Paper milling

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hey guys,

I’m just beginning the plans for a paper mill that shall be my railroad’s primary industry, so I want to get the operations right. For those that are interested, I’ve found some really wonderful resources on understanding the paper milling process at, for one, Wikipedia, and the website of paper company Glatfelter.

www.glatfelter.com

Their interactive tour is great way to get a thorough overview of the process:

http://www.glatfelter.com/learning/interactive_tour.aspx

Any other literature you know of on the web or in print that might help would be appreciated.

So, here are the inputs and outputs I have come up with for an integrated kraft and paper mill:

Inputs:
1 - Roundwood
2 - woodchips
3 - slurries
-clay
-calcium carbonate
-titanium dioxide
4 - other chemicals
-dyes/optical brighteners
-sizing agents - alkyl ketene dimer,

  • alkylsuccinic anhydride
    -bleach
    -white liquor (sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfide)
    5 - Recycled paper

Outputs:
1 - standard/archival paper rolled
2 - standard/archival paper cut
3 - newsprint
4 - cardboard

Any other significant I/O, please mention.

So, the specific questions:

  1. This mill is to be located in Gardner, MA, in the north-central part of the state. Many of the surrounding paper mills in real life process recycled paper, but Gardner is reasonably close enough to sources of lumber that it could host a mill producing paper from unprocessed wood or cut woodchips. Any thoughts you have on which way to go here, including both, would be appreciated, as the choice significantly affects the inputs and outputs.

  2. Among those I/O, which are appropriate to be

2

Glatfelter Paper has a paper making facility located a little west of York, Pennsylvania. When I was a working person I helped install a turbine-generator on the site. This was used by the company to generate power for their use, as well as generate extraction steam for some of their manufacturing processess.

To get to the point of your request they had an unloading facility for coal, which was brought in by train. It was certainly not a long train, but it was a train none the less. If I remember correctly, the cars were hundred tonners.

3

Don’t forget rags that are used for fine quality paper. I would suggest searching using Google for paper mills, paper mill construction, material for producing paper.

At one time there was a mill for handling log drives in the Connecticut River. The logs where floated down from northern Mass. The wood facility was a few hundred yards above the Holyoke Dam.

What era are you portraying?

Power was supplied by the Holyoke water power system, water and electricity. There is a system of canals.

I have lived next to Holyoke, MA since the early 1940s. At one time there were 24 paper mills in Holyoke. I lived across the Connecticut River from a paper plant and remember seeing and smelling discharges into the river around 1950.

The paper mill shut down eventually and I worked in the building complex as a machine mechanic which is now Hazen Paper from 2002 until I retired in 2006.

One building was open on one end and two tracks allowed loading and unloading in a sheltered area. A photo in the plant shows the tracks where they entered the building. The area was filled in and closed up before I started working there. It looks like a couple 50 foot cars could be loaded or unloaded. Tracks went on both sides of the building with a siding for loading or unloading close to the building . Most of the tracks are still in place. One siding in front the main entrance side has a line through the area but the siding next to the building has been disconnected. It looks like the thru tracks ca still be used. Pioneer Valley railroad has the tracks. About 2004 I once saw a railroad maintenance truck using the rails. Apparently they where inspecting. Right behind the back entrance to the maintenance department there is a turnout with a third siding for storage but not used anymore.

Products that use

4

October and November 1998 MR had an excellent two part article about paper and the railroad.

Should be available as a back issue somewhere.

Steve

5

Also there was a good referance to the paper mills in the series “Lessons from a Successful Layout” back in either 2005 or 2004. I don’t remember whose layout it was, but I know it was based on the B&M in New England.

Good Luck!

6

Don’t forget green liquor, black liquor, the causticizing area with lime kiln, and a BIG waste water treatment system. I have been engineering in pulp and paper for most of 32 years. I’m not going to drive myself crazy modelling it too.

7

Input
1: Probably By Rail
2: Woodchips would definitely move by rail, probably in converted 40ft boxcars assuming NEN is a fairy frugal shortline.
3: Slurries could move down from VTR on a rerouted BFPO, that would pass through Gardner, dropping cars for the local to deliver to your plant, or BFPO could continue in its current alignment, and have VTR drop several slurry cars for you in Bellows Falls.
4: Other Chemicals would probably be used less often but may still have a dedicated train. Guilford’s RJBO does not run very often, but when it does it often has under 10 cars.
5: Recycled Paper would come in in 50+ft Boxcars. Look at FingerLakes Railway, they serve the Solvay PaperBoard, and ALWAYS have multiple boxcars lined on sidings outside the plant.
6: You may want to include some 3 bay hoppers for coal. They could come up with P&W and drop a cut of cars for you.
PaperBoard Plant, Solvay NH
If you look around there you’ll see a small alco sw

8

Most chemicals arrived in tank cars, paper going out normally went out in box cars by rail for domestic use. Note the bulk of paper went out on ships as it was mainly for the export/ foreign market.

