car model ?
Chlorine hasn’t really been used since the 70’s as I’ve read (Jeff Wilson’s “Industries Along The Tracks 2”), about the time they found out it was bad stuff. There was chlorine derivative used later but I can’t think of it’s name.
Remember though some of the chemicals had to be labeled, i.e. a tank car carrying sulfur should be marked sulfur.
some also receive…paper…hahaha…some mills take used paper and recycles them into new rolls…like the mill in Snowflake, AZ use to do
it took waste paper products and turned it into pulp and then new paper.
And some mills are pulp mills, not paper mills. These don’t produce finished paper, but just the intermediate pulp, which is dried and baled, and shipped to finished paper mills.
So some finished paper mills might just use market pulp or recycled paper, and no raw inputs like pulpwood or woodchips. (Or any of the particularly nasty chemicals for the digesting process.) If they process recycled paper they might still take in bleaching agents to get rid of inks and colours in the recycled paper stock.
Clay slurrys or powders are used for coatings and fillers, so only used in finishing mills making high quality paper (not market pulp or newsprint).