Depending upon the paper mill the main source of paper would be wood-chips brought in by rail in hoppers and also by trucks. In some paper mills who did not have woodyard pulp was brought in on pallets either by rail by boxcar or else by ship. Paper mills use enormous amounts of pulp.

9

Paul Dolkos. There was also an article in the April, 2000 MR by Dolkos entitled “Woriking the Mill Job” where he discussed a large paper mill as one of the industries on his railroad.

Dec., 1995 MR contained an article on Dolkos’s layout.

Andre

10

What era are you working in? In Maine we do not ship any chips or logs by Guilford rail unless it’s an emergency. Balck liquer is exchanged with other mills by truck. The cook cycle for chips is white liquer into the digester black out (some of this is burned) the black is stored then filtered to turn it to green, mixing it with lime turns it to white so it can be reused. So the only major rail shipment for the recaust cycle (conversion of black to white liquer) is lime. Chemicals that are comingly shipped in are latex for coating, clay (in white tank cars) also used in coating, and starch. We recieve oil by truck but oil by rail really makes sense (Guilfords reliability is so poor we cant). Paper is commonly shipped in over height cars we rarely have a common height rail car anymore. Of course this is the situation in Jay maine other areas have different situations, Coal could be used for the power boiler instead of oil, wood could be shipped by rail chips, by rail instead of trucks so the possibilities are endless.

Kevin

11

Guilford chose to stop hauling pulpwood. The cars were stored for many years before disappearing. Large Quantities of materials are cheaper by rail, than by truck, so shipping in woodchips in converted boxcars would make more sense to the fictitious company.

12

Thank you all for your input thus far.

Yes, the era question has come up a number of times. I apologize, I really should have specified that in the original post. Though my era tends to be somewhat dynamic, I operate no earlier than the late 1970s, through to the present. I want to model as the operation would exist today.

Maxman, thanks. Yes, i’m thinking about how the power should be supplied here. There is some hydroelectric supply locally, but including coal supply would probably be a good idea.

Rich, thank you for the details on the Holyoke plants. You really paint a picture.

A number of posters (Steve, Tyler, Andre) have mentioned back issues of MR. I will definitely take a run down to the LHS and see if they have them in their collection of back issues. Thanks!

Virginian, thank you for the details! I chuckled a bit reading your post.

My brother Alex, interesting ideas. I’m doubtful woodchips would be traveling in boxcars given their nature. I doubt that most of the supply coming in will be carried in unit trains, but I agree with the ideas on what to carry via rail. On the switcher, maybe, let’s discuss it.

don7, thanks. As you’re saying, there seems to be a good concensus for using rail shipping for chemicals.

Kevin, the comments on Guilford rail service are so true. Thankfully, my line is shortline connecting Canadian railroads to Southern New England, intending to divert traffic from the likes of Guilford. Your ideas really clarified and added. I will definitely add in lime. How should this be shipped? And since both coal and oil are possible, which makes more sense for New England?

13

My Brother Yoshi, I have Paul Dolkos’ article on the papermill if you would like it!
Oh, since NEN has such strong relations with P&W, and P&W already ships coal to Gardner (albeit for other reasons), I think several ex-B&M 3 bays(thats what they use anyways… [:)]) shuttling between the mill and staging, would work fine.

14

My wife’s father was the superintendent of a Riegel paper mill in NJ in the 50’s and her uncle was an engineer for Lehigh Valley who used to deliver/pick-up there at times. So, we’re having a paper mill on our layout. We took a lot of photos of the mill as it has been modified some but is still standing. Not sure what era you model but other modeling opportunities can include a coal trestle where the coal was dumped for boilers in the basement, a water tank, and a separate building where the chemistry was performed. There were also a half a dozen or so company houses for workers and a separate one for the superintendent. I found some Lehigh Valley box cars that were marked “paper products only” so I’m guessing that was prototypical as well. Good luck with the mill.

15

ry:

What’s your era?

What would you think about this idea: a model of an older, smaller mill, something like the Jaite Paper Co. in Ohio:

http://maproomsystems.org/registry/jaite/index.html

It’s not what we modelers ordinarily think of when they hear “paper mill”, I bet, but that’s what it was, and it operated until 1985. I wouldn’t be at all shocked if there weren’t a few other places like this still going, making strawboard or box cardboard or newsprint. It was an interesting set of buildings.

16

One of the most important things in modeling a paper mill is what timeframe you are modeling; the biggest being pre or post- Clean Water Act, in late 1960s, followed by Clean Air Act in early 70s. After that time you will have the large wastewater treatment plants, before that, it’s a straight pipe into the river @ maybe 10 million gallons of waste liquid a day or more!. Treating air emissions from pulp mills is difficult, I am not sure what kind of equipment is used. I have been away from paper manufacturing for many years.

Earlier mills received pulpwood from the forrest and chipped it at the mill. River drives stopped around the 60s timeframe; I worked at a Scott Paper mill in Winslow, ME, and saw the last river drive on the Kenebec R in 1966. Scott chipped the cordwood at the north (upstream) end of the plant and stored it in a big chip pile on the east side of the plant. By contrast, my dad was manager of Eastern Fine Paper in S. Brewer ME in the early 50s. They stored their pulpwood in large piles, and removed it to be chipped before it was used. In those days there was not much paper recycling, except re-use of out of spec paper from the manufacturing process. IN more recent times, wood is chipped near where it is cut, and shipped to the mills in modified, open top boxcars, purpose built wood chip cars or tractor trailers.

A lot of loads in depends on the type of paper you will be making. You mentioned optical brighteners and sizing agents and someone mentioned slurries, coatings and clay. These would be used in ‘shiney’ paper for magazines, but would not be used for newsprint or tissue (toilet or facial). Bleach could be shipped to the plant or made on site in a bleach plant. At Scott, they had a bleach plant and received 2 tankcars of liquid chlorine to make the bleach - probably not done these days due to dioxin byproducts from the bleach entering the waterways.

Remember also, pulp and paper mills need a lot of steam to heat the digesters and dry the paper. You

17

Oh, Yes one more thing. A fully integrated pulp and paper mill is a REALLY BIG SUCKER!!! It includes at least the following:

  • Wood operations - either cordwood (needs debarking and chipping) or wood chips, a really big pile of them. Scott had a D8 bulldozer that pushed the chips around
  • Pulp mill - includes the digesters and all the chemical processes to support it, moderm mills would have waste treatment
  • Paper mill - pulp preperation where dyes, fillers, etc are added and the paper machines that actually make the paper
  • Finishing - paper comes off the paper machine in big rolls, finishing converts it to the final product be it a roll of newsprint or a roll of toilet paper
  • Warehouse - need to store both finished products before shipping and those big rolls of paper between the paper machine and finishing
  • Maintenance - many departments of techincians and various shop buildings to keep all that equipment in repair and running.
  • Managment - Includes plant manager, engineering, accounting, clerical, etc.

SO when you think of modeling, as discussed in the magazine articles, think lots of selective compression, and put a lot of the plant “behind the backdrop”

18

The Dolkos article “Working the Mill Job” was the primary inspiration for my paper mill operation, an almost comically small representation of the massive Westvaco plant at Luke, Maryland. I used the article to generally formulate the inbound and outbound traffic, and to design the basic (very basic!) track plan. Generally, I have inbound traffic of coal to the power plant, chemicals and chips to a digester building, pulpwood to a pulp yard, and miscellaneous freight cars to the main mill building. Outbounds are empties, spent chemicals, cinders from the power plant, and of course, finished products from the warehouse.

I have a page at my website discussing the operations in general terms. I will be using some of the information provided in this thread to add some elements that are missing. Unfortunately, I don’t have enough room to add things like waste treatment and the like, but there is enough going on there to keep a switcher working through most of a 4 hour ops session.

Thanks for bringing this up. It’s very helpful to have people knowledgeable in a particular industry share their wisdom with us neophytes!

Lee

19

GP:

Not at the paper mill, maybe, but somebody must have been using old paper. The “paperex man” must have been selling the paper and rags he collected to somebody. Maybe the paper was made into cardboard or Homasote.

20

George

Yes you did get the Andro mill in Jay if you go a little southeast of that you find the Otis mill in Chisholm, or Livermorefalls Maine. This was one of the first International Paper Co mills ever built. They also built the ANdro mill in the mid 60’s finally finishing construction in 1976. Older mills used coal for a lot of the power boilers, Before 1960’s you would need a large building for the digesters (pressure cooker) for the chips. After 1960 most companies used continuous digesters large towers where chips go in the top and white liquere and pressure cook the chips to pulp before removing at the bottom, both sites would need a bleach plant to whiten the brown stock and large chests to store the pulp. Old machine halls were narrow with large skylights to cool rooms. More modern mills have sealed rooms, and proportionally wider. Old machines were usually 100" wide and as technology progressed they would widen out. For example the first machine at Andro were 212" wide and a football field long the design speed was about 1500 feet per minute, the machine I work on was built in 1976 and has a trim width of 376 meaning the machine is 390 inches wide and has a twin across from it that is 300" wide with an aisle 400" wide between them so you can see how big the macine halls have to be. As many have stated the era determines what you need for waste treatment. In older mills you would need sulfate coming in more modern mills need chlorine (which is converted to chlorine dioxide), lime, wood chips in “coal cars” , bulkhead cars for pulp wood, overheight cars to ship paper out, coal for power boilers. Hope this help Kevin